294 ADVENTURES OF DR. ALLEN. 



CHAPTER XXX. 



OUR BROTHERS OP THB FOREST Lost to the outside world birds re d deer- 

 animal speech gray wolf elk ruffed grouse a splendid specimen. 



As we penetrate the massive openings of the great 

 forests of the Rocky Mountains,, whose towering pines stand 

 like sentinels, we are completely lost persons to the outside 

 world. In these forests nature is most beautiful and won- 

 derful and prodigal. Here unite the soft love-notes of birds, 

 wooing their mates, the chattering of the "camp-robber," 

 Both commingle with the "who, who," of the cat owl, loftily 

 perched in the top of a pine. Down upon this denizen of the 

 night presently a great bald eagle makes a swoop, startling 

 the owl from his meditations. The cry of the eagle, thrown 

 out as the owl escapes down the canyon, is taken up by the 

 crows who give battle to the owl. The echoes multiply, 

 sink away, rise again, and finally die away to utter silence. 

 In this grand canyon, where we are now reposing, which 

 is covered by a foliage so dense that the sun's rays have 

 never penetrated the dark recesses of the shady nooks, we 

 are not alone. The limbs of the ancient trees are robed 

 with moss of a greenish-gray tint. As silently as shadows, 

 we see a family of red deer (cervus Virginianus) pass 

 rapidly along over the carpet of pine needles centuries old. 

 Noiselessly each one stoops down to take a tuft of rich 

 bunch grass. Then the head, with ears thrown forward, 

 is raised to detect the faintest sound, the beauiful brown 



