WHITE MAN AND RED 133 



Bezkya says they are good to eat in this stage; but 

 we had about 700 pounds of good meat so did not 

 try. The velvet on the horns is marked by a series of 

 concentric curved lines of white hair, across the lines 

 of growth; these, I take it, correspond with times of 

 check by chill or hardship. 



We loaded our canoe with meat and pushed on 

 toward the Buffalo country for two miles more up 

 the river. Navigation now became very difficult on 

 account of alders in the stream. Bezkya says that 

 only a few hundred yards farther and the river comes 

 from underground. This did not prove quite correct, 

 for I went half a mile farther by land and found no 

 change. 



Here, however, we did find some Buffalo tracks; one 

 went through our camp, and farther on were many, 

 but all dated from the spring and were evidently six 

 weeks old. 



There were no recent tracks, which was discouraging, 

 and the air of gloom over our camp grew heavier. 

 The weather had been bad ever since we left Fort 

 Smith, cloudy or showery. This morning for the first 

 time the day dawned with a clear sky, but by noon it 

 was cloudy and soon again raining. Our diet con- 

 sisted of nothing but Moose meat and tea; we had 

 neither sugar nor salt, and the craving for farinaceous 

 food was strong and growing. We were what the 

 natives call " flour hungry"; our three-times-a-day 

 prospect of Moose, Moose, Moose was becoming loath- 

 some. Bezkya was openly rebellious once more, and 

 even my two trusties were very, very glum. Still, the 



