een the two sides;
and we camped where we were, on the bare side, which was the safest for
a camp fire. It would have been a shame to spoil the other side, too.

We were tired, after being up part of the night and climbing all the
morning, and this was a good place to stop. Plenty of dry wood, plenty
of water, and space to spread our beds.

The creek was smooth and wide, here, about the middle of the park. The
beaver had been damming it. But although we looked about, after locating
camp and unpacking the burros, we couldn't find a fresh sign. We came
upon camp sign, though, two days old, at least. Somebody had trapped
every beaver and then had left.

That seemed mean, because it was against the law to trap beaver, and
here they weren't doing any harm. But the fire had laid waste one shore
of the pond, and animal killers had laid waste the pond itself.

We decided to have a big meal. There ought to be wild raspberries in
this burnt timber; wild raspberries always follow a forest fire--and
that is a queer thing, isn't it? So, after camp was laid out (which is
the first thing to do), and our flags set up, while Fitzpatrick the Bad
Hand and Major Henry built a fire and got things ready for dinner,
General Ashley and Kit Carson went after berries and little Jed Smith
and I were detailed to catch trout.

We had lines and hooks, but we didn't bother to pack rods, because you
almost always can get willows. (Note 18.) Some fellows would have cut
green willows, because they bend. We knew better. We cut a dead willow
apiece. We were after meat, and not just sport; and when we had a trout
bite we wanted to yank him right out. A stiff, dead willow will do that.
Grasshoppers were whirring around, among the dried trunks and the grass.
That is what grasshoppers like, a place where it's hot and open. As a
rule you get bigger fish with bait than you do with a fly, so we put on
grasshoppers. I hate sticking a hook into a grasshopper, or a worm
either; and we killed our grasshoppers quick by smashing their heads
before we hooked them.

It was going to be hard work, catching trout around this beaver pond.
The water was wide and smooth and shallow and clear, and a trout would
see you coming. When a trout knows that you are about, then the game is
off. Besides, lots of people had been fishing the pond, and the beaver
hunters must have been fishing it lately, according to sign. But that
made it all the more exciting. Little trout are cau