OFF FOR A HUNT IN THE MOUNTAINS
It was still dark when the boat started, and except Jack, Hugh, and Mr.
James, all the passengers promptly disposed themselves to sleep for a
time. The captain had promised to stop at Hope and let the two hunters
off, and their bags and blankets were all piled near the gangplank to
be rushed off at a moment's notice. In little more than an hour the
boat whistled, slowed down, and drew up close to the bank; the wheel
was reversed until the boat lay up close to the wharf, the gangplank
was run out, Hugh and Jack shook hands with Mr. James and ran ashore,
each carrying his bag and gun, while two of the deck-hands followed
with their rolls of blankets, tossed them to them on the ground, and
then rushed back. The gangplank was drawn in, the boat whistled and
started up, soon disappearing around a bend.
Meanwhile, two white men and two Indians had approached them and
accosted Hugh. The older of the two white men introduced himself as
John Ryder, with whom Mr. Hunter had communicated the day before.
"Your animals are all ready, Mr. Johnson," he said; "and all we have to
do is to buy provisions and pack the loads and start."
"Well," said Hugh, "that's just exactly what we want; and the sooner we
get off the better it will please Mr. Danvers, here, and me. Where are
your animals, and where can we get something to eat, and what time will
the stores be open?"
"If you will come with me," said Ryder, "I will show you the hotel and
the animals; and as soon as you have had your breakfast we can buy our
supplies and start. These Indians here will carry up your things."
"Very good," said Hugh, "they may as well take the blankets to the
corral, wherever that is; and we'll take the bags and guns with us."
Ryder conducted them to the hotel where, as yet, no one was awake; and
then, followed by Hugh and Jack went to the corral where there were
a dozen horses. The outfit seemed a good one; the animals strong and
fat. Ryder proposed to take six pack animals, three with saw bucks,
and three with aparejos. Hugh and Jack looked over the riggings, which
seemed in good order; and then they all returned to the hotel. After
a talk with Ryder it was arranged that they should take Ryder, a boy
to wrangle the horses, and an Indian who professed to know the hunting
country. These with the six packs would make eleven animals.
"It's more than I counted on taking," said Hugh, "but perhaps it's
better to take a horse or two extra rather than sit around for two or
three days and fuss over it. We won't save in money and we'll lose
quite a little time."
By ten o'clock the provisions had been purchased and made up into
convenient packs. Ryder was to furnish a tent and cook-outfit, and
got the things together at the corral. Then Hugh, Jack, and Ryder and
his assistant in a very short time packed all the horses except those
which were to carry the provisions. These were taken down to the store
and left there, and before noon the packed train, with Ryder in the
lead, went out of Hope and struck up across the divide between Nicolume
and the head of the Skagit River. For some distance they followed the
old wagon road which leads up between high steep mountains, through
beautiful scenery. The cedars and firs were grand, the mountains
towered high and were streaked with white dykes, and the gulches and
ravines where deciduous trees grew, were bright with the red of the
mountain maples. Toward night they reached a place called Lake House, a
cabin on the edge of a wide meadow--marshy with some standing water and
surrounded by willows and alders. Here Jack set up his rod and caught
a few fairly good trout weighing nearly half a pound apiece, and many
little ones which he threw back. Hugh came up to see how he was getting
along; and soon they went back to the camp together.
In the morning everything was wet, for there had been a very heavy
dew. They got off in good season and after stopping once or twice to
tighten, as the ropes grew dry, they went on and made good time.
During the morning they passed two or three pack trains, the animals
of which were loaded with long boxes whose contents neither Hugh nor
Jack could guess; but at the first opportunity they asked Ryder, who
explained to them what these boxes contained.
"You see," he said, "it seems that every Chinaman, when he dies wants
to go back and be buried in his own country; and they make arrangements
before they die that they shall be taken back. I believe one Chinaman
here has the contract of sending back all British Columbian Chinese,
and he sublets the job, it being understood that the various
subcontractors will deliver the bodies at certain specified places.
Sometimes a Chinese is shipped soon after he dies, sometimes not for
three or four years. They seal them up in zinc cases about six feet
long and two feet wide and put these cases in crates of wood. These
they pack lengthwise of the horse, making for them a sort of platform
which rests on an aparejo. The long cases project forward from the
horse's neck and back over his hips, and are pretty hard on their
backs; but they ride well enough after the ropes have been thrown over
them."
Not long after leaving the Lake House the wagon road came to an end,
and then for a while the trail followed down the Skagit River. All
day the way led through the mountains, and all day the trail kept
climbing higher, so that when they camped that night Ryder said that
the altitude was about five thousand feet. All day long every one was
busy hurrying the horses along, and no time was taken for hunting. That
night there was a heavy frost, and when they awoke the next morning,
it was very cold. Five of the horses were lost, and it took some time
to recover four of them, and then they moved on, leaving one behind,
which, however, turned up later and was brought along. This also was a
day of climbing, for they passed over a mountain about seven thousand
feet high. Several times Jack and Hugh heard the familiar call of the
little chief, or rock hare, so familiar an inhabitant of the slide rock
of all the mountains of the main divide.
That night they camped on a creek called Whipsaw, and as there was no
grass at the camp for the horses, they were turned out to the mountain
side to feed. After they had got into camp, Ryder told Jack that on the
creek, a couple of miles below the trail, there was a deer lick; and
suggested that they should go down and try to kill a deer, as fresh
meat was needed. They went down and found a spot where animals had
evidently been at work gnawing and licking the saline clay; but, though
there were abundant signs all about, no deer were seen.
The next day after passing through a beautiful open country dotted
with great pines, whose cinnamon-colored trunks rose fifty to sixty
feet from the ground without a branch, they reached Alison's on the
Smilkameen. Here they stopped for a little while. Mrs. Alison, a very
intelligent and kindly woman, took great pride in showing Jack and Hugh
the children's pets--a great horned owl, a sparrow hawk just from the
nest, some attractive green-winged teal and mallards caught young, and
a tame magpie which talked remarkably well and spoke the names of two
of the children--"Alfreda" and "Caroline"--very plainly.
Keeping on down the river, they camped below Alison's. The way down the
river was beautiful, for on either hand rose high, steep, slide rock
mountains, marked with sheep and goat trails, criss-crossing in every
direction. Here and there along the stream stood an Indian cabin.
"I tell you, son," said Hugh, "We're in a game country now, or what has
been a game country. In times past there have been a heap of sheep on
these mountain sides here. You see their trails running everywhere. Of
course, when a sheep trail is once made in the slide rock it lasts just
about forever, unless there is some slip of rock on a mountain side and
the rocks roll down and cover it up."
That night the Indian, Baptiste, confirmed what Hugh had said. Ryder
interpreted for him, saying that sheep and goats were plenty near here
and that to-morrow they would hunt.
"In spring," Baptiste said, "when ploughing the land, I often see goats
far down on the cliffs close to the river, but as summer advances and
it grows warm and the flies become troublesome, the goats gradually
work up to the tops of the mountains. There they paw holes in the
earth, in which they stand and stamp; and sometimes wallow and roll to
get rid of the flies."
"All right," said Hugh, "we will see what Baptiste can show us
to-morrow."
"The way that Indian talks," he added, "sounds to me just like Kutenai.
I have heard a lot of Kutenais talk in the Blackfeet camps, and
elsewhere, and I would like to know if this Baptiste is a Kutenai."
"I guess not," said Ryder; "he's a Smilkameen."
"Ask him," said Hugh, "if the Smilkameens and Kutenais are relations."
The answer, given through Ryder, was "No."
"Ask him," said Hugh, "if their languages are alike."
Baptiste replied: "Yes, the two languages are not quite the same, but
they sound alike." He added: "In the same way the tongue spoken by the
Okanagan Indians is much like my language."
Hugh shook his head and said: "That may be so, but I don't feel a bit
sure about it. Often it's very hard to make an Indian understand what
you're trying to get at, even if you can speak his own language; but
after it has to go through two or three interpreters there's a big
chance of a misunderstanding somewhere."
"Well, Hugh," said Jack, "what shall we do to-morrow? Go on farther
or stop here and hunt? I understand that Baptiste says that there are
plenty of goats hereabouts, and if we want some we can easily get them."
"Well," said Hugh, "we need some meat and we might just as well stop
here for a day if you think best and see whether we can kill a kid or
two, or a dry nanny. You know I don't think much of goat meat; and
yet, of course, it's meat, and good for a change from bacon. I'll ask
Baptiste what the prospects are."
Calling up Ryder, Hugh had begun to question Baptiste, when, out of the
darkness, another Indian stepped up to the fire and saluted the white
men in pretty fair English. A little talk with him developed that he
was Tom, a brother of Baptiste. After a few questions Baptiste and Tom
both agreed that there was every opportunity to kill goats here. Tom
said that in the early summer he often saw them from the trail, as he
was travelling back and forth. It was finally decided that they should
stop here for one day and make a hunt and then proceed to the sheep
country.
The next morning Baptiste, Tom, Hugh, and Jack started on foot up a
small creek which came out of the hills near Baptiste's house. The way
was steep and narrow and they had followed the stream up two or three
miles before any pause was made. Two or three times the glass revealed
white objects, which close observations showed to be weather-beaten
logs. Suddenly Tom stopped and declared that he saw a goat. The white
men all looked through their glasses and declared that it was a stump,
but after going a little further and looking at it again it appeared
that the white men had been looking at the wrong object, and that
Tom's goat was lying on the ledge in plain sight. After going a little
farther along another goat was discovered high on the hillside, a
little below the first and quite close to it. They were six or seven
hundred yards away and close to the creek. To approach them it would be
necessary to go up the stream to a point well above them, and then to
climb the mountains on which they were, get above them, and then come
down behind a point which would apparently be within shooting distance
of them.
Before they reached the point where the creek must be crossed, Hugh
said to Jack: "Now, son, you go with Tom and try to get these goats,
and I will take Baptiste and go farther up the stream and climb that
high hill you see. I may get a shot there, and you have a good chance
here."
Jack crossed the stream with Tom and they tugged up the side of the
mountain, which was very steep and much obstructed by fallen timber.
Two or three times Jack had to sit down and puff for breath, for it
was nearly a year now since he had done much in the way of climbing
stiff mountains, but Tom seemed tireless. At last Tom declared that
they had climbed high enough above the goats to make it safe to work
along the mountain side to the point above them. The hillside was more
or less broken with ravines and all of these were rough with slide
rock and fallen timber. They had just reached the edge of one of these
gulches and had stopped for a moment's rest when the highest of the
goats, which they could now see below them, came running up out of the
timber from below to where the other goat was lying. This one got up,
and it was then seen that there were four goats, two old ones and two
kids; and all began to move up the mountain side. Evidently something
had frightened them. They had not seen Jack or Tom, nor smelt them, but
were looking down into the valley. They moved off along the mountain
side going up diagonally, and Jack and Tom watched them until they
disappeared behind some ledges. Then the two set off after them as hard
as they could go. It was pretty wild travelling across the gulches,
but when they came out onto the ledges where the goats had gone, the
footing was easier and the going better. They followed the ledges for
some little distance, keeping to a goat trail. In this trail were seen
now and then tracks where something had just passed along, but there
were no hoof marks. The trail was too hard for that, but every now and
then a place would be seen where some animal had stepped on a stone and
partly turned it over, or where the moss was knocked from a stone where
a hoof had struck it but a very short time before. They kept along the
trail, passing through some low timber and presently came out again
onto the ledges, and there--hardly forty feet away from them stood
three goats. One of them was clambering up a little ravine and just
about to disappear behind the rocks, the other two, a mother and her
kid, stood on a rock, looking up the mountain side.
"Shoot!" said Tom, "Shoot!" Jack fired two shots at the nearest goat
and kid, and both of them fell off the rock they had been standing on
and began to roll down the hillside.
Tom gave a wild whoop of joy and shouted, "Good shoot! Good shoot!" and
then asked Jack if he wanted to kill the other, but Jack said "No,"
these two were enough, and they started down the hill to get the game.
The animals had rolled a long way, but at length they found them,
took off the skins, and took what meat they needed. Tom went down the
stream, and cutting some long shoots of a tough shrub, he worked them
back and forth, partly splintering them, and made from them two rather
stiff ropes which he tied together with a knot. With these he made up a
pack of the skins and meat, put the load on his back, and they started
for the camp. When they reached the trail down the valley they sat down
for some time and waited for Hugh and Baptiste; but, as they did not
come, after some hours' waiting, Tom took his pack on his back and they
went on to the camp. While they were waiting, Jack inquired of Tom as
to the names of the sheep and goats, and Tom said, as nearly as Jack
could make out, that in the Smilkameen tongue, the male mountain sheep
was called "_shwillops_," while the ewe was called "_yehhahlahkin_."
The goat in Smilkameen was called "_shogkhlit_," while the Port Hope
Indians called goat "_p'kalakal_."
Tom said that farther on, in the country to which they were going,
there were many sheep.
An hour after Jack and Tom had reached camp, Hugh and Baptiste
returned, bearing the skin of a two-year-old male goat, which had been
killed on the other side of the mountain they had climbed. It had been
a hard tramp and a long stalk.
That night as they talked about game and hunting, Baptiste said that at
the head of the Okanagan Lake caribou were very plenty. The distance
from where they were would be about eighty or ninety miles.
The next morning while Jack was preparing the goat skins for packing
up, he was much surprised to find the ears of the goats full of wood
ticks. In one of the ears he counted no less than twenty ticks, and
some of them were so deep down in the ear that when he was skinning the
head he saw the ticks as he cut off the ears. He wondered whether this
might not account in some part at least for the apparent inattention of
goats to sounds. He asked Baptiste about this, but got no particularly
satisfactory answer to his question; and he thought perhaps the Indian
did not understand him, but Baptiste did say distinctly that sometimes
ticks got into ears of human beings and made them deaf.
While Jack was attending to his goat skins, Hugh and Tom went off to
another mountain to look for sheep. A little bunch of seven were found
lying down in an excellent position. There was no wind and a careful
stalk was made; but just as the two got up to within shooting distance
a light breeze began to blow from them to the sheep, and at the very
instant that Hugh was pulling his trigger at a ram that was lying down,
the bunch smelt them and sprang to their feet. It was too late for
Hugh to hold his fire, and instead of killing the ram he cut a little
tuft of hair from the brisket. In an instant the whole bunch of sheep
were out of sight. Hugh came into camp much depressed and related his
adventure to Jack.
"I expect, son," he said, "that that Indian thinks you can shoot all
around me. All the way coming home, after I missed that sheep, he
kept telling me what a good and careful shot you were. He said he had
taken out many white men to hunt, but he never saw anybody that shot as
straight and as carefully as you."
Jack laughed and said: "He little knows the difference between you and
me, Hugh, in matters of shooting. Anybody could have hit those goats,
for they gave me all the time there was, and they weren't more than
forty yards away. It was like shooting at the side of a barn."
"Well," said Hugh, "of course if I had known that those sheep were
going to jump up, I could easily have fired quicker but I thought I had
all the time there was and I intended to shoot so that that ram would
never get up; but I never could explain it to that Indian, you bet."
"Oh," said Jack, "he will have plenty of time to see you shoot later
on, I expect."
The next morning the train was packed early and they started on.
Baptiste led the way, Jack followed him, and Hugh and Tom came behind.
Ryder brought up the rear and watched the animals. An hour or two
after, two blue grouse were startled from the trail and flew up into
the tall trees where they stood on the great limbs with outstretched
necks.
"Hugh," said Jack, "give Tom an idea of your shooting."
"Why, what's the use," said Hugh, "wasting two cartridges on those
birds. This kid meat is good enough."
"No," said Jack, "I want to have Tom see you cut those birds' heads
off."
"Well," said Hugh, "all right, if you wish me to." Drawing his horse a
little out of the trail, but not dismounting, he fired two shots which
brought down the two grouse. Tom was sent for them, brought them in,
and found that in each case the bullet had cut off the bird's neck. The
Indian looked at the birds rather solemnly and then at Hugh, and then
shook his head as if he could not understand how the man who could miss
the sheep the day before should have been able to make these two shots.
Jack laughed at him and said: "Good shot, eh, Tom?" Tom declared that
the shot was good.
One day's journey brought the party to the Ashnola Country, a region of
high rounded hills, over which farther back from the river rose still
higher peaks and precipices of rocks. It is a country of beautiful
scenery and abounded in game. A large lick, where animals had been
licking and gnawing the earth until great hollows had been dug in it,
was seen; and farther along as they travelled up the trail on the south
side of the creek they saw a number of sheep working down on to a cut
bank, which was evidently a lick. Before the sheep were noticed they
had seen the party and there was then no opportunity to hunt them.
The animals were only three or four hundred yards away and were not
alarmed. Later in the day, on another cut bank, another band of fifteen
sheep was seen at a lick and might have been easily approached but the
party did not stop. All these sheep were ewes and lambs. That night
the train climbed pretty well up a mountain and came on a little bench
seven or eight hundred feet above the main stream, where they camped.
The country seemed to be full of sheep, for Jack, going out to look for
water, came across a band on a grassy hillside, but too far off to be
shot at.
The camp was a pleasant one in a little group of pines with water not
far off, and the hillsides covered with admirable grazing for the
animals. After supper, Baptiste and Tom told them that three or four
miles back in the hills were high rocky peaks where many sheep were
to be found, and it was determined that the next day they should visit
these hills. The Indians said that it was possible to get up there with
horses, but that the trail was steep and hard. Jack and Hugh, after
talking the matter over and counting up the days and realizing that two
days later it would be necessary for them to start back to the coast,
determined that instead of taking their animals they would carry their
blankets on their backs and would visit these hills, camp there, and
have a look at the country, and then would return to camp and thence to
Hope.
The next morning they were off early, accompanied by the two Indians,
while Ryder was left to look after the animals.