IN THE FAR WEST. 297 



better keep my post, in hopes of being able to retrieve my 

 lost luck. I waited an hour in vain ; and though the time 

 seemed long, yet I was not uneasy, for newts and salaman- 

 ders crossed the trail with their slow pace, the little pewec 

 intoned its soft, musical notes amid the towering firs, wood- 

 peckers drummed on the trees in every direction, and coveys of 

 grouse went whirring by in a state of great alarm, while nume- 

 rous small birds whistled and chirped or sang in the heavy 

 shrubbery. The forest was sometimes as silent and gloomy 

 as it could well be, and the only sound that disturbed its 

 brooding stillness was the occasional echoing melody of the 

 dogs, which sounded afar off, and was wafted towards me by 

 tree and zephyr. 



While sitting listlessly on a fallen fir, and paying much 

 more attention, even though it was mechanical, to the sights 

 and sounds about me than to the purpose for which I was 

 there, I heard a tremendous crashing in the shrubbery a 

 short distance to my left. This caused me to jump promptly 

 to my feet, and to grasp the gun firmly in my hands, and 

 when I saw the bushes swaying I put it near my shoulder 

 ready to fire at once. When the undergrowth parted, how- 

 ever, instead of seeing a deer emerge, out bolted the French 

 half-breed who acted as guide, in a state of trepidation. On 

 seeing me he rushed forward impetuously, and said that he 

 had been pursued by a cougar for a short distance, and that 

 he had met a bear so suddenly that it had scared all his wits 

 away. I asked him what brought him from that direction, 

 and he replied that the hills were full of deer ; that the dogs 

 had divided on a dozen or more of them ; and that they were 

 now making for the river. After telling me to keep my 

 stand, and not to leave it on any account, he dashed away 

 through the woods, intending to take up a position on my 

 runway near the river. He had scarcely been gone ten 

 minutes before a full-grown stag bounded out of the verv 

 track he had been following, but before the noble-looking 

 creature could cross the road I shot him dead. Hearing 

 another crashing to my right T looked in that direction, and 

 saw a doe leap clear across the truck ; but before she could 



