NORTHERN GAME TRAILS 331 



finally said: "Caribou Mountains long way off 

 hundred mile norf; mebbe plenty big snow 

 come ; mebbe we make it ; you tell me all right we 

 go." 



Those were long days on the trail, and we drove 

 the train hard for several days, as we filed along 

 silently through the great untrodden solitudes. 

 Hour after hour sped by and excepting for the 

 creaking of the gear and an occasional "Come, 

 Jack!" "Get in there, Blackie," as Mac urged on 

 the horses, we moved northward in stern silence, 

 rapidly dropping the miles behind, now skirting 

 the edge of a huge mountain that reared itself 

 like a great gray monster against the sky now 

 passing through leagues upon leagues of burnt 

 timber, where the trees, stricken to the heart, 

 stood bare and cleft. Again down the rocky 

 mountainside where the boulders were heaped and 

 piled together in a rough turbulence, crossing the 

 little rivulet that gurgled and chanted its way 

 through the pine forests, dark and hoar, while the 

 big trees whispered low and mild and waved their 

 long arms to and fro. Out of the forests through 

 a long stretch of low-growing willows, where the 

 snow-shoe rabbits frisked and played in the w r an 

 gleam of the wintery sun. Further to one side 

 over some craggy cliffs, a great eagle wheeled his 



