CHAPTER XI 



" It's the great, big, broad land 'way up yonder, 

 It's the forests where silence has lease; 

 It's the beauty that thrills me with wonder, 

 It's the stillness that fills me with peace." 



September 19. Daylight found us rolling out of 

 our sleeping robes with a lively interest in the 

 weather conditions confronting us, and as the day 

 dawned clear, cold, and cloudless, with the mountain 

 tops unobscured by mists, sharply etched against 

 the heavens, we hastily dispatched our Chinese 

 coolie diet of rice and started up Kennedy Creek 

 gorge. Baker had predicted goats would be found 

 at the bottom of the canyon feeding on willows 

 where we would have some shooting without climb- 

 ing the rocky heights, but Baker was a poor prophet 

 in this respect as we hunted up the gorge three miles 

 without seeing game. A small canyon ran off at 

 right angles to Kennedy Creek Canyon, back into 

 the mountain a mile, and ended in an abrupt slope 

 which climbed toward the summit, and we decided to 

 go up this canyon and then take a look at the range 

 from a favorable vantage point. 



We had hardly started along the sharp bowlder- 

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