"8 The Wilderness Hunter. 



prairie fowl, in favor of the latter. It is odd that the largest 

 and the smallest kinds of grouse found in the United 

 States should be the tamest ; and also the least savory. 



After tramping all day through the forest, at nightfall 

 we camped in its upper edge, just at the foot of the steep 

 rock walls of the mountain. We chose a sheltered spot, 

 where the small spruce grew thick, and there was much 

 dead timber ; and as the logs, though long, were of little 

 girth, we speedily dragged together a number sufficient to 

 keep the fire blazing all night. Having drunk our full at 

 a brook we cut two forked willow sticks, and then each 

 plucked a grouse, split it, thrust the willow-fork into it, and 

 roasted it before the fire. Besides this we had salt, and 

 bread ; moreover we were hungry and healthily tired ; so 

 the supper seemed, and was, delicious. Then we turned 

 up the collars of our jackets, and lay down, to pass the 

 night in broken slumber ; each time the fire died down the 

 chill waked us, and we rose to feed it with fresh logs. 



At dawn we rose, and cooked and ate the two remain- 

 ing grouse. Then we turned our faces upwards, and 

 passed a day of severe toil in climbing over, the crags. 

 Mountaineering is very hard work ; and when we got 

 high among the peaks, where snow filled the rifts, the 

 thinness of the air forced me to stop for breath every few 

 hundred yards of the ascent. We found much sign of 

 white goats, but in spite of steady work and incessant 

 careful scanning of the rocks, we did not see our quarry 

 until early in the afternoon. 



We had clambered up one side of a steep saddle of 

 naked rock, some of the scarped ledges being difficult, 



