PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE GAME PROTECTION CO., 1269 BROADWAY, NEW YORK Formerly Editor and Manager of RECREATION While developing mining property on an inland section of Vancouver island in the fall of '97 I came across conclusive evidence of a most gruesome tragedy of the wilderness. We were camped near timber line on Mount Douglass and had to wait two days on pack train supplies in order to continue development work. I resolved to devote my spare time to further prospecting the rugged foothills of Mts. Douglass and Arrowsmith. I started early, alone, and on foot. armed only with a light axe and a prospecting pick, reinforced by a full day's rations in my knapsack. After a stiff climb I reached the crest of the divide and there a magnificent view awaited me. The sun had just dispelled the mists of morning and to Eastward the island-studded gulf of Georgia shone like burnished silver. To Northward the snow-capped peaks of the Coast range on the mainland and the higher ranges of the island. stood boldly defined in the clear autumn air. An immense crescent of shimmering, pearly blue to Westward announced the great Pacific, alas! not always true to its name. Southward could easily be seen the serrated peaks of the famous Olympic range in Washington, whose Northwestern extremity, Cape Flattery, lay like a great finger pointing seaward. It was indeed a grand panorama and one long to be held in memory. As I reluctantly turned to leave this beautiful scene I suddenly became aware that I was not alone on the mountain top. A lordly blacktail buck stood. quietly rubbing his horns against a small sapling some 60 yards away on a grassy bench. He soon scented me, however, and after an astonished stare in my direction, he gave a whistling snort, wheeled and vanished in the scrub. As the graceful creature disappeared, I felt sorry that my presence on his home mountain should have caused him to fly in such terror. I recalled those beautiful lines of the Ploughman Poet of Scotland: "I'm truly sorry Man's dominion Hath broken Nature's social union At me, thy poor earth-born companion and fellow mortal! I prospected all forenoon down one of the numerous snow-fed streams that noisily hasten to swell the blue waters of Nitinat lake and succeeded in locating a good looking ledge of gray quartz. This I traced a considerable distance and finally staked off as a mineral claim, 1,500 x 1,500 feet. Lunch being disposed of. I took an hour's siesta under the cooling shade. of the hemlocks, for the day was warm. On my return journey I took a slightly different route from that by which I had come; this led me into a more open country and the scenery was superb The ridges were crowned. with groves of mountain ash, yellow cedar, arbutus and various other shrubs and trees which are not to be found growing wild in the lower latitudes. Salmon berries and huckleberries were growing in great profusion, and where the bears had not |