152 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



stream of clear cold water, seventy-eight hundred feet 

 above sea level. The night was bright and clear and 

 much warmer than I should have expected at such an 

 altitude, there being no sign of frost in the morning. 



On the following day we were up at 5.30, break- 

 fasted at six, and then packed the waggon and got off 

 at 7.45. Before we broke camp several camp robbers 

 (Perisorens canadensis), birds of a species allied, I 

 think, to the European jay, came hopping round us, 

 picking up the scraps of food that had fallen to the 

 ground during breakfast. These pretty birds are 

 most friendly and confiding in their behaviour; and as 

 soon as they find that their confidence has not been 

 misplaced, they become extraordinarily tame, and I 

 should think might soon be coaxed into taking food 

 from one's hand. Wherever we camped in the moun- 

 tains we always had at least one pair of these cheery 

 little robbers living with us, and freely forgave them 

 their petty larcenies for the sake of their pretty, 

 sprightly ways and pleasant companionship. 



The road this morning led us through rocky, forest- 

 clad hills whose summits were bare, as they rose 

 above timber line (here probably between ten thousand 

 and eleven thousand feet above sea level). Our route 

 lay up and down hill, but we gradually rose to a height 

 of ninety-three hundred feet. Here we struck the 

 upper creeks of the Tongue River, and outspanned 

 for our midday meal and rest. 



The country about here seemed admirably suited 



