332 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



area of nearly seventy thousand square miles of Oregon and 

 the region mentioned, and grand and gloomy they seemed in 

 their silence and magnificence. We followed a trail known 

 only, so far as I could learn, to the red men, and this led us 

 away from all vestiges of civilization, for not a house or a white 

 man did we see until we entered the great plains of Eastern 

 Washington. 



We moved onward by easy marches, halting for a day or 

 two to enable the squaws to gather some of the innumerable 

 berries of many species with which the woods teemed, and to 

 give the men an opportunity of killing game. This, fortunately, 

 was quite plentiful, and the hunting parties returned each day 

 with a stock of meat which embraced every variety, from the 

 bear and deer to the hare, squirrel, and showtl. 



As we approached the snowy summits of the Cascade Range 

 the forest became less dense, and we caught glimpses of open 

 mountain dells, as picturesque as any the mind could conceive, 

 which were covered with a luxuriant growth of tender grass, 

 green mosses, and dainty sub-alpine flowers, or we gazed on 

 those stupendous boulders veritable mountains of bare rocks, 

 which were the haunts of the mountain sheep and goat. 



Having halted one day to have a hunt among these animals, 

 I was allotted as a companion a handsome for an Indian 

 young fellow, known to his tribe as Itsoot or the Bear, from 

 the fact that he had once killed the plantigrade single-handed. 



Leaving the others, we moved towards the snow-fields, and 

 after trudging half a mile obliquely upwards we struck goat 

 " signs/'' and these induced i;s to halt to reconnoitre. My com- 

 panion, after glancing at them some moments, told me in classi- 

 cal Chinook that they were fresh, and that we should soon meet 

 a colony of the capridce if nothing unusual occurred. Advancing 

 slowly and silently, and glancing cautiously about, we entered 

 a deep ravine, and to our surprise and disgust found, ere we had 

 been there many seconds, that the colony had detected us, and 

 were hastening up the cliffs, some yards beyond, at a tremen- 

 dous rate. Clambering up the steep binds the best way we 

 could, now stumbling forward, then threatening to fall into 

 the chasm below, we finally reached the upper world only to see a 



