WITH A CAMERA IN THE CLEARWATER COUNTRY. 



A. L. A. HIMMELWRIGHT. 

 Photos by the Author. 



Last October I took a 5 weeks' trip into 

 the Clearwater and Salmon river country. 

 My supplies were secured at Darby, Mon- 

 tana. With a guide and a cook I left Darby 

 September 9, going into the Clearwater 

 country by the Southern Nez Perces trail. 

 We found many Indians encamped along 



OUR PACK TRAIN IN IDAHO, 

 RIVER. 



NEAR SALMON 



the trail, hunting deer and elk for the win- 

 ter's supply of meat. They told us their 

 hunting was successful and thnt they aver- 

 aged one deer a day. The Indians hunt on 

 horseback exclusively. They camp near 

 the trails, and travel back and forth on 

 them, looking for fresh tracks. Occasion- 

 ally, if the country is not too rough, they 

 will ride along the ridges also. I asked one 

 Indian, who spoke Enelish fairly well, why 

 he did not hunt with his dogs. Much to 

 my surprise, he replied, "It's against the 

 law." Every Indian camp had plenty of 

 dogs, but during the 20 days we were out 

 we did not hear any dogs chasing eame. 



We followed the Nez Perces trail 3 days 

 from the West fork of Bitter Root river 

 across the divide into Idaho, crossing the 

 South fork of Clearwater and passing over 



EFFECTS OF AN AVALANCHE. 



McGruder mountain to the tributaries of 

 the Little Clearwater. Leaving the trail at 

 that point, we followed the crest of a ridge 

 due South until we struck Salmon River 

 trail, leading from Shoup to Elk City, and 

 followed that Eastward to Salmon moun- 

 tain. We camped on the West side of the 

 mountain 4 days, during which I climbed to 

 the top of the peak and took a number of 

 photographs. Six little lakes are nestled in 

 the small basins or pockets on the East and 

 South sides of this peak. We found there 

 the first goat and sheep sign, but the beds 

 and tracks were at least 10 days or 2 weeks 

 old. 



September 18 we went Eastward about 

 18 miles, and camped at the head of a 

 meadow sloping toward Salmon river. One 

 mile Northeast of our camp the mountain 

 dropped off perpendicularly from 500 to 

 1,500 feet, forming cliffs and large areas of 

 slide rock. We soon found fresh sheep 

 tracks, and the second day we saw, 

 through my glass, a ram standing on a flat 

 rock at the foot of a slide on the other side 

 of a deep canyon, almost 2 miles distant. 



DWARF PINES. BIG HOLE MOUNTAINS, MONT. 

 Elevation 8,500 Feet. 



295 



