244 The Ptarmigan Family 



Half of the novices will sit down and gasp in a 

 state bordering on blue funk, for one's heart acts 

 as though it would beat its way through the con- 

 fining ribs, and the air seems to have nothing good, 

 and not much of anything else in it. All of this 

 is both trying and dread-inspiring to the hapless 

 tenderfoot, who vaguely wonders what on earth's 

 gone wrong with him, and if he's not going to die 

 where he is. A reasonable amount of prepara- 

 tory exercise at moderate heights will remedy the 

 trouble. Yet any man from the lowlands will do 

 well to exercise caution in tackling the mountains, 

 for it is quite possible that any, perhaps some un- 

 suspected, trouble of the heart might cause serious 

 complications. I cherish a vivid memory of my 

 first snow-quail, which ran, and was pursued for 

 some distance before it would take wing. It was 

 killed, more by instinct than reason-directed effort, 

 for the man rocked as he stood, and the big peaks 

 about seemed to rock too. Only a long rest and 

 vigorous self-rallying finally drove away the feel- 

 ing of awful apprehension that something was 

 amiss in the department of the interior, for the 

 way that heart hammered and those temples 

 throbbed was absolutely soul-scaring. After a 

 week or so the same man could climb with the 

 best of them ; but he will never forget that first 

 return to camp, when, on rickety legs, he tottered 

 down the last slope, and heard the laughter of sea- 



