or so to give a good handhold. Of course, in all this,
as much in as out of the water, pretty much every one in the party got
soaked to the skin, but this was accepted as part of the day's work,
and they all went steadily on down the stream, putting mile after mile
behind them, and opening up at every bend additional vistas of
splendid mountain prospects.

At noon they paused to boil the tea-kettle, but made only a short
stop. So steady had been their journey that when they pitched camp for
the night on a little beach they estimated that their progress had
been more than that of a pack-train in a good day's travel. That night
they had for supper some fresh grouse, or "fool-hens," which fell to
Jesse's rifle out of a covey which perched in the bushes not far from
their camp-site. They passed a very jovial night in this camp, well
content alike with their advance and with the prospects which now they
felt lay before them.

XX

CARIBOU IN CAMP

"This weather," said Uncle Dick, walking toward an open place in the
trees and looking up at the bright sky above, "is entirely too fine to
suit me. This morning looks as though we would have a warm day, and
that means high water. The rock walls in the canyons below here don't
stretch, and a foot of water on a flat like this may mean twenty feet
rise in a canyon. And that is where this little band of travelers will
all get out and walk."

Leo, who had been examining his boat, which he had drawn up on the
beach to dry overnight, now asked a little time to calk a leak which
he had discovered. Meantime the boys concluded it might be a good plan
to walk out a little way into an open place and try the sights of
their rifles, which they knew would need to be exactly right if they
were to engage in such dangerous sport as that of hunting the grizzly
bear.

"S'pose you see some small little bear," said Moise, as they started
out, "you shoot 'um. Shoot 'um caribou too, s'pose you see one--law
says traveler can kil meat."

"Well, we're not apt to see one," said John, "for we'd scare them when
we began to shoot our rifles."

They had advanced only a few hundred yards from the camp when they
found an open place in front of the trees which offered a good
opportunity for a rifle-range of two hundred yards.

"I'm not going to fool with my sights," said Jesse, "because my gun
shot all right last night on the grouse. You fellows go ahead."

Rob and John proceeded with the work