Nov. 18, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
739 
where, and he stated that there were plenty of 
goats over the mountain west of us. He also said 
that Grant White’s party had killed two rams. 
A great old supper we had to-night, hot corn- 
bread and wild mutton stew, with rice fritters, 
and then a big camp-fire and cigars, while Doc¬ 
tor “played on his little mouth organ,” and every¬ 
body turned in for a “skookum moosum” at 7 
p. m. As usual just before the “strong sleep" 
began, every one smoked a cigarette, and it is a 
bit amusing to see how the boys have quit roll¬ 
ing their native cigarettes since they discovered 
that I have brought along a couple of hundred 
to which they have taken a great fancy. 
Sept. 23.—Up out of Stick Lake Valley over 
the pass south. Found a camp of Chilcotin In¬ 
dians in the little high valley where we saw the 
wolverine on the way in. I bought from one 
of the squaws a fine smoke-tanned buckskin, a 
bighorn spoon and fifteen marmot skins, all 
beauties, for thirteen dollars in all. 
At 4 p. m., all pretty well tired out, we made 
camp on a little bench high up in a valley look¬ 
ing out across Bridge River toward the main 
range of the Cascades. The Chilcotins reported 
goats very plentiful over the mountain flanking 
the westerly side of our valley. 
Sept. 24.—This we name Goat Camp. Jack and 
I were away at 8 a. m. on horses, around the 
side of the valley and out on to the high tim¬ 
bered benches overlooking the valley of the 
Bridge. A great purple carpet of forest falling 
away from our feet, down, down and across the 
depths below, the silver thread of the Bridge 
winding through it; then sloping upward to fields 
of snow again, and ice and glaciers and tower¬ 
ing peaks innumerable, the backbone of the Cas¬ 
cades. Wonderful! 
Slipping along through the timber, watching 
for sign of stags, the air clear and cold, with a 
brisk breeze in our faces, we came out finally to 
the end of the timber on the barren highlands 
again, and skirting the point of a steep hill, sud¬ 
denly Jack reined back sharply and hissed to me: 
“The stag, the stag,” pointing down below. 
Urging my horse ahead, and with benumbed 
fingers trying to pull my rifle from its scabbard, 
I got down just as the patience of the stag be¬ 
came exhausted, and he began springing away 
across the little draw below us and up the oppo¬ 
site side, going at great speed. A splendid ani¬ 
mal, with great antlers, he seemed almost as big 
as an elk. I had been shooting the magazine 
rifle with its open sights, but having exhausted 
my ammunition, had now fallen back upon my 
.45-70, equipped with peep sight. While I was 
fooling around trying to find him through the 
peep sight, he got 200 yards away. That is about 
all there was to it, except that I determined never 
again to take out two rifles differently sighted. 
Also I feel convinced that the peep sight is not 
suitable for quick shots at running game, and it 
all runs. 
Coming out an hour later on a high saddle fac¬ 
ing a black mountain which rises sheer on its 
southerly front from Gun Creek, there, a thou¬ 
sand yards away, were ten tiny white objects, 
nanny goats and young billies, all sprawled out 
like cats on the cliffs; some of them lying on 
their bellies with legs out, others all bunched 
up together, two or three of the kids butting 
playfully at each other with their tiny horns. It 
was a beautiful sight to watch them through the 
glasses, and so white were they against the black 
cliffs that the picture which I took shows the 
tiny white specks even at this distance. 
Leaving the horses, we passed across to and 
around upon the back of this mountain, looking 
for the head of the family. Jack said the billy 
goats keep away from the nannies and kids at 
this time of year, and usually work a little fur¬ 
ther down from timber line than do the nanny 
goats, particularly during the middle of the day, 
going up at evening to browse on the moss above 
timber line. We soon observed a whitish object 
four or five hundred yards distant among the 
small pines upon a spur facing the back of this 
mountain, but it was impossible for a time to 
the “shoe shop.” 
tell whether it was the base of a birch tree or 
the yellowish-white coat of a billy. 
Finally we came out to a point where we could 
see that it was William himself, very much at 
ease, standing around upon a big flat rock, ap¬ 
parently bored to death, with nothing to do or 
think of. He would look off away down the 
valley for a while, then lazily turn his head and 
look over toward the mountain where we stood 
and paw with one foot a little bit or shake his 
head, and finally he sat right down 6n his 
haunches just like a dog, looking very ridicu¬ 
lous with his thick coat of long hair running 
down and ending just above his feet, very much 
like the old-fashioned pantalettes which our 
tgrandmamas used to wear when they were girls, 
coming down below their skirts and ending at 
their shoe tops. 
Jack concluded that it would be unwise to try 
to stalk him, because we were cut off from him 
by a bare streak down the mountain cut out by 
a snow slide, so we worked on around our black 
mountain to try to find some other billy. Un¬ 
successful in this, we returned and got on the 
edge of the snowslide, two hundred yards from 
the goat, and stood looking at him across this 
bare streak, which was dotted here and there 
with tiny pines two or three feet high, just mak¬ 
ing a new start. 
Finally Jack slipped back into the timber, and 
soon emerged with two of these little Christmas 
trees in his hands. Giving me one of them, he 
waited until the goat had looked off down the 
valley and then moved out on the slide with the 
tree held in front of him. I followed closely, 
sliding along behind my little tree. Once in a 
while our white friend would look over in our 
direction, we remaining immovable until he 
turned again, and thus we worked across the 
slide and finally came around down on top of 
him and killed him at fifty yards. He was a 
good old billy in first rate condition, and weigh¬ 
ing in sections about 240 pounds. We then had 
luncheon and skinned him out just as a little 
snow began falling, and arrived at camp at 6 
o’clock in the midst of a lively storm. Doctor, 
upon hearing the story of the hunt, christened 
the Indian “Christmas Tree Jack,” and Christ¬ 
mas Tree Jack he thereafter was, until within 
one day of Lilooet, when he besought us to cut 
it out for fear the name would stick to him 
among the other guides at Lilooet as a perma¬ 
nent appendage. 
Sept. 25.—My respect for the cunning and 
speed of the goat has increased a lot to-day. 
We went in a thick fog to Goat Mountain again 
and found the trail of a big billy, which we fol¬ 
lowed painfully away down through the steep 
cliffs and timber nearly to Gun Creek; then 
caught just one fleeting glimpse of him as he 
was going silently as a ghost off up through the 
lower cliffs, Jack and I running at top speed 
around the end of the mountain and up to “head 
him off.” After going 100 yards at what we 
considered good speed, we looked for him, and 
craning our necks higher and higher, finally saw 
him emerge on a shelf 700 feet above us, walk¬ 
ing along the face of the cliff as comfortably 
as if nothing had happened. 
We climbed up and hunted for him without 
success, but by the merest accident stumbled on 
a three-year-old billy in the timber, just get¬ 
ting a sight of his rump and catching him with 
two quick shots before he could get away; one 
shot, unfortunately, broke a horn and spoiled 
the head. However, we saved his hide and the 
good horn for a knife handle, and got home in 
a little snow storm. We spent the day in an 
upper world of fog and snow, with glimpses of 
mountain tops floating in the clouds. Raw and 
cold, and glad to reach camp with its roaring 
big fire, and get our weekly shave and general 
clean-up. 
[to be concluded.] 
Qualified. 
Maryland has a woman game warden. Why 
not? The mother who has protected the cat, 
the hens and the poodle dog against the sport¬ 
ing instincts of the small boy is familiar with 
the principles of the thing, and already some¬ 
what advanced in the practice.—St. Louis Re¬ 
public. 
