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but though it still contains a few widely scattered 

 bands of deer, wapiti, and wild sheep, these seem so 

 scarce that it is impossible to banish the thought 

 that the day may not be far distant when the whole 

 of this wild country will become a dead wilderness 

 uninhabited by man or beast. The weather had now 

 become singularly mild for the time of year ; and the 

 snow, which had fallen heavily towards the end of 

 October, was fast melting everywhere wherever the 

 mountains were bare of forest. 



On November 3, wet snow kept continually falling 

 and melting on the ground, although we were probably 

 some eight thousand feet above sea level. We moved 

 our camp in the afternoon to opposite the mouth of a 

 fine creek running into the main stream from the south. 

 Whilst the tents were being pitched, I strolled along 

 the valley of the main river by myself, and presently 

 caught sight of an animal sitting like a cat on the 

 trunk of a prostrate tree. At first I thought it was a 

 puma, or mountain lion, as these animals are called 

 in Western America, but on creeping a little nearer to 

 it I saw that it was a lynx. It remained in blissful 

 ignorance of my whereabouts until I killed it with a 

 shot through the body behind the shoulders. On my 

 way back to camp, I shot the head off a ruffed grouse, 

 which soon afterwards formed the most interesting 

 item in my supper. By the bye, the shot with which 

 I decapitated this grouse was not of the sensational 

 order, for the foolish bird, after flying up from the 



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