234 BESIDE THE GREAT SALT LAKE. 



rattlesnake, and I hesitated to pursue the bird, 

 because I invariably forgot to watch and listen 

 for the reptile. Bird study under these con- 

 ditions was impossible, but the place presented 

 a phase of nature unfamiliar to me, and for a 

 time so fascinating that every morning my steps 

 turned of themselves " up the stony pathway to 

 the hills." 



The companion of my walks, a fellow bird- 

 student, was more than fascinated ; she was en- 

 raptured. The odorous bush had associations 

 for her ; she reveled in it ; she inhaled its fra- 

 grance as a delicious perfume ; she filled her 

 pockets with it ; she lay for hours at a time on 

 the ground, where she could bask in the sun- 

 shine, and see nothing but the gray leaves around 

 her and the blue sky above. 



I can hardly tell what was the fascination for 

 me. It was certainly not the view of the moun- 

 tains, though mountains are beyond words in my 

 affections. The truth is, the Rocky Mountains, 

 many of them, need a certain distance to make 

 them either picturesque or dignified. The range 

 then daily before our eyes, the Wasatch, was, 

 to dwellers at its feet, bleak, monotonous, and 

 hopelessly prosaic. The lowest foothills, being 

 near, hid the taller peaks, as a penny before the 

 eye will hide a whole landscape. 



Let me not, however, be unjust to the moun- 



