200 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



fresh tracks of a small herd of wapiti, which must 

 have passed late in the night after it had stopped 

 snowing. We first met with these tracks on the side 

 of a very steep hill covered with such thick pine forest 

 that it was often difficult to see more than fifty yards 

 in any direction. Here the snow was about six inches 

 deep, but gradually became deeper, as the tracks led 

 us higher up the hillside. As we zigzagged back- 

 wards and forwards, the wind was sometimes in our 

 favour, sometimes against us, and every moment I 

 expected the telltale snow would show us where the 

 keen-scented brutes we were following had winded us 

 and dashed off. Luckily, however, they were farther 

 off than I had imagined, and presently they led us on 

 to the top of a high shoulder of the mountain. Here 

 the snow was quite a foot in depth. They now held 

 along the top of the shoulder towards the main range, 

 always through thick forest. The wind was just as 

 bad as it could be, and at this time I had but little 

 hope of ever seeing our game. 



At last the wapiti, always ascending, brought us to 

 the verge of timber line, their tracks leading out 

 into a great, open valley quite devoid of trees. On 

 our left was a ridge on which grew a few scattered 

 pines; but just where this ridge joined the main 

 range at the foot of a very precipitous rock wall, 

 there was a thick cluster of tallish pine-trees, covering 

 perhaps half an acre of ground. Looking at the 

 way the tracks were heading, and the inhospitable 



