A FALL HUNT IX THE ROCKIES. 373 



and from that day onwards till we got out of the 

 mountains, we were in snow from one to three feet 

 deep. Although it does not conduce to absolute 

 comfort to be dragging one's legs about in three feet 

 of snow, with miniature avalanches dropping olF the 

 trees down one's neck, or to come into camp with 

 everything wet about one, and possibly the very 

 blankets in a like condition still, for the purposes 

 of tracking game it was just what we wanted. Up 

 to this we had not seen a wapiti, and we feared that 

 this snow might have sent them down to the lower 

 country ; but we had not traversed five miles on the 

 first morning after the storm before we came on 

 several fresh tracks. "\Ve determined on following 

 the largest of these, and, after a few hours' tramp, 

 came suddenly on a grand bull quietly feeding not a 

 hundred yards off. So silently had we come in the 

 new snow, that he was in the happiest oblivion of 

 our presence, until I gave him one behind the 

 shoulder. Fatal as the shot was, he traversed a 

 good half-mile, at the speed which only a wapiti can 

 go, before we came up with him to find him breathing 

 his last. 



He was a grand specimen, and had magnificent 

 horns. On our way back to camp I had the good 

 luck to secure another moose, which, however, was 

 much smaller than my first. He was going on " the 

 dead trot " across a clearing 200 yards from us, and 

 we both put fatal shots into him, though at the 



