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."

We gathered every thing together and moved it to the ground where we
were going to make our winter quarters, and Uncle Kit and Jim selected
the place to build our cabin, and the men all turned to and went to
chopping the logs and putting up the cabin. By night the body of the
cabin was almost up, but the reader must bear in mind that this was not
a very large house. It was ten feet one way, and twelve the other, with
a fire place built in one corner. They built the walls of the shack
seven foot high and then covered it with small poles, covered the poles
with fine bows and then there was from six to eight inches of dirt
packed on them and the cracks were stuffed with mud. The door was split
out of logs called puncheons and was fastened together with wooden pins,
driven into holes, bored with an auger. This way of building a house
to live in through the winter may seem strange to the readers who are
accustomed to all the luxuries of the modern home of civilization; but
we considered our cabin very good quarters,