STEEP TRAILS 



ing, and all the wilderness is home. Some of 

 these rare, happy rovers die alone among the 

 leaves. Others half settle down and change 

 in part into farmers; each, making choice of 

 some fertile spot where the landscape attracts 

 him, builds a small cabin, where, with few 

 wants to supply from garden or field, he hunts 

 and farms in turn, going perhaps once a year 

 to the settlements, until night begins to draw 

 near, and, like forest shadows, thickens into 

 darkness and his day is done. In these Wash- 

 ington wilds, living alone, all sorts of men may 

 perchance be found poets, philosophers, and 

 even full-blown transcendentalists, though you 

 may go far to find them. 



Indians are seldom to be met with away 

 from the Sound, excepting about the few out- 

 lying hop-ranches, to which they resort in 

 great numbers during the picking-season. Nor 

 in your walks in the woods will you be likely 

 to see many of the wild animals, however far 

 you may go, with the exception of the Douglas 

 squirrel and the mountain goat. The squirrel is 

 everywhere, and the goat you can hardly fail 

 to find if you climb any of the high mountains. 

 The deer, once very abundant, may still be 

 found on the islands and along the shores of 

 the Sound, but the large gray wolves render 

 their existence next to impossible at any con- 



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