e long run! Thus, their anxiety for some change in
their food can only be realised by those who have been compelled to live
on salt provisions for any length of time.

Signs of sport, as has been already mentioned, were apparent enough; for
traces of deer had been discovered by the Indian half-breed in the early
morning, leading from the bank of the river as it entered the canon
below the camp from the hills; and thus, therefore, it was with all the
eagerness of semi-starving; men that the best shots of the party were
picked out at once, and despatched to follow up the trail of the game;
the others who remained behind going on with the rebuilding with all the
greater ardour through the prospect of an unwontedly good dinner before
them--that is, should the hunters prove successful.

Along with Mr Rawlings was Noah Webster, who was a better hunter almost
than he was a miner; Moose, the half-breed Indian, and Josh the cook--
Jasper stopping behind by the express orders of Seth, although he was
madly jealous at his brother-darkey being preferred before him.

Upwards and onwards, through the scrub and brushwood and budding
branches of trees, struggling over the trunks of fallen monarchs of the
forest, that had been rooted up by the wind or struck down by lightning,
and lay across their path, over rough volcanic rocks, and through
ravines that trickled down tiny streams to swell the river below, they
made their way slowly and tediously towards the probable lair of the
deer, as the traces of their antlered prey grew fresher and more
distinct every step, the slot being sometimes plainly visible in the
moist soil, although for all they could otherwise see and hear they
might be as far off from the wished-for prize as ever.

Presently, as they were emerging from a thicker growth of brushwood than
they had yet passed through, they noticed, to their joy, right in front
of them, feeding on a small grassy plateau under the lee of a jutting
cliff, a head of what the Indian half-breed immediately declared to be a
species of ibex, or mountain-sheep, that are commonly met with amid the
peaks of the Rocky Mountains and its chains, far from the haunts of
civilisation and men. It was only owing, indeed, to the fact that the
hill diggers were away in the settlements, and from the scarcity of
forage in their more secluded retreats, that they had approached so near
to the miners' camp.

Caution was now the order of the day; and, Mr Rawli