WHERE THE WAYS DIVIDE 219 



young shoots putting forth new buds in the late 

 faU. 



His back right hoof struck against something 

 hard, and turned it up — a mastodon tooth, washed 

 down from the river-banks during the floods of 

 spring or snowfalls of winter ; for the bones of 

 prehistoric monsters lie buried in many of the 

 shale bluffs along the Kuskoqwim and Sushitna 

 Rivers. 



The glowing October light outlined the massive 

 form of the moose as he stood with head upraised 

 on the summit of the ridge, and threw into strong 

 relief the beauty of his dauntless attitude. 



He stood so still because he was puzzled. 



Many times he had seen foam curling up the 

 rocks of lakes, wavelets, too, chasing each other to 

 shore, but never anything like this grey-blue sheet 

 lying below, moving unceasingly, to break upon 

 the shores of a timber-strewn inlet. 



Across the face of the shining water the restless, 

 white-pinioned sea-birds streaked in bands of whirl- 

 ing brown, and opalescent clouds, fragile and filmy 

 as gossamer, reflected in patches of fringed shadow 

 their changing, passing evolutions. 



What he saw was the sea, 



