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The National Geographic Magazine 



and surprising transformations that add 

 so much to mountain travel. The trail 

 turned more and more toward the east 

 and northeast, through the finest timber 

 I have ever seen in this range. Many 

 of the spruces were not less than one 

 hundred and sixty feet high. Unfor- 

 tunate^, the ground was covered by 

 many fallen forest giants too large for 

 the Indians to cut out, and the trail 



trout before lunch was ready, and these 

 were the first fish we had seen in many 

 weeks. In the afternoon enough fish 

 were caught to supply the entire party 

 with dinner and breakfast. 



This part of the Elk River has been 

 described by Dawson. It is very wide 

 and flat, with a number of meadows in- 

 terspersed among burned forests. The 

 valle}' in the meadows by the river and 



Making Camp After a Hard Day's Journey 



made such a number of turns that our 

 horses could be seen going in different 

 directions several times in the length of 

 our procession. After six hours of tir- 

 ing march, a rapid descent brought us 

 to the bottom of a wide valley with a 

 deep stream flowing south. This we 

 knew from Dawson's map and descrip- 

 tion to be the Elk River. After fording 

 the river our camp was placed in a de- 

 lightful meadow. Bryant caught two 



in the occasional spots of green forest 

 is picturesque, but otherwise the vast 

 waste of burned timber and the monoto- 

 nous and uniform mountains on either 

 side have a desolate aspect. 



The following day was warm and 

 quite smoky from forest fires. We made 

 an uninteresting and fatiguing march 

 of six hours to the divide between the 

 Elk and Kananaskis Rivers. The fallen 

 timber and obscure trail gave us very 



