Chapter I: Foreword

For untold ages the mountain goats had clambered undisturbed along the face of the steep precipices that overhang the St Mary’s River and Swift Current. Over the slide rock fallen from their cliffs the wild sheep had beaten out paths and trails zigzagging from the valley below to the heights above. On the lower wooded slopes the elk browsed in spring and fall, climbing high above the timber at the season when the flies were bad, and again when snows fell at the approach of winter, working their way down toward the lower lands and the foothills of the prairie. In the thick swamps and morasses of the river bottom the moose dwelt, sometimes clambering up toward the heights, but more often escaping the summer flies by burying their huge bodies beneath the waters of the lakes, or perhaps by wallowing in some great bog, from which they emerged covered with black mud which, drying, formed a coating that protected them. Everywhere through the valleys, on the hillsides, far up on the bald knolls, and even higher still, where the sheep and goats delighted to climb, the buffalo of the mountains--called by old mountaineers bison, to distinguish them from the yellower, sunburned animals of the plains--wandered singly or in little groups.

These rough and rocky fastnesses protected them well.

The Indians of the plains never tried to pass beneath these gloomy walls. Occasionally a white man or half-breed, more frequently a little band of Kootenay or Stoney Indians, true mountaineers, followed up these rivers for a short distance, hunting the game and trapping the beaver; but in those days game was so plentiful that these occasional excursions made no impression on it. The Indians had few guns and hunted noiselessly, chiefly with bows and arrows. For the most part, it was easier to kill the buffalo of the plains by the swift chase than to go into the rough mountains and hunt the game that lived higher up.

It was into this region, as yet unknown to white people, that Jack and his friends now entered, in order to explore it and learn for themselves what it held.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. A MEETING OF FRIENDS 1

II. HISTORIC LAND 17

III. THE BLACKFOOT AGENCY 31

IV. A MEDICINE PIPE CEREMONY 43

V. OFF FOR THE MOUNTAINS 59

VI. A SHEEP HUNT 75

VII. OLD-TIME HUNTING WAYS 85

VIII. A BIG BEAR HIDE 94

IX. A BLACKFOOT LEGEND 107

X. THE SOURCE OF AN UNKNOWN RIVER 114

XI. THE RETREAT 133

XII. THE WAYS OF BEAVER 150

XIII. THE FORKS OF SWIFT CURRENT 163

XIV. A LYNX VISITS CAMP 178

XV. LONE WOLF’S BAY PONY 196

XVI. AN ICE RIVER 214

XVII. A FAT BIGHORN 229

XVIII. AMONG THE ICEFIELDS 244

XIX. A FOUR-FOOTED HUNTER 257

XX. CLIMBING A GREAT MOUNTAIN 276

XXI. TROUBLE WITH WHISKEY TRADERS 289

TO-DAY 306

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

“The tent was shivering and shaking and from it emerged groans and growls” _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE

“Bruce had to keep up, for if he had fallen he would have been dragged and kicked to death” 212

“Jack did not raise his sights, but following Hugh’s suggestion, fired at the animal’s neck” 230

“Hugh took hold of his wrist and wrenched the revolver away from him” 292

JACK, THE YOUNG EXPLORER