MINING CAMPS AND DYNAMITE 395 



Hastily dressing I found that the miners had 

 arranged to celebrate my birthday. A hole had 

 been bored in a great pine about eighty yards 

 from the cabin, a dynamite cartridge p laced in it 

 with a piece of white paper fixed over it as a 

 target, and I was expected to explode the 

 cartridge with a bullet from my rifle. I had al- 

 ready begun photographing the creatures of the 

 wild and thought a tree in the air would go well 

 with my collection so I handed my camera to 

 Ned, giving him careful instructions. 



Could I hit that tiny bit of paper, a speck 

 which I could scarcely see at that distance? I 

 doubted it, and most of the miners who were look- 

 ing on doubted it too and said so, but Tim Hart 

 was my defender and scouted the idea that I 

 could miss. I was burdened with anxiety far 

 beyond any possible importance of the occasion, 

 but I always shot best under pressure and when I 

 fired there was a great roar and the big tree shot 

 up in the air. I was pleased as Punch and 

 thought of the picture I would have to show of 

 the explosion and the tree in the air. But Ned 



