Uncle Kit said, “Well, Jim, you were in about as close a place as I got into once.  I went out from my camp fire one night perhaps forty yards to a small tree.  I didn’t have any pistol or gun with me, I had nothing but my hunting knife to protect myself with when a half-grown panther sprang out of the tree on me and, maybe you think I didn’t have a lively time there with him for a few minutes, but I finally got the best of him by cutting him almost to pieces.  He tore my buck skin breeches and coat pretty near off me and left this scar on my arm before I finished him,” and Carson pulled his sleeve up and showed us a scar that must have been torn almost to the bone.

Two days from this we reached the place where we made our headquarters for the winter.  That night the men talked it over and made their plans how many should camp together.  They agreed that there should be three in each camp as there were nine of us in all.  That made the number even in each camp.  Next morning they all put out leaving me to look out for the horses and things in general.

For the benefit of the reader I will explain how we arranged a camp where a number of men were associated together in trapping beaver.  We built our camps about four miles apart which gave each camp two miles square to work on, and this was ample room, for this was a new field and Beaver was as thick as rats around a wharf.

While they were gone I took my gun and started out to take a little stroll around where the horses were feeding.  I had gone but a short distance when I looked up.  On a mountain, north of me I saw a band of elk with perhaps seventy five or a hundred in it, and they were coming directly towards me; I was satisfied in my mind that they were going to the river to get water.  I dropped down behind a log and waited for them to come close to me.  The nearest one was twenty yards from me when I fired.  I shot at a two-year-old heifer and broke her neck.  I then went back to camp to see if any of the men had come in as it was near noon.  I thought some of them would be back and sure enough in a few minutes they all came together; I told them what I had done, and Uncle Kit said, “Jim and I will get dinner and the balance of you go and help Willie bring in his cow.”

We found her in fine condition.  We soon had her skinned and in camp, and we found dinner ready when we got back.  After dinner Uncle Kit said, “Come boys let’s pack up and move to our camp which is only about a half a mile from here, and tomorrow, while Jim and me are at work on our shanty, Willie can help you to move to your quarters, and you can be building your shanties, so we can get to work as soon as possible.”