io The Wilderness Hunter 



a region of light rainfall, where the ground is clad 

 with short grass, while cottonwood trees fringe the 

 courses of the winding plains streams ; streams that 

 are alternately turbid torrents and mere dwindling 

 threads of water. The great stretches of natural 

 pasture are broken by gray sage-brush plains, and 

 tracts of strangely shaped and colored Bad Lands; 

 sun-scorched wastes in summer, and in winter arctic 

 in their iron desolation. Beyond the plains rise the 

 Rocky Mountains, their flanks covered with conif- 

 erous woods; but the trees are small, and do not 

 ordinarily grow very closely together. Toward the 

 north the forest becomes denser, and the peaks high- 

 er ; and glaciers creep down toward the valleys from 

 the fields of everlasting snow. The brooks are 

 brawling, trout-filled torrents ; the swift rivers foam 

 over rapid and cataract, on their way to one or the 

 other of the two great oceans. 



Southwest of the Rockies evil and terrible deserts 

 stretch for leagues and leagues, mere waterless 

 wastes of sandy plain and barren mountain, broken 

 here and there by narrow strips of fertile ground. 

 Rain rarely falls, and there are no clouds to dim the 

 brazen sun. The rivers run in deep canyons, or are 

 swallowed by the burning sand; the smaller water- 

 courses are dry throughout the greater part of the 

 year. 



Beyond this desert region rise the sunny Sierras 

 of California, with their flower-clad slopes and 



