BIRTH AND INFANT DAYS 3 



seemed planted straight on to his strongly built 

 shoulders, and his curiously swollen knees looked 

 like carelessly put on, ill-fitting plasters. 



To the north and south of this most infinitesimal 

 of islets, high alders formed a screen from the 

 treacherous winds which at times lashed the lagoon 

 into turmoil. On all sides rose hills, first in gentle 

 slopes extending a long way, until they mounted 

 tier on tier, towering aloft to altitudes of many 

 thousands of feet. Between each mighty peak vast 

 canons and gorges lay, deep in snow, beneath which 

 the roaring torrents hurled their icy waters down- 

 wards to the Sushitna River. The hill-sides every- 

 where were densely clad with alders, willows, birch, 

 and mountain ash, and here and there bright patches 

 of green carpeted a glade from which the snow had 

 gone. Higher still lay the fields of perennial snow, 

 which, defiant alike to sun and rain, formed a back- 

 ground in vivid contrast to the on-coming emerald 

 tinge of spring. 



The cow had crossed to the island in May, as the 

 honeycombed ice gave signs of breaking, swimming 

 and threading and forcing her way between the floes. 

 Many moose who now roamed the wilderness as 

 invincible lords of their tribe had been born in the 



