In the Sierra 



sions within a radius of eight or ten miles 

 of the camps to learn something of the 

 plants, animals, and rocks ; for he assured 

 me that I should be left perfectly free to 

 follow my studies. I judged, however, that 

 I was in no way the right man for the place, 

 and freely explained my shortcomings, con- 

 fessing that I was wholly unacquainted with 

 the topography of the upper mountains, 

 the streams that would have to be crossed, 

 and the wild sheep-eating animals, etc. ; in 

 short that, what with bears, coyotes, rivers, 

 canons, and thorny, bewildering chaparral, I 

 feared that half or more of his flock would 

 be lost. Fortunately these shortcomings 

 seemed insignificant to Mr. Delaney. The 

 main thing, he said, was to have a man about 

 the camp whom he could trust to see that 

 the shepherd did his duty, and he assured me 

 that the difficulties that seemed so formid- 

 able at a distance would vanish as we went 

 on; encouraging me further by saying that 

 the shepherd would do all the herding, that 



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