244 
WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WA YS 
CHAP. 
disagreeable, through the sudden varieties of tem¬ 
perature and the extreme dryness. 
Our camp was generally about 10,000 feet above 
the sea. At that altitude the air is considerably 
rarefied, and the cold during night was extreme, in 
the month of September. In the day the sun was 
hot, and the wind was at the same time piercing : 
this was very trying to the skin, and although fe&as 
tolerably weather-proof, my face and neck were 
peeled from the harsh exposure. We had no other 
tent than an ordinary single cloth lean-to, about 7 
feet square, and under 6 feet in height in the centre 
beneath the ridge-pole. A bed upon the ground, 
formed of the tender ends of spruce branches, and 
covered with a waterproof camp sheet, upon which 
were double blankets, would have been a luxury in 
a milder climate, but it was almost impossible to 
keep warm, as the cold was so intense that a pail of 
water exposed at night became a solid block of ice 
before the morning. The most welcome bedfellows 
were a few large rounded pebbles from the stream, 
about 10 lbs. each ; these were well heated in the 
fire, and then wrapped in thick flannel: in the 
absence of a warming-pan, it was a simple 
arrangement that produced great comfort. 
The extent of forest was very small in proportion 
to the open grass-land. Periodical fires appeared 
to have destroyed large tracts, and the blackened 
stems produced an aspect of painful desolation. 
Where the spruce forests were unharmed, the 
signs of wapiti were very extraordinary. In 
