36 ADVENTURES IN THE WILDERNESS. 



best endeavor. He has no reputation to make, as 

 has the independent guide, for his service is se- 

 cured to him for the season, by virtue of his con- 

 nection witli the hotel. Furthermore, the " hotel 

 guide " is often unemployed for weeks if the sea- 

 son is dull ; and, hanging around a frontier hotel 

 in daily proximity to the bar, is very liable to be- 

 get that greatest of all vices in a guide, — drunken- 

 ness. If, on the other hand, the season is a crowded 

 one, the proprietor finds it difficult to secure 

 guides enough for his guests, and so must needs 

 content himself with men totally unfit for the 

 service. Thus it often happens that a party taking 

 their guides at the hands of the landlord finds, 

 when too late, that out of half a dozen guides, 

 only one is capable, while the others are mere 

 make-shifts, the good guide being sent along as a 

 teacher and " boss " of the raw hands. I do not 

 say that there are no good guides among those 

 known as hotel guides, for there are ; but as a class 

 they are far inferior in character, skill, and habits 

 to the others. 



The independent guides, so called, are, as a 

 whole, a capable and noble class of men. They 

 know their calling thoroughly, and can be relied 

 on. They have no other indorsement than such 

 as the parties to which they act as guides give them ; 

 and as their chances of subsequent service depend 

 upon their present success, they are stimulated to 



