254 WITH GUN AND GUIDE 



it was a different thing to keep it. Bruin seems to pay 

 but little attention to obstacles ; where he can go under 

 a dead fall, or over one, there the trail runs. If 

 not, it may start right up the mountain, or down to the 

 water's edge. For the writer, going under the dead 

 falls meant to crawl on hands and knees ; to go over 

 them was to climb through a frieze of dead and broken 

 branches, as well as over the prostrate trees, and numer- 

 ous falls soon admonished me that paddling at the bow 

 of the boat was an easier place than following that sort 

 of trail. 



A few blasts of the whistle brought the faithful Neil 

 to the shore with the boat. If paddling across Bear 

 Lake was hard work, it was nothing to the work we 

 had in poling up the river, for it was in flood, and with 

 the wind behind it, the best that could be done was to 

 dodge into the eddies first on one side, and then on the 

 other, so that when Swan Lake camp was reached we 

 found we had used up six hours in going nine miles. 



After lunch there we were off again for another tug 

 against wind and current in poling still further up the 

 river. We had gone a couple of miles, when the mouth 

 of a slough loading to a widely extended marsh was 

 reached and, to give us a breathing spell and to see if 

 there was any game in sight on the marsh, I directed 

 Neil to shove into it. The mouth of the slough was 

 somewhat choked up with willow brush and, as the boat 

 made an awkward swing into the brush at one side, 



