194 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING. 
we moved off in a body and commenced examining the 
country and carefully noting its crags and soil. Much 
as we were interested in this work, we did not forget to 
pay particular attention to any game worth shooting, but 
the only kind we met at that altitude were ptarmigans, 
and they were quite numerous, comparatively speaking. 
We encountered them in small packs in the forest, on 
bare, rocky patches of ground, and on the snowfields, 
and experienced little difficulty in detecting them, owing 
to the contrast in hue they presented to their surround- 
ings; but when they were scattered in places where rocks 
and shrubbery abounded, we were less successful, es- 
pecially if they remained quiet, which they generally did 
until the dogs were almost upon them; and even then 
they seemed, in many cases, to consider their canine foes 
as mere harmless visitors whose actions they could not 
understand. The greatest trouble we had with them was 
to make them take to the wing, for when the hound was 
sent to flush them only a few would rise, the remainder 
preferring to skulk among the rocks or in the under- 
growth, and keep skulking until they were shot out of 
mere irritation. We were so weary from our arduous 
climbing, tumbling, and prospecting during the day, that 
we retired to bed soon after supper, but we were not long 
asleep before we were aroused by a cold breeze, that swept 
through the forest with a force that made every tree and 
shrub moan weirdly, as if it were inhabited by wailing 
sprites. As the gale increased in violence we were startled 
mto a most active condition of mind by a deep, reverbera- 
ting sound, not unlike that produced by a grand organ, 
which rolled towards us in swelling volumes from the di- 
rection of the precipice. We listened attentively to this 
for some time without being able to detect the cause, for 
it was sometimes low and soft, then loud, vehement, 
and resonant. 
The peals were so emphatic and stentorian that it 
