XXVI 



GOATS AND SHEEP IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 



1897 



OUR outfit, consisting of three men, twelve horses, three 

 tents, provisions for six weeks, and all the other necessary 

 impedimenta were supplied by Mr. T. E. "Wilson, of Banff, a 

 station on the Canadian Pacific Railway, and sent on to 

 Laggan, further up the line, to await our arrival. The head 

 man, Fred, a native of Montana, proved himself a first-class 

 packer, for his loads, thanks to the excellence of the "diamond" 

 hitch, rarely shifted even on the most difficult ground, and a 

 mountaineer very trying to keep up with. He ate tobacco 

 and thrived on it. No. 2, who hailed from our Cumberland, 

 was the bete noir of our party in more ways than one. We 

 took him in the belief that he was a hunter, to which proud 

 title he, however, did not even aspire ; he was always clothed 

 in black a blot on the landscape and when his mouth was 

 not engaged in eating it poured forth the vilest language, the 

 worst extract from his native slums mixed with the choicest 

 American. Fred's conversation was indeed equally forcible, 

 but he averaged the strongest points with quotations and 

 names from the Bible. But at the tail of the caravan No. 2 

 was very valuable ; when any of the pack-horses strayed off 

 the trail in the difficult country covered with windfalls, he 

 would pour forth language unceasingly with ever-increasing 

 vigour until even the most awkward pony returned frightened 

 and cowed to its companions. No. 3 was our cook, a young 

 Englishman, and just the right man in the right place. 



It would be impossible to praise too highly our twelve Indian 

 ponies ; they were simply marvellous in their sure-footedness, 



