SPORT AND TRAVEL 223 



that I should go alone the way I love to hunt on 

 the tracks of the wapiti, whilst W. M. and Graham 

 should try a gorge coming down from the mountains 

 to our left. 



I was up early the next morning, October 18, and 

 after a good breakfast put a bit of deer meat in my 

 pocket and started out after the wapiti, making use of 

 a horse to cross the river, which Graham, who accom- 

 panied me so far, then led back to camp. I soon got 

 on the tracks of the wapiti, which presently brought 

 me to the same hillside where I had found the mule 

 deer feeding on the previous day. Here they had 

 evidently fed for a long time, as they had scraped a 

 very considerable area of ground free of snow, not 

 in one continuous stretch, but in numbers of small 

 patches, each patch having been cleared by one ani- 

 mal or the united exertions of two or three working 

 together. I fancy they must have been feeding on 

 this hillside not more than three miles from our camp 

 - for the greater part of the night. After leaving it, 

 they had gone down to the creek, the East Fork, 

 and after crossing it had climbed the side of the moun- 

 tain above. 



Fording the creek did not add to my comfort, as 

 the water was icy cold and came above my knees. I 

 had followed the wapiti for an hour or so, along the 

 mountain-side high above the creek, and was just 

 rounding a shoulder, divided by a deep ravine, from 

 another portion of the mountain, when I saw some- 



