With Goats and Sheep in British 
Columbia.—I. 
We had crossed over from Vancouver Island 
to the mainland and gone a hundred miles or 
so up the Frazer River. There we got together 
a pack train and started back across the moun¬ 
tains toward the valley of the Smilkameen. The 
first few days’ travel was through the giant 
forest, where scarcely a sign of bird or beast 
was to be seen, where the vegetation was dank 
from moisture caught from the clouds rolling 
in from the Western sea, and where each tuft 
of pale green moss that hung from limb or 
tree trunk when squeezed in the hand yielded 
water like a wet sponge. But how wonderful 
were the trees. Ten or twelve feet in diameter 
at the butt, their straight boles rose toward the 
heavens witli scarcely a branch until two hun¬ 
dred feet or more from the ground, the dark 
green frondage spread out and seemed like a 
vast roof supported by these mighty columns. 
The solemn surroundings seemed to have an 
effect on the men, who did not whistle, sing or 
make jokes. The only sounds were the dull 
steady footfalls of the animals as they plodded 
along in single file, and sometimes the impatient 
call of a driver hurrying up one of the lagging 
beasts. Only in camp, after night had fallen, the 
animals had been tied up and the cheerful camp¬ 
fire lighted, did the spirits of the men seem to 
take on their accustomed gayety. Then, indeed, 
they laughed, joked and told stories as was their 
wont. 
It was while we were traveling through this 
wide country, steadily ascending toward t^ie 
summit of the range, that a curious thing hap¬ 
pened, one of the odd circumstances sometimes 
seen by a man who has had much to do with 
horses. 
We were following up a little valley at the 
foot of a steep timber-clad mountainside. To 
the right was a narrow grassy bottom, swampy 
in places and often overgrown with berry brush 
and tall shrubs, which I supposed to be pembina 
bushes. The trail was wide, well marked and 
worn, as in that country one often sees it, into 
a series of shallow depressions, transverse to 
the trail, each depression of course separated 
from its two neighbors by a hard ridge only 
three or four inches high. These depressions 
are made by the pack horses following close on 
each other and stepping, if not in each other’s 
tracks, at least with steps of about the same 
length. In dry weather the constant placing of 
the hoof in about the same place loosens the 
earth, which may be blown away; in wet weather 
the earth becomes muddy and is in like manner 
carried from the place where the horses step, 
by the hoof. 
The train was marching along, the horses half 
asleep, and no one paying any particular atten¬ 
tion to anything, when suddenly an old blue 
horse, carrying a moderate sized pack, stumbled, 
put its head between its knees, and on the ground, 
turned a somersault, and alighting on the back 
lay there for an appreciable length of time and 
then rolled over on its side. I happened to be 
riding not far behind this horse and on slightly 
higher ground, so that I saw the whole perform¬ 
ance, and when the animal began to fall I was 
convinced that it must break its neck and fully 
expected to find it dead when I rode up to it. 
Instead of that it lay there on its side breath¬ 
ing a little quickly, but otherwise not at all dis- 
WHERE THE WHITE GOAT LIVES. 
turbed by its tumble. A little urging brought 
it to its feet again, and it started forward to 
follow its fellows that had gone on some dis- 
lance and seemed none the worse for its fall 
afterward. It was difficult for me to compre¬ 
hend how it could have taken such a fall with¬ 
out killing itself. 
At last we approached the top of the range 
and got above the timber line. It was cold 
there, and out of the gray sky came a keen west¬ 
erly wind with occasional flurries of snow. On 
either side of the trail, and indeed often across 
it, lay snow drifts, nowhere very deep, but quite 
extensive. In a number of places we saw the 
tracks or the feathers of ptarmigan, but of the 
birds themselves we saw none, so that to this 
day I am not sure whether they were white¬ 
tailed ptarmigan or one of the other forms, since 
three species are found in those mountains. 
Descending the ridge on the other side we 
entered quite a different country. Here there 
were no great forests, though high up on the 
mountainsides clung pines and firs of moderate 
size. The whole aspect of the country was arid, 
with sage brush, bunch grass and hillsides here 
yellow, where on the other side of the range ^ 
they had been green. High steep mountains,® 
their cliffs buttressed with slide rock, came down 1 
on either side to the river valley and along this 
slide, criss-crossing up and down, were well worn | 
trails of the wild sheep and goats. The sight ' 
of these trails stirred the heart of the Young¬ 
ster, who began to discuss the probability of find¬ 
ing much game. The Oldster was forced to m 
point out that these trails might be a hundred I 
years old and perhaps had not been used for - 
ten or a dozen. I 
There are few things more permanent than a« 
trail made on slide rock. Such trails may be * 
seen in a country from which all game dis- ? 
appeared a quarter of a century before, yet when | 
viewed at a distance it is impossible for any- ' 
one to say whether the trails are now in use or ■ 
not. If one passes over them their condition 
tells the story unfailingly, but at a distance they '' 
are quite deceptive. 
That night we camped on the border of the 
murmuring river and the animals had their first 
good feed for about a week. They had been 
half starved for the last few days, for at many^ 
places in the heavy timber there had been noth¬ 
ing for them to eat, and we had not dared to^ 
turn them loose, lest they should wander away^ 
in search of food and much time should be lost 
in looking for them next morning. Now they^ 
luxuriated in the rich high grass. 
That evening after supper was over and the^ 
pipes were lighted, as we sat about the bright 
fire—very comfortable there, for the nights were ' 
Indian guide, about the trails on the slide rockJ 
“Yes,” he said. “Long time ago, plenty of 
sheep and goats coming down those trails in 
winter. Up on the hills plenty of snow, down 
in the valley no snow at all. Nowadays only^ 
a few animals come down in winter. Too many^ 
big sheep; sell the heads. One man up here 
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