BIRCH BROWSINGS 



from the locality, and in the morning the 

 sun was above the mountain before we 

 awoke. 



I immediately started again for the inlet, 

 and went far up the stream toward its 

 source. A fair string of trout for breakfast 

 was my reward. The cattle with the bell 

 were at the head of the valley, where they 

 had passed the night. Most of them were 

 two-year-old steers. They came up to me 

 and begged for salt, and scared the fish by 

 their importunities. 



We finished our bread that morning, and 

 ate every fish we could catch, and about 

 ten o'clock prepared to leave the lake. The 

 weather had been admirable, and the lake 

 was a gem, and I would gladly have spent 

 a week in the neighborhood ; but the ques- 

 tion of supplies was a serious one, and would 

 brook no delay. 



When we reached, on our return, the 

 point where we had crossed the line of 

 marked trees the day before, the question 

 arose whether we should still trust ourselves 

 to this line, or follow our own trail back to 

 the spring and the battlement of rocks on 

 the top of the mountain, and thence to the 

 rock where the guide had left us. We de- 

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