midday
High in the east the Rockies still thrust their snowy ramparts heavenward . To the south and west extended the broken ranges of the projecting spur-system they had crossed . And in this vast pocket lay the country La Perle had traversed -- snow-blanketed , but assuredly fat with game at some time in the year , and in the summer a smiling , forested , and flowered land . Before midday , traveling down a broad stream , past snow-buried willows and naked aspens , and across heavily timbered flats of spruce , they came upon the site of a large camp , recently abandoned . Glancing as he went by , Smoke estimated four or five hundred fires , and guessed the population to be in the thousands . So fresh was the trail , and so well packed by the multitude , that Smoke and his captors took off their snow-shoes and in their moccasins struck a swifter pace . Signs of game appeared and grew plentiful -- tracks of wolves and lynxes that without meat could not be .