It was now October and the nights were bitterly cold. We had no tents, but lay out in the open in our buffalo robes. We had some fine tramps over the mountains amid the most glorious scenery. But where were the doomed grizzly bears? Where the vast herds of antlered wapiti? Not a spoor did we see during all the days that we were out; our famous tracker turned out to be an utter fraud and most unscrupulous liar; in spite of which he went on romancing, brazen and unashamed. It was impossible not to admire his audacity, it was so perfect. The worst of it was that, putting our faith in his promises, we took no meat with us; we had plenty of biscuits, potatoes, coffee and a little whisky; so far, our condition was better than that of the Mormons on the great trek, and as we lay round the camp fire at night, we regaled ourselves in imagination with the juicy venison steaks that ought to be frizzling in the frying-pan. Many miles we climbed and wandered, changing our camp every day. One evening an old sage-hen came and stood watching us about seventy or eighty yards off. We had no scatter-guns with us, so I took a pop shot at her with my rifle and luckily got her; we cleaned her (very important to do that at once, otherwise the strong taste of sage becomes intolerable), plucked her, cut her in little pieces and threw her into the stew-pot; that impudent bird, nasty as she was, seemed like a dish from a feast of Heliogabalus. One night it was my turn to keep the camp-fire going, and I ought to have remained awake till the time should have come to put on new logs; I was very tired, having had an unusually tall climb that day, and I fell asleep before even having cut the needful logs of dead wood. All of a sudden I awoke, roused by the rays of the moon, which was shining through the trees—a lovely, weird sight. To my dismay I saw that the fire was all but out. I had neglected my duty. I jumped up, took the axe, and began cutting down a dead birch tree which I had marked the evening before; my fingers were numb with cold, for it was freezing hard, and the axe more than once turned in my grip. However, at last I got together some logs, which were soon crackling merrily above the ashes; then I thought that I would make myself a cup of coffee to warm me.