293 CRUISINGS IN THE CASCADES 



ently been in this pitiable plight several days; that 

 she was starved and emaciated almost to a shadow, 

 and had tramped and pawed a hole in the earth more 

 than a foot deep, over the entire space reached by 

 her fore feet. Had she not been discovered, the poor 

 creature must soon have died from starvation. As 

 it was, she was so weak that when he released her 

 leg from this strange trap she was unable to stand, 

 and he reluctantly killed her, as the speediest, most 

 humane, and, in fact, the only means of ending her 

 misery. 



I reached the old man's cabin at about noon. We 

 hunted diligently all the afternoon, and though we 

 saw plenty of fresh tracks everywhere in the newly- 

 fallen snow, neither of us could get sight of a deer, 

 and when we met at the shanty at dark and 

 exchanged notes, Pease was sorely disappointed. 

 The next forenoon was a repetition of this experi- 

 ence, and when we met again at the cabin for 

 dinner, both empty-handed, his disappointment was 

 intensified into despondency. We separated after 

 the noon meal, and when we came in at night, I 

 looked even more dejected and disgusted than ever, 

 and asserted, with a good deal of emphasis, that I 

 did not believe the "blasted" country was any good 

 for game; that I thought he or someone had hunted 

 the deer and shot at them until they were so wild that 

 no man could get within 500 yards .of one. He 

 insisted that such was not the case; that he had 

 been killing plenty of deer that fall, and that others 

 had killed a few in the neighborhood, but not 

 enough to spoil the hunting, as I claimed. He said 



