CHAPTER VI 



ON BIRD MOUNTAIN : PHOTOGRAPHING MOUNTAIN SHEEP 



A Mountain Cyclorama — The Continental Divide — Phillips Peak — A 

 Land Unmapped and Unmeasured — Mountain Altitudes along Elk 

 River — Statement by Geologist McEvoy — Mountain Sheep Afoot — 

 Photographing Two Sheep on the Goat Rocks — Sheep and Goats 

 Seen at the Same Moment. 



ON BIRD MOUNTAIN 



We reserved for the fourth day of our stay at Goat 

 Pass a treat which was like dessert after meat. We 

 climbed to a mountain-top for a general survey of our 

 domain. 



Of the region in which we were, Phillips Peak is 

 the highest mountain; but its northern and western faces 

 are unscalable, and its southern slope too far away. Near 

 at hand, and excellent as a lookout, was the bald crest 

 of Bird Mountain, and to it we climbed, on a glorious 

 afternoon of alternating sunshine and cloud. 



The top of Bald Mountain, beside our camp, con- 

 sists of fine, decomposed shale, and the goat-trail over it 

 is wide and deep. Stepping from its soft side to the 

 steep slope of Bird Mountain is like going from an ash- 

 pile to a hill of hair mattresses. The zone between 

 timber-line and summit is thickly carpeted with a soft, 



springy, mosslike ground-plant called mountain avens 



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