122 



The Wilderness Hunter. 



neck, for though the tough old bird dropped, it fluttered 

 and ran off among the underbrush and escaped. 



We broiled our two grouse before our fire, dragged 

 plenty of logs into a heap beside it, and then lay down to 

 sleep fitfully, an hour or so at a time, throughout the 

 night. We were continually wakened by the cold, when 

 we had to rise and feed the flames. In the early morning 

 we again started, walking for some time along the fresh 

 trail made by a large band of elk, cows and calves. We 

 thought we knew exactly the trend and outlet of the 

 valley in which we were, and that therefore we could tell 

 where the camp was ; but, as so often happens in the 

 wilderness, we had not reckoned aright, having passed 

 over one mountain spur too many, and entered the 

 ravines of an entirely different watercourse-system. In 

 consequence we became entangled in a network of hills 

 and valleys, making circle after circle to find our bear- 

 ings ; and we only reached camp after twelve hours' tire- 

 some tramp without food. 



On another occasion I shot a white goat while it was 

 in a very curious and characteristic attitude. I was 

 hunting, again with an old mountain man as my sole 

 companion, among the high mountains of the Kootenai 

 country, near the border of Montana and British Colum- 

 bia. We had left our main camp, pitched by the brink 

 of the river, and were struggling wearily on foot through 

 the tangled forest and over the precipitous mountains, 

 carrying on our backs light packs, consisting of a little 

 food and two or three indispensable utensils, wrapped in 

 our blankets. One day we came to the foot of a great 



