THE LYNX. 449 



Cultus Bear, sleeping liis long hibernal sleep, but needing 

 only a rap or a kick on the trunk of the tree to wake him 

 up and turn him out into the darkness, " madder' n a nest 

 of hornets," and you can readily imagine that we were 

 not exactly comfortable. We would far rather have been 

 tucked up in our beds at home, or be stretched out in 

 camp with a huge log fire hissing and crackling before us. 

 No, dear reader, I advise you never to get lost in the piny 

 forests of British Columbia, or in our Northwest mount- 

 ain ranges. You'll feel lonesome and homesick if you do. 



But lost we were, and we knew that no amount of repin- 

 ing would enable us to find ourselves. After an immense 

 amount of conjecturing and figuring as to where we were, 

 we decided that it was useless to try to reach camp that 

 night, and that our only means of living through it was to 

 build a big fire and keep it up. We ransacked the neigh- 

 borhood for dry limbs, dry leaves— in fact, anything dry; 

 but alas! dry things were not to be found. The soft, yield- 

 ing snow encased all in a mantle of perpetual whiteness 

 and wetness. 



Strips were cut from our clothing, and matches pulled, 

 and scratched across any dry spot that we could find; but 

 they soon burned out. The thought of remaining out this 

 cold, windy night without a fire became almost maddening. 



One, two, three, a dozen shots were fired, in rapid suc- 

 cession, from our rifles. Hoj)eless hoi>e\ No hunter is 

 nearer than our camp, and the solitary occupant of that is 

 far beyond the sound of our weapons. How gladly would 

 he find us, if only he knew where we were! It being 

 impossible to start a fire, and the cold becoming too great 

 for us to stand idle much longer, we were comx)elled to 

 resume our march. 



We went floundering through snow and brush, scarcely 

 making any headway in the intense darkness. We tum- 

 bled, rolled, and wandered aimlessly on, hour after hour, 

 till, almost sinking down through sheer weariness, we were 

 in utter despair. At intervals we fired our rifles, in hopes 

 of reaching the ear of some distant camp. 



29 



