202 CAMP FIRE REMINISCENCES 
overcame all discomforts and it was with difficulty 
that Jackson aroused me for breakfast on a very 
dark and desperately cold morning. 
The weather had been unusually fine for the sea- 
son, and there had been no snow to drive the game 
down to the foothills, so, long before the others were 
up we were off to the main range fifteen or twenty 
milesaway. About dawn we were nearing a lick to- 
wards which many trails converged and hope was 
high in our breasts as we approached it. Some 
distance away we tied the horses and advanced on 
foot with great caution. Arriving at the lick we 
found it a blank, but there were lots of fresh tracks 
and many of them were those of big bulls. Jack- 
son returned for the horses and I waited. When 
he came, we crossed a tributary of the Fall River 
and found ourselves at the foot of the range proper. 
Ascending a rather steep place, we reached a small 
plateau covered with heavy timber, but clear of 
windfalls. Hitherto our hunting had been over 
densely timbered foothills between the Fall River 
and this tributary ; now we were on the ragged side 
of the main range and the timber line was but a 
thousand feet above us. The mountain was very — 
steep in places and trees only occurred on sheltered 
plateaux or in gulches, bare shoulders rising be- 
tween these patches. 
We traversed the plateau, and finding - fresh 
tracks followed them out on a bare shoulder. Here 
elk had evidently just been. The tracks led us up 
to the head of a wooded ravine, where we left our 
horses, proceeding into the timber on foot. Ina 
