3 66 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



flights of Canada geese, and dying salmon. All along the 

 course of the main river are the mouths of its ice-fed tributaries, 

 little streams of greenish-blue water, rising in a glacier and 

 fringed with narrow strips of glacial mud, upon which a rank 

 growth of Equisetum (horse-tail) flourishes. These banks are 

 the hunting grounds, and the number of huge tracks upon 

 them, as well as the debris of half-eaten salmon, proclaim that 

 there is no scarcity of game ; but if the hunter would get a shot 

 he must haunt them at all unseasonable hours, when winds 

 are most chill, and nature is at her gloomiest : for ' Hoots ' only 

 creeps out upon the creek's edges with the first shadows of the 

 night, and vanishes from them with the earliest rising mists of 

 morning. 



In this land it was that one evening we pitched our tents 

 upon a sandspit, cut wet brush in the rain to make our bedding 

 for the night, and then, tired with a hard day and dispirited by 

 weeks of failure, stepped once more into the canoe and paddled 

 for all we were worth up and across the stream to the mouth 

 of a salmon creek. 



Once in the green water, pipes were put out, conversation 

 ceased, Pike and I laid down our paddles and took up our 

 rifles, and only the Indian worked, the canoe gliding up the 

 still waters without a sound. 



At the mouth of the stream, a few flashing shadows beneath 

 the water attracted our Indian's attention, and a few quick 

 thrusts with his spear provided us with enough fresh salmon 

 to last us for a day or two. A blow or two with the axe 

 silenced them, and again the canoe stole up stream, the men 

 in it noting fresh tracks upon the banks, and peering into the 

 shadowy woods, which grew darker and more impenetrable 

 every minute. 



Once or twice on our way up stream the canoe ran 

 aground, and all hands had to get out to push their craft 

 through the sands (quicksands as often as not) into which we 

 sank over the tops of our waders. 



But these are small matters. Pike sitting with one leg 



