A HUNTER'S CAMP-FIRES 



When the weather cleared up, later in the afternoon, Howe 

 and myself started out in different directions to look for game, 

 I was travelling along a burnt ridge when the sharp snap of a 

 breaking stick caused me to look to the right, to discover a 

 cow and calf moose about fifty yards distant, staring at me 

 through the burnt tree-trunks. They evidently were unused 

 to the sight of man, as I was able to watch and study them for 

 half an hour before they became thoroughly alarmed and trotted 

 away through the burnt timber. We awoke next morning to 

 iand all the mountain-tops covered with a fresh fall of snow. 

 All morning our pack-train climbed steadily upward through 

 a marshy country much tracked up by moose, and at noon 

 we had luncheon at timber-line. About three o'clock we found 

 ourselves on the snow-covered top of a range of mountains 

 where we could see Iskoot Lake, twenty-five miles in length, 

 several thousand feet below us. Range after range of snow- 

 capped peaks extended in all directions. We travelled along 

 the top of the mountain for several miles, seeing a few old 

 tnountain-sheep tracks and passing one large male mountain- 

 goat climbing up a small cliff about two hundred yards to one 

 side of our course. After killing the daily porcupine, we camped 

 about five o'clock, at timber-line in a valley across which we 

 could see the mountains on which the sheep lived. 



Mac and I immediately started out to take a look at these 

 mountains with the glasses, and he had no sooner reached the 

 top of the first ridge, two hundred yards ahead of me, than he 

 began to beckon frantically with his hat. Hastening up the 

 slope, I found that he had come face to face, at close range, 

 with a large bull moose that had made off before I could get to 

 the scene. From this elevation a scrutiny of the country re- 

 vealed the white rumps of a distant small band of Stone's sheep 

 on the opposite side of the valley, a solitary male mountain-goat 

 feeding on the cliff about five hundred yards above us, and a 

 large bull moose lying, down in the burnt, timber about a mile 



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