started with them up the ravine to cross the range.

It was afternoon before they accomplished the climb, though the height
was not great and a ravine pierced the crest, and they had rent most
of their clothes to tatters when they scrambled down the slope into
the valley. Those pine-shrouded hillsides are strewn with mighty
fallen trees, amid which the tangled underbrush grows tall and rank,
and, where the pines are less thickly spaced, there are usually matted
groves of willows, if the soil is damp. They pitched camp on the edge
of the valley, and Gordon and Nasmyth prepared supper, while Wheeler
cut firewood and Mattawa went out to prospect for the tracks of
feeding deer. The axeman came back to say there were no signs of any
wapiti, though the little Bush deer were evidently about, and it was
decided to try for one that night with the pitlight, a mode of
shooting now and then adopted when the deer are shy.

They ate their supper, and afterwards lay down with their blankets
rolled about them, for it grew very cold as darkness crept up the
valley. Like most of the other valleys, this one was walled in by
steep-sided, pine-shrouded hills; but in this case there were no trees
in the bottom of it, which, while very narrow, appeared several miles
long. It was also nearly level, and the river wound through it in
deep, still bends. There are not many valleys in that country in
which heavy timber fails to grow, and those within reach of a market
have been seized upon; for all ranch produce is in excellent demand,
and the clearing of virgin forest is a singularly arduous task. In
fact, there was only one reason why this strip of natural prairie had
not already been claimed. Most of it was swamp. Nasmyth, who was
quieter than usual, watched the filmy mist creep about it as the soft
darkness rolled down the hillsides.

Gordon rose and hooked a pitlight into his hat. This pitlight
consists simply of a little open miner's-lamp, which has fixed beneath
it a shield cut out of any convenient meat-can. The lamp is filled
with seal oil. Once a man has fastened it upon his head, the light is
cut off from his person, so that he stands invisible, and the little
flame appears unsupported. Deer of any kind are endued with an
inquisitiveness which frequently leads to their destruction, and
when they notice the twinkling light flitting through the air they
approach it to ascertain the reason for such an unusual thing. Then
the rancher shoo