38 A BIGHORN STALK IN THE ROCKIES

the water was icy cold and the boulders slippery. Still,
it seemed the only way we could make any progress, and
for a time we staggered along, holding hands, like a couple
of children, to steady ourselves on the boulders. At the
cost of badly bruised shins and a few cuts we might have
covered a hundred yards of the mile we had to go, and
then I stepped into a deep hole and fell flat on my face in
about three feet of water, pulling Jack down after me.
Like a couple of drowned rats we crawled out on to the
bank and determined to light a fire if it was possible to
do so. But even to get to the timber again was not
easy. The willows in the creek bed could not have been
more than twenty yards wide at the most, but they had
grown up through a tangle of logs. I had better luck
than Jack, as it was not long before I found myself con-
fronted by a bank some twenty feet high, and, on clambering
up it, reached the timber. Jack-took a different route
and had no end of troubles. Just as I reached the top of
the bank I heard him call to find out where I was, and
when I answered him he said:

““ Are you on the ground or up a tree ?”

‘‘ Of course I am on the ground,” I answered: ‘“‘ what
in blazes would I climb a tree for ?”

“You cannot be on the ground,” he returned, “I am
away up on a log myself, and I do not feel like falling in
your direction !”’

‘“ Lam away up on a high bank,” I explained. “ If you
keep on climbing this way and do not fall off and break
your neck you will get to the timber.”

After a time we got together again. By that time the
ducking in the icy water had chilled us through and
through ; we were both shivering, as we could not move
about enough to get warm. For a time things looked
pretty discouraging, and, to make matters worse, at first
we could not find any dry wood; every leaf, twig and
bough that we laid our hands on was soaking wet. How-
ever, the rain had eased up a bit, though it was still falling
fairly hard, and we finally found a dead bough from which
we cut shavings, and at last succeeded in starting a fire,