24 



meteorological record every fifteen minutes during the day. 

 We killed a two-year old buck, and took him home to camp. 

 This addition to our store of meat proved very acceptable, 

 as we had brought but a small portion of our bountiful sup- 

 ply from the other camp. The night was warm and the mos 

 quitoes stayed late. 



AUGUST ii, SATURDAY. 



L. and Joe started across the valley to fix two stations on 

 the other side (Nos. 9 and 10), in which they succeeded, but 

 found the road very rough. They made observations for a 

 new camp in the middle of the valley. M. made corre- 

 sponding observations in the camp. The rainy season has 

 commenced, and we expect a drenching every day. L. found 

 plenty of rain and snow on the ridge while working there. 



AUGUST 12, SUNDAY. 



We turned out slowly this A.M., and as we thought that all 

 our Indian friends had left us to go across the range, we left 

 our camp to take care of itself, and started for Steel's Mills, 

 a point half-way between the St. Louis Mills and Gilbert's 

 Meadow. This was on the West Branch, so we followed it 

 down. We found an old Indian trail and followed it till we 

 came to a good road, which brought us, after a three miles' 

 ride, to the Mill. We found Dick Steel there with about eight 

 or ten men (as many more having gone off hunting and fishing). 

 The scenes of the day were quite varied. We all sat around 

 the camp-fire and heard stories, until the subject of shooting 

 came up, when Joe was hauled out for exhibition. (He is, by 

 the way, an excellent shot.) He wanted to shoot for ten dollars 

 a side for each shot with the " old hunter," who was provid- 

 ing the camp with meat, but the old fellow was not at all anx- 

 ious for fame, as Joe's powers had been known there for some 

 years. After dinner they divided into two knots, to play 

 poker. We, of course, watched the crowd Joe was in, and 

 saw the fellow walk off with five dollars of their money by 

 supper-time. They were nearly short of food, so we had the 

 usual camp diet venison, bread, coffee, and stewed dried cur- 

 rants for both meals. Starting at six we got back to our camp 

 at eight, and found everything as we left it. 



