Part 13 (1/2)

But after a tireen trees, and then to the tall pines under whose shade the ground was softer and gave the to come down as it had to ascend, but they were all tired when late that afternoon they arrived at their camp on the little promontory

Moise was overjoyed at their success, and was all for cooking some of the meat at once; but Uncle dick checked him

”No,” said he, ”it's too fresh yet Skin it out, Moise, and hang it up overnight, at least You ht at the fire, if you like Soak soht in salt and water--and then I think you'd better throay all the kettles that you've used with this goatto be a long tioat If this were a mountain sheep, now, I could eat all that saddle oat, and when told that it was John he complimented him very much For Rob's ith the caht to ree, he couldn't eat picture, could he?”

Rob only laughed at hiet my pictures made oat ust, Moise that evening broiled hioat meat at the fire, and ate it with such relish that the boys asked for a morsel or so of it themselves To their surprise, they found the tenderloin not so bad to eat Thus, with one excuse or another, they sat around the fire, happy and contented, until the leader of the party at last drove them all off to bed

”I like this place,” said John, ”even if I did co drowned out there in the lake”

And indeed the spot had proved so pleasant in every way that it was only with a feeling of regret that they broke camp on Yellowhead Lake and proceeded on their ard journey

XIV

DOWN THE FRASER

Up to this time on their journey the weather had continuedbeen little rain to disturb them either on the trail or in camp Noever, they were on the western slope of the Rockies and in the ion When they left camp on Yellowhead Lake it was in a steady downpour which left theone a mile

The trail, erous, the rainso soft that in ed to dismount and lead their horses up or down

Indeed, the trail scarcely could be called a trail at all, all trace of the original traders' paths now being lost Many persons,adventurers, had passed here, each taking his oay, and the sum of their selections served only to make bad veryof scra hoof tracks

They kept on, in spite of their discohout the forenoon without pause It was their purpose to get on the farther side of as many of these mountain streams as possible They were now in a bold mountain country, where nureat Fraser which roared and plunged along beside their trail ”The Bad River,” old Sir Alexander Mackenzie called one of the headwaters of the Fraser, and bad enough it is from its source on down

They were now near the forks of the twodown from the south The trail held to the north bank of the Fraser, following down fro the rapid but harmless little river which made its outlet To ford the Fraser was, of course, i adventurers paused to look down at the raging torrent, broken into high, foa waves by the numerous reefs of rock which ran across it

Continually the roar of the angry waters cah the trees More than ever they realized that they noere on the shores of one of the wickedest rivers in all the Rockies, as their Uncle dick had told them of the Fraser

They now observed that the trees of the forest through which they traveled were rowth had been, they found that in a large area fire had gone through it in some previous year, and this burned country--or _brule_, as Moise called it--made one of the worst obstacles any traveler could encounter This hardshi+p was to remain with them almost all the way down the Fraser to the Tete Jaune Cache, and it added immeasurably to the trials of pack-train travel

At last they pulled up alongside of a broad and brawling strea to one not skilled in erous to a party led as was this one, by a ion

[Illustration: APPROACHING THE GRAND CAnON ON THE FRASER RIVER]

”Here we are at Grant Creek,” said Uncle dick, as they paused on the hither side of the stream ”This is one of the many swift tributaries on the north side of the Fraser, but I aot to ford it, and not the Fraser itself You see, we have to keep on the north bank all the way do”

Uncle dick carefully located his landet soht,” said he ”Come on across Follow me closely now”

Soon they were belly-deep in the tawny flood of the stream, which came down noisily all about them The sturdy horses, however, seemed not to be in the least alarmed, but followed old Danny, Uncle dick's pony, as he slowly plodded on across, angling down the strea stones of the bottom The stream was not over a hundred and twenty feet wide at this point, and the ford was made with no difficulty at all

”This is easy,” said Uncle dick, as they eed on the western side

”But three miles ahead we come to the Moose River, and that's apt to be a different proposition You can't tell anything about any of these rivers until you try theet any wetter than we are”

”I've noticed all these streaher, too We've often mentioned that”