Wild berries of all kinds were found in abundance, and wild vegetables, besides many nutritious roots.  Among other fish, splendid salmon were found in the lakes and rivers, and animal life swarmed on hill and in dale.  Woods and valleys, plains and ravines, teemed with it.  On every plain the red-deer grazed in herds by the banks of lake and stream.  Wherever there were clusters of poplar and elder trees and saplings, the beaver was seen nibbling industriously with his sharp teeth, and committing as much havoc in the forest as if he had been armed with the woodman’s axe; others sported in the eddies.  Racoons sat in the tree-tops; the marten, the black fox, and the wolf prowled in the woods in quest of prey; mountain sheep and goats browsed on the rocky ridges; and badgers peeped from their holes.

Here, too, the wild horse sprang snorting and dishevelled from his mountain retreats—­with flourishing mane and tail, spanking step, and questioning gaze—­and thundered away over the plains and valleys, while the rocks echoed back his shrill neigh.  The huge, heavy, ungainly elk, or moose-deer, trotted away from the travellers with speed equal to that of the mustang:  elks seldom gallop; their best speed is attained at the trot.  Bears, too, black, and brown, and grizzly, roamed about everywhere.

So numerous were all these creatures that on one occasion the hunters of the party brought in six wild horses, three bears, four elks, and thirty red-deer; having shot them all a short distance ahead of the main body, and almost without diverging from the line of march.  And this was a matter of everyday occurrence—­as it had need to be, considering the number of mouths that had to be filled.

The feathered tribes were not less numerous.  Chief among these were eagles and vultures of uncommon size, the wild goose, wild duck, and the majestic swan.

In the midst of such profusion the trappers spent a happy time of it, when not molested by the savages, but they frequently lost a horse or two in consequence of the expertness of these thievish fellows.  They often wandered, however, for days at a time without seeing an Indian, and at such times they enjoyed to the full the luxuries with which a bountiful God had blessed these romantic regions.

Dick Varley was almost wild with delight.  It was his first excursion into the remote wilderness; he was young, healthy, strong, and romantic; and it is a question whether his or his dog’s heart, or that of the noble wild horse he bestrode, bounded most with joy at the glorious sights and sounds and influences by which they were surrounded.  It would have been perfection, had it not been for the frequent annoyance and alarms caused by the Indians.