154 In Touch with Nature. 



graphs of such objects as struck our fancy. We 

 succeeded admirably. 



There was not one familiar feature about or 

 above us from the very start, for even the air and 

 sky were strangely clear, and a soaring eagle that 

 kept long in view seemed almost within gunshot, 

 although circling far above an adjoining mountain ; 

 and later, when, following a swift-descending swoop, 

 its impatient scream came floating earthward, we 

 stopped as if the bird was threatening us. So it 

 was that at the very outset the scales dropped from 

 our eyes and our ears were quickened to novel 

 sounds. But no new sound, as a bird's song, is so 

 sure to attract attention as some one that has the 

 subtle charm of association. A curved-billed 

 thrush across the wide valley commenced singing, 

 and at once the mountains vanished. How long 

 I stood in the cool shadow of a thrifty oak I can- 

 not tell, but when from a misty cloud the moun- 

 tains reappeared, I was quite alone. I had been 

 wandering under the homestead oaks, and for 

 long after their misty outlines stood against the 

 sky. 



If a clear atmosphere and high altitude sharpens 



