CHAPTEE XXIH 

 ON THE TRAIL OF THE GRIZZLY 



DR. W. E. HUGHES, our scientist, had his heart set 

 upon climbing one of the big mountains that over- 

 looked our camp. First, his ambition was to get within 

 rifle shot of the nimble mountain goat ; next, to try his 

 luck with the whistling marmot, or mountain ground- 

 hog, of the Selkirk and other western ranges; and, 

 lastly, to study the flora and fauna of these craggy 

 peaks. 



Having no such high desire, the writer was assigned 

 to the care of a young man born of Scottish parents in 

 Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Neil was his given name. 

 He was industrious ; a fairly good cook, a good axe- 

 man, and a good boatman. He was not a hunter, nor 

 did he pretend to be one. 



His life so far had consisted in working very hard for 

 his daily pay ; first at wood-cutting in Maine, then in 

 digging and picking potatoes in Aroostook County, that 

 state, where he was expected to fill one hundred barrels 

 per day ; next he was a section hand on a small railroad 

 in the Pine Tree State. 



Then, seven years ago, the Canadian Pacific Railroad 

 having advertised the low rate of twenty-five dollars 

 from Portland, Me., to Vancouver, B. C., he and a fel- 



