A FALL HUNT IX THE EOCKIES. 371 



This was a very fair beginning indeed : only 15 

 miles from our starting-point, and two such prizes 

 as a moose and a bear ! We now determined to get 

 on to the foot of the lofty peaks lying to the east- 

 ward. The country through which we had to pass 

 differed considerably from the gradually undulating 

 timber belts and park -like domains AVC had lately 

 come through. Xow we had rougher ground : pre- 

 cipitous gulches and rocky canons, with rushing 

 creeks at the bottom ; vast wildernesses of burnt 

 timber with fallen trees to get over or round, some 

 of these tracts so impenetrable that we had to make 

 detours of several miles. From this wilderness we 

 would come to a succession of ranges, densely tim- 

 bered, between all of which a creek, now rushing in 

 a series of cascades and falls, now flowing in a slug- 

 gish stream, was always to be found, along whose 

 cool banks would be the most likely spots for wapiti 

 or black-tail. Here and there were beaver-dams 

 with fair amount of fresh work, but we had no time 

 to stop for them; and numerous "wallows," where 

 the bulls find refuge from the flies in the heat of 

 summer. For wapiti there was abundance of grass, 

 and for the moose willows, and 



" With boughs that quaked at every breath, 

 Grey birch and aspen." 



One made sure that something ought to be about, 

 but somehow one seldom finds game where it ourjld 



