n8 ON SNOW-SHOES TO THE BARREN GROUNDS 



piece of their range, without getting enough encourage- 

 ment to warrant delaying my start for the Barren Grounds 

 for another attempt to bring out a bison head of my own 

 killing. So that we two were the first to practically cover, 

 one way and another, their entire range in one winter, and 

 yet we heard of only fifty-three ! 



To plan a hunt was one thing, but to get started quite 

 another. Half a dozen Indians told us by the hour how 

 much they knew of the bison country and how undoubted 

 their prowess, but whose knowledge, on close questioning, 

 we found little more than our own. So we spent two days 

 separating fact from fiction before finally deciding Calome 

 and Bushy to be the only two of the lot worth considering. 

 But Calome wanted a rifle for himself and a sack of flour 

 for his wife before he \vould even discuss wages, and Bushy 

 was uncertain of the section which we had decided to hunt. 

 Meanwhile " Susie " sent word that he had secured a good 

 hunter, Jeremi, who knew the country well, and was cer- 

 tain to find bison. So we decided on Jeremi for our guide, 

 and Smith Landing, eighteen miles south of the post, as 

 our starting-point. 



It was half after three on the afternoon of February 1st 

 when McKinley, Munn, and I got under way for the Land- 

 ing, with two trains of dogs carrying our sleeping-robes, 

 twenty pounds of bacon, fifty pounds of flour, three pounds 

 of tea, and six pounds of tobacco, to last five of us for the 

 eight days we expected would complete the hunt, and it 

 was half after six when we had gone the eighteen miles 

 that brought us to " Susie's " cabin. We limited our own 

 supplies to the last degree, because we knew the going 

 would be heavy and the fish for the dogs more than a load, 

 and we counted on the snares we had taken to replenish 

 our stock from the rabbits that swarm the woods. 



Hunting in this country is a very different affair from 



