THE INDIAN AND I 



A Week in the Mountains of British Columbia After Deer 



BY S. E. CORNWALL 



T WAS a cold and stormy- 

 day in November, when 

 Andrew Jewels, an " In- 

 dian," and myself start- 

 ed on a hunting trip in 

 the mountains, east some 

 two hundred miles from 

 Vancouver, B. C, tak- 

 ing with us five pack 

 horses and enough grub to do us for about a 

 week. The first day we made about fifteen 

 miles and camped at the outlet of a big 

 lake, surrounded by a dense forest of pine 

 and fir. The snow lay deep on the ground, 

 which made it hard for our horses to get 

 at the timber grass under it. By the time 

 we had made our camp it was nearly dark, 

 and it was not long before the kettle was 

 boiling, and we were able to have a cup of 

 tea with some bacon and bread. When we 

 had finished we sat by a blazing camp-fire 

 each smoking a cigarette made out of kinni- 

 kinic, or the Indian t6bacco plant, some of 

 which Andrew had gathered on our way up 

 the mountain, and also talking over our 

 plans for the following day. When we had 

 finished our smoke and put on another big 

 log we rolled up in our blankets, and it was 

 not long before we were sound asleep. In 

 the morning we got a good early start, as 

 we had to go through many miles of rough 

 country to reach our next camping ground, 

 at which we intended to stay for a day and 

 see if we could get any big game. 



On our way up we had come across some 

 fresh deer tracks, but had seen no signs of 

 anything else. We had been on the move 

 through fallen timber, which it was almost 

 impossible to get the horses over, since day- 

 break, and it was now beginning to get dusk, 

 and we decided to stop and do the best we 

 could without going on to where there was 

 water. 



Our first day's hunt was not by any 



means a successful one, as we walked all 

 day and got nothing. The tracks all seemed 

 to be heading toward a big valley, visible 

 from the top of a high peak, which seemed a 

 likely place for mountain sheep. 



The next morning we moved toward the 

 valley, where we camped for three days, and 

 soon found out that we had, at last, struck 

 the right spot. 



Before we had been away from camp an 

 hour, Andrew stopped suddenly and pointed 

 across a big gulch to an open spot where 

 there were two of the biggest bucks that I 

 ever set my eyes on, with antlers locked to- 

 gether and giving blows at one another that 

 no one would believe without having wit- 

 nessed such a vicious fight. We imme- 

 diately took cover behind a big fir tree which 

 had recently fallen, and there we lay and 

 watched every movement of the battling ani- 

 mals for nearly an hour. Then we were 

 startled by the crack of a branch breaking 

 a little to our left. Looking quickly round, 

 and seizing our rifles, we saw, much to our 

 astonishment, two large deer leaping ex- 

 citedly in a graceful yet frightened manner. 

 In less than two seconds there were two 

 sharp rifle reports echoing through the 

 mountains and the two deer lay motionless 

 not thirty yards away, and the fighting bucks 

 had vanished into the thick timber below. 



We lost little time in getting to work with 

 our knives, and in a few minutes their skins 

 were taken off and they were both hung in a 

 tree until next morning, when we led one 

 of the packhorses up and took them home 

 to camp. We now made our way round a 

 small, thickly timbered hill, and from there 

 started back to camp; even though we had 

 only got one each, our hopes were raised 

 to a certain extent, and we looked forward 

 to better sport on the morrow. 



We had not walked for more than an hour 

 when we came upon the tracks of five 



