306 BIG GAME SHOOTING 
flights of Canada geese, and dying salmon. All along the 
course of the main river are the mouths of its ice-fed tributaries, 
little streams of greenish-blue water, rising in a glacier and 
fringed with narrow strips of glacial mud, upon which a rank 
growth of Zguisetum (horse-tail) flourishes. These banks are 
the hunting grounds, and the number of huge tracks upon 
them, as well as the dédris of half-eaten salmon, proclaim that 
there is no scarcity of game ; but if the hunter would get a shot 
he must haunt them at all unseasonable hours, when winds 
are most chill, and nature is at her gloomiest : for ‘ Hoots’ only 
creeps out upon the creek’s edges with the first shadows of the 
night, and vanishes from them with the earliest rising mists of 
morning. 
In this land it was that one evening we pitched our tents 
upon a sandspit, cut wet brush in the rain to make our bedding 
for the night, and then, tired with a hard day and dispirited by 
weeks of failure, stepped once more into the canoe and paddled 
for all we were worth up and across the stream to the mouth 
of a salmon creek. 
Once in the green water, pipes were put out, conversation 
ceased, Pike and I laid down our paddles and took up our 
rifles, and only the Indian worked, the canoe gliding up the 
still waters without a sound. 
At the mouth of the stream, a few flashing shadows beneath 
the water attracted our Indian’s attention, and a few quick 
thrusts with his spear provided us with enough fresh salmon 
to last us for a day or two. A blow or two with the axe 
silenced them, and again the canoe stole up stream, the men 
in it noting fresh tracks upon the banks, and peering into the 
shadowy woods, which grew darker and more impenetrable 
every minute. 
Once or twice on our way up stream the canoe ran 
aground, and all hands had to get out to push their craft 
through the sands (quicksands as often as not) into which we 
sank over the tops of our waders. 
But these are small matters. Pike sitting with one leg 
ee a ee ee ee ee 
