My First Summer 



sinking over head and ears, only its toes were 

 wet, gazed at the shining water a few sec- 

 onds, and then sprang to the shore safe and 

 dry through the dreadful adventure. All 

 kinds of wild sheep are mountain animals, 

 and their descendants' dread of water is not 

 easily accounted for. 



August 1 1 . Fine shining weather, with 

 a ten minutes' noon thunder-storm and rain. 

 Rambling all day getting acquainted with 

 the region north of the river. Found a small 

 lake and many charming glacier meadows 

 embosomed in an extensive forest of the two- 

 leaved pine. The forest is growing on broad, 

 almost continuous deposits of moraine mate- 

 rial, is remarkably even in its growth, and 

 the trees are much closer together than in 

 any of the fir or pine woods farther down the 

 range. The evenness of the growth would 

 seem to indicate that the trees are all of the 

 same age or nearly so. This regularity has 

 probably been in great part the result of fire. 

 I saw several large patches and strips of dead 



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