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A Lillooet Sheep Hunt. 
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Having previously shot almost every other 
kind of big game in this country, I determined 
early in the spring of 1909 that if it were possi¬ 
ble to add mountain sheep to the list, I would 
do so. This, however, I knew would be quite 
difficult of accomplishment. 
The first thing was to select the best possible 
hunting ground. After careful consideration of 
Mexico, Montana and Canada, I finally picked 
out the Lillooet district of British Columbia as 
the best place for mountain sheep, and after a 
long and careful correspondence with a number 
of guides, I selected Grant White, of Lillooet, 
as our outfitter and guide. 
My friend, Cutler, was in the same position 
as myself as regards desire to secure mountain 
sheep, and he left the selection of the place and 
outfit entirely in my hands. As we were going 
with the sole purpose of securing sheep, if pos¬ 
sible, we discarded all idea of an early trip and 
planned to make our hunt between the 20th of 
October and the 15th of November, as we would 
then arrive in the sheep country at the time of 
the rut, which experience on moose, elk and 
other animals had always shown me to be far 
the best time for securing heads. 
Having selected the time and place, the next 
thing was to take care of our personal supplies, 
and of these guns were, of course, of the first 
importance. I had been using a double barrel 
.370 caliber rifle which, being fitted with single 
trigger and automatic ejector, was a very beauti¬ 
ful and handy weapon. I decided, however, 
that it was unnecessarily large and not as flat 
in trajectory as I might want for sheep, and I 
therefore sent the gun to London and had the 
maker fit it with an extra paif of barrels, tak¬ 
ing the 6 l /i millimeter Mannlicher cartridge. 
The new barrels proved to be satisfactory, hav¬ 
ing a very high velocity and being light and 
handy. 1 
One advantage of a double rifle is the fact 
that there is no room wasted for action or maga¬ 
zine, so that a double rifle having the same 
length of barrel as the Springfield is at least 
six inches shorter in total length, consequently 
handier. 
Cutler chose as his rifle a 1906 Springfield and 
did not even trouble to have it resighted, as he 
found that the ordinary battle sight, which shot 
high at 100 yards with the army cartridge, was 
exactly right without any alteration for the ordi¬ 
nary sporting ammunition. Beside these rifles 
we carried an extra Springfield as a spare gun, 
also a shotgun and a .22 caliber rifle. We also 
purchased a9xp tanalite*tent, a small folding 
stove and two sleeping bags lined with twelve 
thicknesses of blanket. In addition to these, of 
course, we carried a good supply of heavy cloth¬ 
ing, and in particular knickerbockers, flannel 
shirts and Mackinaw coats. We planned our 
selection of clothing with considerable care and 
made only one mistake which was in the shoes. 
We took shoes with very light hob-nailed soles, 
trying to save weight for climbing, and found 
they were too light, and the nails were too easily 
torn loose on the rocks. 
Thus equipped, we left Chicago by train on 
Oct. 15 and arrived about two in the morning, 
three days later at Lytton, where we were 
dumped with our baggage on the station plat¬ 
form. After considerable stumbling around in 
the dark, we found a man from the hotel who 
took us down to the village and put us in cold 
storage for the night. However, the night did 
not amount to much, as we were up at 6 o’clock 
to find the stage getting ready for its departure 
for Lillooet. It is perhaps improper to dignify 
the conveyance with the name of its stage, as it 
WILD DUCKS IN CENTRAL PARK. 
was simply a big two-seated wagon; however, 
it was sufficient to hold us and all our stuff, and 
we started before seven. The road ran straight 
up the valley of the Fraser River, which is 
very narrow, the mountains rising precipitously 
on each side, almost over the river bank. At 
times the road is almost at the level of the 
river, and again a thousand feet above it and 
a half mile away. The country is very sparse¬ 
ly settled, but we saw no signs of game during 
the day, and with one change of horses at noon 
we pulled into Lillooet just at dark. 
Lillooet is a small mining town, situated on a 
flat at the foot of the mountains at a bend in the 
Fraser River. It is, I suppose, one of the prin¬ 
cipal outfitting points for hunting parties in the 
country. We found the principal inhabitants 
congregated at the Victoria Hotel in different 
stages of intoxication, some being merely jolly 
and some “absolutely fou,” as Harry Lauder 
says. 
We put up at the hotel and at once heard that 
Grant \\ hite was not in town and was not ex¬ 
pected immediately, as he was very often late 
in his appointments. This was trying news for 
us, as we were in a great hurry, it being so late 
in the season. The weather might change at 
any time, bringing snow and storm, and we were 
most anxious to be off. Of the dozen hunting 
parties of the year all had returned except two 
and they were expected back any day. No more 
parties were going out. 
After supper Mr. Dunlop, the storekeeper, 
came up to the hotel to see us and told us that 
in his opinion it would be best for us to take 
our baggage and provisions with a pack train 
and start right out for Grant White’s ranch on 
Bridge River, fifty miles back of Lillooet. We 
could thus catch White two days back in the 
woods and would not waste any time. He said 
that he had engaged an Indian, Chief Peter, who 
would meet us the next morning and take us 
back and that White’s present party could come 
in with Chief Peter. This sounded entirely fea¬ 
sible, and as it would save time we agreed to 
it, arranging to meet Dunlop at his store about 
a mile and a half out of Lillooet the next morn¬ 
ing, and there get our provisions and join Chief 
Peter. 
The night was, I suppose, as peaceful as any 
in Lillooet, though by no means quiet on account 
of the number of dogs and hilarious citizens. 
However, we were on hand at Dunlop’s in the 
morning and found the provisions that we were 
to take along with us securely packed up and 
waiting in a wagon with Chief Peter, who was 
a very old, weazened little Indian, wearing a 
much embroidered buckskin vest as his only sign 
of authority. 
Our supplies consisted of the ordinary hearty 
food for camp: butter, canned milk, bacon, 
beans, tea, coffee, oatmeal, flour, cornmeal, 
sugar, etc., and with these and the rest of our 
baggage we drove from Dunlop’s store to the 
end of Seton Lake, about two miles from 
Lillooet. Seton Lake is a beautiful body of 
water seventeen miles long and a mile or two 
broad, shut in on all sides by snow-capped 
mountains. A little steamer lay at a dock at 
the Lillooet end of the lake, and this we were 
to take up the lake fifteen miles to an Indian 
village where Chief Peter lived and kept his 
horses. At 9 o’clock the boat pulled out, carry¬ 
ing Chief Peter, ourselves and several other pas¬ 
sengers, among them a miner named Ferguson. 
He was a very pleasant man and advised us 
not to wait and camp with Chief Peter, but to 
leave him with our baggage to come on at his 
leisure, and for us to start over the trail to the 
village toward Grant White’s ranch, and that 
if we hurried we would be able to make a ranch¬ 
man’s house (Jones’) by dark. 
While going up the lake we saw the first 
game we had seen in British Columbia, a couple 
of sheep in a slide in one of the mountains near 
the lake. Whether they were rams or ewes no 
one could tell, and in fact I could barely make 
them out through the glass. 
About 11 o’clock we arrived at the wharf at 
