62 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA. 



" In a short time we liad cooked and eaten supper, and 

 began to plan our movements for the morrow. My com- 

 panion concluded to cruise near camp, while I was to 

 take a light i)ack and start for Sultan Basin, the head of 

 Sultan River, twenty-two miles distant, through a rough 

 country. The underbrush was of a dense, rank growth, 

 and there was no sign of a trail. Daylight the next morn- 

 ing found me ready for my trip. Somehow or otlier, I 

 found my partner's hand in mine as I said: 'If I am not 

 back here at five o' clock in the afternoon, ten days hence, 

 you can go back to the settlements, as something will have 

 happened to me, and in these trackless, evergreen forests it 

 would be useless to search for me.' I felt the honest grip 

 of his hand as he said: 



'"If you are not back here in eleven days, I will start on 

 the twelfth to hunt you up. So long! ' 



" With these parting words, I turned my face to the north 

 and started on my long and lonely tramp. At ten o'clock 

 on the morning of the fourth day I found myself on a high, 

 wooded mountain, just below timber-line. Away to the 

 west of me I could hear the roaring of some stream, while 

 north of where I stood a giant snow-peak reared its mighty 

 head. While I listened, I could distinguish the distant 

 roaring of three different rivers. What is that stream to 

 the northwest? That is the Sauk, a tributary to the Skagit. 

 And that on the west? That is the Stillaguamish. And 

 that on the southwest? It is the Pillchuck, or Red Water. 

 And this great valley lying at my feet? This is the Sultan 

 Basin, a valley six miles long, two wide, hemmed in by 

 great high mountains— a great big hole in the ground, just 

 twenty-two miles from nowhere. 



"Flanking a huge washout on my right, I began the 

 descent into the basin. By dint of rolling, tumbling, and 

 sliding a distance of over a mile, I reached level ground 

 on the banks of what was left of Sultan River. It was 

 quiet enough here in comparison to a few miles below, 

 where to look down on the river, between the narrow 

 walls of the canon, would make you dizzy, while the river 



