368 BIG GAME FIELDS 



rubies with fire behind them. Then Mac spoke, 

 "Take yo time shoot his head you neber hab a 

 better chance." There was no doubting his words. 

 The third shot got him squarely between the ears, 

 and a 600-pound grizzly, measuring seven feet 

 from tip to tip, lay still in death not twenty 

 paces away. 



Four days later we picked up our reserve 

 stores, and each day found us early and late hit- 

 ting the trail south to Telegraph Creek. One 

 morning we arose, it was to be the last day on the 

 trail. Big snow flakes were whirling in the air, 

 busily weaving a thick blanket over all those vast 

 reaches. The little folk of the snow had donned 

 their white dress and went about noiseless and 

 inconspicuous. Winter and silence shut down 

 over all that great land. 



Before making the long descent to Telegraph 

 Creek we paused at a point that held a command- 

 ing view. Looking back over the limitless vistas 

 I said aloud that in some way made even the 

 stolid Indians appear as grave as if a praj^er 

 were being said: "Farewell to thee, oh wondrous 

 mountains, with endless peak and crest; to sleep 

 now, wrapped in your snows, all through the bit- 

 ter, inimicable cold of the terrible winter." 



