A WEEK ON MOUNT WASHINGTON 37 



Your traveling companion has seen him here 

 before, though she was not present on that mem- 

 orable occasion, and presently you are being in- 

 troduced to him and his friends a metropolitan 

 clergyman, a university professor, and a younger 

 man, with whose excellent work in your own line 

 you are already acquainted. 



Anon the company breaks up, the pedes- 

 trians are off for an afternoon excursion, and 

 you step out upon the platform to look about 

 you. Against the railing are two men, one of 

 them with what seems to be a " collecting gun " 

 in his hand. "An ornithologist," you say to 

 yourself, and at the word you begin edging to- 

 ward him. A remark or two about the weather 

 and you ask him point-blank if he is collecting 

 birds. No, he answers, his weapon is a rifle, and 

 he shows you the cartridge. He has brought it 

 along to shoot squirrels with. You wonder why 

 any one should think it worth while to carry a 

 gun over the nine miles of the Crawford path 

 for so trifling a use ; but that is none of your 

 business, and just then the other man speaks up 

 to say that his companion is a botanist, while he 

 himself is a "bird man." This is interesting 

 (the second ornithologist within an hour), and 

 you set about comparing notes. Did he hear 

 anything of the Bicknell thrushes and the Hud- 



