AN ELK-HUNT A T TWO-OCEAN PASS 20I 



another, on which to hang wet clothes and 

 shoes, and the beds are made around the 

 edges. As an offset to the warmth and shel- 

 ter, the smoke often renders it impossible 

 even to sit upright. W'e had a very good 

 camp-kit, including plenty of cooking- and 

 eating-utensils ; and among our provisions 

 were some canned goods and sweetmeats, 

 to give a relish to our meals of meat and 

 bread. We had fur coats and warm clothes, — • 

 which are chiefly needed at night, — and plenty 

 of bedding, including water-proof canvas sheet- 

 ing and a couple of caribou-hide sleeping-bags, 

 procured from the survivors of a party of 

 arctic explorers. Except on rainy days I used 

 my buckskin hunting shirt or tunic; in dry 

 weather I deem it, because of its color, texture, 

 and durability, the best possible garb for the 

 still-hunter, especially in the woods. 



Starting a day's journey south of Heart 

 Lake, we travelled and hunted on the eastern 

 edge of the great basin, wooded and moun- 

 tainous, wherein rise the head-waters of the 

 mighty Snake River. There was not so much 

 as a spotted line — that series of blazes made 

 with the axe, man's first highway through the 

 hoary forest, — but this we did not mind, as for 

 most of the distance we followed the well- 

 worn elk-trails. The train travelled in Indian 

 file. At the head, to pick the path, rode tall, 

 silent old Woody, a true type of the fast- 

 vanishing race of game hunters and Indian 

 figliters, a man who Iiad been one of the Cali- 

 fornia forty-niners, and who ever since had 

 lived the restless, reckless life of the wilder- 

 ness. Then came Ferguson and myself ; then 



