156 Reminiscences of 



weathered out the night with none missing at the 

 breakfast call. 



We sent ofif the men to look for a pass to get over 

 the Divide, who returned in a few hours with the in- 

 formation that there was too much snow to think of 

 getting our animals over, as it was soft and honey- 

 combed beyond any possibility of safe passage. Dur- 

 ing the day we tried the fishing with success. All the 

 trout were as full as they could be with ground feed, and 

 and showed no fear at our approach. We had some 

 cooked properly, but they were not high in the stan- 

 dard of flavor. While Abbott was fishing along the lake 

 shore some distance from me, my attention was at- 

 tracted by his firing his pistol several times, and while 

 watching him, saw that he was wading out in the water 

 and firing at something on the rocky shore. I hastened 

 toward him and saw half a dozen small animals on the 

 shore by the water edge chattering at a great rate, but 

 which scurried away among the rocks as I came up, 

 and found that he had shot at and wounded one, which 

 set up a cry of distress which brought out a number, 

 whose threatening aspect compelled him to retreat 

 into the water, when he continued firing at them, but 

 without killing an3^ and was as I came up reloading his 

 pistol with another round of cartridges. I did not 

 see one closely enough to particularly examine, but the 

 guides said they were mountain woodchucks, with 

 which they corresponded in size and general appearance, 

 but were not the animals of that name with which 

 we are familiar and I noted they had tails ringed 

 somewhat as a raccoon. We remained over three nights 

 at the lake, but in a more comfortable camp than our 

 first one. Dixie, who piloted us back to Spanish Bar, 

 we kept tethered. 



