A HUNTER'S CAMP-FIRES 



At daybreak the next morning we started with the pack- 

 train. Noon found us adjusting the loads during a gale in a 

 bleak pass at the head of the valley. It took us two hours to 

 descend to the next valley, where the Indians killed the daily 

 porcupine, and we had luncheon in the creek-bottom. As we 

 finished our meal we could see a band of about fifteen ewes 

 and lambs feeding on the opposite slope a quarter of a mile 

 above us. Several solitary goats were noticed lying down on 

 some precipitous slides farther down the cafion. Howe and 

 Mac started after these goats while we drove the pack-train 

 several miles down the cafion. The valley was wide, and 

 contained a number of large meadows, where Hungerford suc- 

 ceeded in shooting some ptarmigan and two green- winged teal. 



Toward evening, as we were unpacking the horses, I dis- 

 covered a large bull moose travelling down the valley, through 

 the willows on the mountain-side, a quarter of a mile distant. 

 Ludecker and I followed it on foot along the bank of the stream 

 for several miles, but the moose was thoroughly alarmed, and 

 travelled too rapidly for us to intercept it in such thick brush 

 as we encountered. On our return to where we had left Hun- 

 gerford and the horses we discovered a cow moose feeding on 

 the willows and a solitary billy sleeping on a ledge on the slope 

 above camp. Howe, coming up at that moment after an un- 

 successful afternoon's hunting, started with Mac after this 

 goat, while the rest of us busied ourselves in making camp 

 before dark. As the time for their encounter with the goat 

 approached, I suspended work and picked up the glasses to 

 watch the sport. I could see the two small human dots steadily 

 climbing up a shallow seam in the mountain-side, while the 

 goat, having finished its sleep, was leisurely feeding along the 

 steep slope in the direction of death. When about one hun- 

 dred and twenty-five yards from the billy both black dots 

 stopped for a few moments, supposedly to recover their breath. 

 Then the goat staggered, turned, tried to retreat along the 



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