SPORT AND TRAVEL 177 



of September 10 bade adieu to the kind-hearted Welsh- 

 man and his wife, and commenced the last section of 

 our journey into the main range of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, where we hoped to meet with at least a few 

 wapiti and mule deer. That afternoon we did ten 

 or twelve miles along a very rough track, sometimes in 

 the bed of the stream, sometimes along steep slopes 

 and stone slides high above it, but always in a very 

 wild and beautiful country with rugged pine-clad 

 mountains above and on either side of us, and rushing 

 water below us. In the evening we caught a few trout 

 for supper and camped in a lovely little glade about 

 eight thousand feet above sea level. 



Late in the afternoon of the following day we 

 reached a spot where Graham had intended us to 

 camp for a week or ten days, as he thought that it 

 would prove a good centre from which to hunt 

 wapiti. Another party of English sportsmen, and 

 women, whose fresh horse-tracks along the trail had 

 already caused us some anxiety, had, however, selected 

 the same locality for a camp, so of course we had to 

 move on at once to get beyond the sphere of their 

 influence. Although we remained unavoidably, for 

 the next month or so, more or less within touch of 

 one another, I scarcely think we could have interfered 

 with one another's sport in any way, as we were in 

 the midst of a vast tract of country, throughout which 

 wapiti were everywhere sparingly scattered, whilst 

 they were nowhere particularly numerous. 



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