cannot understand or appreciate the glories of such a 

 hunt on such a day — the sun comfortabl}- warm, with a 

 cool wind waving the rich prairie grass and rippling the 

 water so that it shone from the distance like burnished sil- 

 ver. Along the edges of the sloughs wdiich empty into the 

 lake the green willows, stirred with the wind, were waving 

 their graceful limbs, while the bright prairie flowers and 

 the sage brush did their part toward making a picture 

 hard to match and not eas}- to be forgotten. 



After dinner we had singing, w^histling (b}- as good 

 a whistler as ever "cocked a lip") and piano pla3'ing 

 (two of the ladies being good musicians). When our 

 concert was over and we were about retiring, a knock 

 was heard at the car door, and the members of the only 

 family residing within miles of the station were announced 

 as callers. So again the strains of one of Beethoven's 

 immortal sonatas and a nocturne of Chopin's were invoked 

 to entertain the visitors, who were two ladies and a gen- 

 tleman, the latter superintending a ranch of 10,000 acres. 

 The latest fashions, the price of wheat (54 cents a bushel) 

 the climate, the habits of the wild fowl around the lake, 

 were discussed. After a pleasant two hours' entertain- 

 ment the visitors were shown to the car door, saying it 

 was the pleasantest night the}- had ever spent in their 

 lives, and so ended our day's hunt and pleasure at Crane 

 Lake, Assiniboia Territor^^ 



For months there was no rain in the regions gunned 

 over by our party and we pursued our sport without alloy 

 or hindrance. When we were on the Frazer River, in 

 Vancouver, six of our party who had started away on a 

 hunt after caribou and bears, returned to the car on 



58 



