AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 135 



highest initial velocity of any member of the expe- 

 dition, and, though in the rear at the start, I was a 

 full length ahead at the finish. We finally all 

 brought up in a confused mass at the foot of the hill, 

 and it took some time for each man to extricate him- 

 self from the pile, and reclaim his property from the 

 wreck. Strange as it may seem, however, but little 

 damage was done. There was a skinned nose, a 

 bruised knee or two, a sprained wrist, and every- 

 body was painted with mud. All were, however, 

 able to travel, and after that, when going down steep 

 hills, the Siwashes kept looking back to see if I 

 were coming. 



We performed several dangerous feats that day 

 and the next, walking along smooth, barkless logs, 

 that lay across some of the deep gorges; in places 

 we were thirty feet or more above the ground, or 

 rather rocks, where a slip would have resulted in 

 instant death. My hair frequently stood on end, what 

 little I have left, but John and Seymour always went 

 safely across and I could not afford to be outdone in 

 courage by these miserable, fish-eating Siwashes, so 

 I followed wherever they led. We read that the 

 wicked stand on slippery places, but I can see these 

 wicked people, and go them about ten better, for I 

 have stood, and even walked, on many of these wet 

 logs, and they are about the all-firedest slipperyest 

 things extant, and yet I have not fallen off. I fell 

 only that once, when I got my foot in the trap, and 

 that would have downed a wooden man. Just before 

 going into camp that night, John shot a grouse, 

 but we were all too tired and hungry to cook it then, 

 and made our meal on cold kid, fish, and biscuits. 



