2 3i 



RECREATION 



laced around my calves and my beauti- 

 ful soft buckskin shirt tucked in at 

 the waist I began to feel like a real 

 Nimrod, but after I had added my 

 "Moo-loch-Capo," the shooting jacket 

 with elk teeth buttons, pulled a pair of 

 shank moccasins over my feet and 

 donned a cap made of lynx skin, I was 

 happy as a child with its Christmas 

 stocking. It was really a beautiful and 

 wonderful suit of clothes, the hair of 

 the elk hide was on the outside, and not 

 only made the coat and breeches warm- 

 er, but helped to shed rain ; the buttons 

 of elk teeth were fastened on with 

 thongs run through holes in their cen- 

 ters, and my coat could be laced up 

 after the fashion of a military overcoat. 

 The elk's teeth served as frogs and 

 loops of rawhide answered for the 

 braid that is used on military coats. 



Shank moccasins are made by first 

 making a cut around each of the hind 

 legs of an elk, buffalo or moose at a 

 sufficient distance above the heels to 

 leave hide enough for boot legs and 

 making another cut far enough below 

 the heels to leave room for one's feet. 

 The fresh skins when peeled off look 

 like rude stockings with holes at the 

 toes. The skins are turned wrong side 

 out, and the open toes closed by bring- 

 ing the lower part, or sole, up over the 

 opening and sewing it there, after the 

 manner of the tip to a modern shoe. 

 When this was done, I had my shank 

 moccasins stretched over a wooden last 

 which I had myself modeled from my 

 cast-off shoes. After this novel foot 

 gear was dry enough for the purpose, 

 Big Pete ornamented the legs with 

 quaint-colored designs made with dyes 

 which Pete had himself manufactured 

 of roots and barks. 



Dressed in my unique and picturesque 

 costume I stood upright while Big Pete 

 surveyed me with the pride and satis- 

 faction of an artist who felt that his 

 work was well done. I had now little 

 fear of being called a tenderfoot, and 

 when I viewed my reflection in the 

 spring I felt convinced that few men 

 would dare apply the offensive term to 



the villainous-looking wild man reflect- 

 ed by the smooth water. Big Pete said 

 that I was a "De-aub," but that was 

 better than a rangey "Kla-how-yum," 

 more Chinook, I suppose, and probably 

 not complimentary either. De-aub 

 sounds like devil to me, and if such is 

 the meaning of the word, I certainly 

 looked the character. 



With a smoothly-shaven face and 

 well-trimmed hair I am an ordinary- 

 looking fellow, just such as you may 

 see at any of the city clubs, but with 

 a shaggy head of hair and a bristling, 

 spiky beard, "it is another proposition," 

 to use one of my guide's terms. Never- 

 theless, I did not trim my hair or beard, 

 but I did thereafter spend as much time 

 over my toilet as Pete did himself. It 

 often struck me that we were two silly 

 fools, consuming so much time in fix- 

 ing ourselves up in our bravest attire, 

 with no one but our horses to see and 

 admire us. However, this really was 

 not wasted time ; on the contrary, it 

 was all that prevented us from relaps- 

 ing into the savage state from which 

 Big Pete had rescued me with a new 

 suit of clothes. 



We had seen nothing of the Wild 

 Hunter of late, and so far we were un- 

 able to discover a feasible path by 

 which we could hope to scale the walls 

 of our beautiful prison-pen ; in truth, 

 we found no trail but the very danger- 

 ous one where I had climbed to the 

 top the day I went after trout. That 

 this was not the usual path traveled 

 by the Wild Hunter I knew, because 

 there were no signs of a path worn in the 

 ereen mosses, heather and beds of beau- 

 tiful Linncea bore alts which grew over 

 the slight projections forming the peril- 

 ous passage up the side of the preci- 

 pice. 



We hunted in vain for some other 

 avenue of escape, for it would be im- 

 possible to get our horses up at this 

 point. At last I volunteered to climb 

 the wall again and explore the top of 

 the fault, hoping by this means to find 

 the Wild Hunter's trail, for trail he 

 must have, whether he be a wolf or a 



