DAYS IN THE ROCKIES 
Hunting on the Edge of Winter 
BY EVERETT DUFOUR 
HEN I arrived at Sal- 
mon Arm on the Great 
Shuswap Lake I was 
obliged to wait a day 
for my guide, so re- 
solved to try a few 
‘1 shots at the wild geese 
which the proprietor 
yi; of the hotel informed 
iq] me were very plentiful. 
He promised to awak- 
en me early the next 
| morning, and, as I had 
traveled through from 
Winnipeg, by way of Sumas, Wash., 
to Portland, Oreg., and back by way of 
Seattle and Puget Sound to Victoria and 
Vancouver, and thence on to Salmon Arm, 
I felt that it would be necessary. 
Before it was light enough to see, the 
next morning, I was out at the edge of the 
near-by lake, and as the day began to break 
and the fog lifted, enormous flocks of geese 
could be seen on the bars fully a mile off 
shore. I went around toward the Indian 
reservation, for from it points of land 
extend quite a distance into the lake, and 
as they are wooded, they would give me 
a much better chance to get in range of the 
geese, which all the while kept up a con- 
stant ‘‘honking.” I thought it best to first 
see the chief and get his permission to hunt, 
and I found him comfortably seated beside 
a small fire surrounded by several “‘ braves”’ 
and squaws. He could speak English a 
very little, but understood it somewhat 
better, so I had no difficulty in making 
known my desire. He was particularly 
pleasant and insisted on my staying to chat 
with him, but by promising to remain a 
while on my return, he appeared to be 
satisfied to let me go. However, he would 
have his way about sending along one of 
his braves to “‘show you trail”? and “‘bring 
back goose.” 

The Indian stepped into his canoe, a 
dugout, made from a single log, but as we 
had only a short distance to go before 
reaching the edge of the lake, I walked 
along the well-worn trail by the side of the 
stream. As we neared the edge of the 
woods my guide left the boat and took the 
trail, preceding me by a few steps. The 
main flock of geese were now off shore 
about a thousand yards, but within two 
hundred yards of us stood three big fellows 
on the point of a bar. They had evidently 
heard us, and were standing erect, on the 
lookout. We crawled up behind some 
willows, from which a good shot could be 
had, and I fired at what I took to be the 
largest of the three, killing it instantly. 
The others immediately flew, as did the 
flock on the far bar. But we kept quiet, 
and after circling about a few times and 
not seeing any one, the geese settled down 
about 1,200 yards out, forming a mark 
several feet wide and twenty-five or thirty 
yards long. Iraised my sights to the above 
distance while the Indian grunted and 
shook his head, saying, ‘‘Too far’’; but 
when the rifle cracked and the big flock 
rose again they left one of their number 
behind. I threw in another shell and fired 
into them as they flew, bringing down 
another. ‘The next two shots failed to 
touch any, although it seemed as though 
it would be an impossibility to shoot 
through them without hitting at least one. 
The Indian gazed alternately at the rifle, at 
me, and then across the lake to where the 
geese looked like specks on the bar, while 
I refilled the magazine of my .405. Occa- 
sionally he would grunt as though com- 
pletely amazed. Finally another thought 
struck him—he jumped into the canoe and 
started out after the geese as fast as he 
could paddle, and brought them in with 
apparently a great deal of satisfaction. 
Wild ducks were plentiful everywhere, 
