GEMS AMIDST THE SNOW. 329 
colours, and in exquisitely mingling every ima- 
ginable tint.and shade, to adorn these diminutive 
creatures, in a livery more lustrously brilliant 
than was ever fabricated by the loom, or metal- 
worker’s handicraft. 
But away from the tropics and its feathered 
wonders, to the wild solitudes of the Rocky 
Mountains,—it is there I want you in imagina- 
tion to wander with me, and to picture to your- 
self, which you can easily do if you possess a 
naturalist’s love of discovery, the delight I expe- 
rienced when, for the first time, I saw humming- 
‘birds up in the very regions of the ‘Ice King.’ 
Early in the month of May, when the sun 
melts down the doors of snow and ice, and sets 
free imprisoned nature, I was sent ahead of the 
astronomical party employed in making the 
Boundary-line to cut out a trail, and bridge any 
streams too deep to ford. The first impediment 
met with was at the Little Spokan river,—little 
only as compared with the Great Spokan, into_ 
which it flows. The larger stream leads from 
the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, and 
flows on to join the Columbia. 
It was far too deep to be crossed by any 
expedient short of bridging; so a bridge had to 
be built, an operation involving quite a week’s 
