GOATS AND SHEEP IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 231 



whether crawling or jumping over the thousands of logs and 

 trees lying in intricate confusion on the ground and each 

 other ; when travelling over the long and dangerous stone- 

 slides where a false step would surely have sent pony with 

 rider or pack tumbling down into the valley or river far 

 below, or in fording the many rapid and deep streams with 

 a precarious foothold of slippery boulders. In our ignorance 

 we had not brought any dogs, and thanks to this neglect 

 the bears, cinnamon and grizzly, which without doubt inhabited 

 several of the valleys passed through, remained unseen, and 

 no snow fell at that time to render tracking possible. At 

 the last moment when made aware of the desirability of 

 having dogs (small foxhounds or beagles would be best) we 

 annexed two curs, an Irish terrier belonging to a policeman 

 to whom we paid five dollars for the brute, and a collie. 

 The former had, so the story went, gained a reputation as a 

 " bear" dog by having jumped on to a grizzly soon after that 

 animal's death, which showed at all events the dog's intelli- 

 gence in so far that he waited with his acrobatic feat until 

 quite certain that the bear was really dead. All our pack 

 did, however, was to hunt butterflies, and squirrels and mice 

 when we had reached an altitude too great for the former 

 small game. 



At the end of the second week in September we made a start, 

 crossing the Bow River, passing over some horrible country, 

 miles and miles of windfalls, and to say the least of it very 

 tiring, but with the aid of No. 2 in full blast behind we got 

 well into the first valley by the afternoon. These valleys in 

 this part of the Canadian Rockies are very narrow and 

 drained by rivers now shallow but in the spring roaring 

 torrents. Beautifully clear and blue they are as they rush 

 over the many boulders and rocks which try to bar the way, 

 adding a great charm to the lovely scenery already so 

 lovely and grand. From the edge of the rivers rise the 

 mountains clothed on their lower half by a dense forest of 

 deep green spruces and a thick undergrowth of blackberry, 

 blueberry, and other berry scrubs, ferns and grass ; grass, 

 herbs, lichen, and moss stretch away beyond to the bare rocks, 

 which, covered with snow, form the tops of all these mountains. 

 These huge masses acted on by the frost easily break up and 



