THE ROCKS FOR THE CONIES 175 



a long detour to a certain rock-slide on the pass 

 known to our young guide. 



The cony is not an animal familiar to many 

 persons. Except naturalists, few climbers who 

 have eyes or ears for so shy, so tiny and rare a 

 creature, and one so difficult to see, ever get into 

 the high altitudes of the cony country. But our 

 guide, who had been a sheep-herder and camp- 

 tender in the mountains, was an exceptionally 

 keen observer. In crossing this part of the pass 

 the summer before he had heard and seen a pecu- 

 liar little animal about the size and shape of a 

 guinea-pig among the broken rocks of one of the 

 slides. To this rock-slide he had taken the col- 

 lector, and they had come off with one of the 

 conies, while I, meantime, was trying to keep up 

 with Maud and Barney, the pack-mules, descend- 

 ing the other side of the pass, and missing with 

 them an experience that only a few mountain- 

 peaks in the world could give me. 



I was undone when the two men with the cony 

 came into camp. To have been so near and then, 

 in the company of those clownish mules, to have 

 passed stupidly by ! We had descended to Aner- 

 oid Lake for camp. Our course from here led 



