PTARMIGANS., 189 
manner in which they lie to dogs, make them interesting 
alike to the sportsman and the lover of Natural History. 
The usual charge of a gun used for shooting ptarmi- 
gans, and other members of the Tetraonide, is three and 
a half drachms of powder and one and one-eighth or one 
and one-fourth ounces of No. 8 shot, but the quantity of 
powder may be increased half a drachm in winter, when 
the birds are wild. No. 6 shot may, however, be found 
more effective than No. 8, on account of its greater size 
and momentum. The coarse grain powder is better than 
the fine, as it has more penetration and less recoil; but 
good wood powder is the best of all, as it has three times 
the strength of the ordinary black variety, causes no re- 
coil, makes no smoke, keeps the shot well together, and 
does not heat the barrels. 
The most interesting campaign that I ever made 
against the ptarmigans was in the Rocky Mountains. 
The party which I accompanied consisted of a squint- 
eyed individual, whose face was as red as his hair, and 
who earned his bread by ranching, or stock-raising; an 
energetic young man, who loved the rifle and a life in 
the forest more than he did gold; and a half-breed and 
an Indian, who were to act as guides and compagnons de 
chasse. We were also accompanied by two mongrels, be- 
longing to the Venus-haired man, which he called a gun- 
dog and a hound-dog, but which was which was a hard 
matter to decide from appearances. As soon as we 
reached the line of mosses and lichens on the mountains, 
I put on a pair of green spectacles, to prevent snow- 
blindness, but as the others had no such conveniences, 
they were content with smearing the parts around the 
eyes with wet powder, and that was equally effective. 
The scene which we beheld from the snow-fields was 
grand in the extreme, for, stretching away as far as we 
could see, were towering peaks, shrouded in eternal robes 
of glowing white, while the vast and silent forests which 
