104 SHOET STALKS 



ing them there. Once on Buftalo Fork my sou got a 

 distant glimpse of a cow with his spy-glass. I have no 

 doubt he was correct, as we several times saw the tracks, 

 which are much larger than those of a wapiti, and a moose, 

 male or female, is unmistakable. 



We were snowed up for eight days in Buffalo Fork, 

 but, in spite of the fact that we were seldom dry, we only 

 once lost our tempers. That was wdien we could get no 

 breakfast because Oris had left the axe out, and the snow 

 had effectually hidden it in the night. 



From Buffalo Fork we travelled south along the valley 

 of the Snake Eiver, with the Tetons towering above us, 

 and then turned eastwards again up the Gros Ventre Eiver 

 towards the Main Divide. Here we encountered two gold 

 prospectors, the only human beings, unconnected with our 

 party, that w^e saw for a month. They rode into our camp 

 in a very dilapidated and half-starved condition. They 

 had lost their way, and one of their horses was dead lame. 

 The snow had driven the game from the country which 

 they had passed through. Notwithstanding their poverty- 

 stricken aspect, one of them proved to be a highly intelli- 

 gent gentleman, who told me that he was Sheriff of 

 Leadville, and was making this trip more for j^leasure than 

 profit, though ahvays hoping to strike a good thing, stake 

 out his claim, and make "a pile " on the mining market. 

 As scores of wanderers like himself had even then pro- 

 spected nearly every creek in the Piocky Mountains, it is 

 not likely that much remains to be revealed, and what there 

 is can only be made remunerative with heavy machinery. 



As I lay one day ventre-a-terrc a bright object within 

 two inches of my nose attracted my attention. It was a 



