160 THE WILDERNESS HUNTER. 



rather to my surprise I proved to be nearly as 

 good as he when we came to the really dan- 

 gerous places, where we had to go slowly, and 

 let one another down from ledge to ledge, or 

 crawl by narrow cracks across the rock walls. 

 The view from the summits was magnifi- 

 cent, and I never tired of gazing at it. Some- 

 times the sky was a dome of blue crystal, and 

 mountain, lake, and valley lay spread in 

 startling clearness at our very feet ; and again 

 snow-peak and rock-peak were thrust up like 

 islands through a sea of billowy clouds. At 

 the feet of the topmost peaks, just above the 

 edge of the forest, were marshy alpine valleys, 

 the boggy ground soaked with water, and 

 small bushes or stunted trees fringing the icy 

 lakes. In the stony mountain sides surround- 

 ing these lakes there were hoary woodchucks, 

 and conies. The former resembled in their 

 habits the alpine marmot, rather than our 

 own common eastern woodchuck. They 

 lived alone or in couples among the rocks, 

 their gray color often making them difficult to 

 see as they crouched at the mouths of their 

 burrows, or sat bolt upright ; and as an 

 alarm note they uttered a loud piercing 

 whistle, a strong contrast to the querulous, 

 plaintive " p-a-a-y " of the timid conies. 

 These likewise loved to dwell where the 

 stones and slabs of rock were heaped on one 

 another ; though so timid, they were not 

 nearly as wary as the woodchucks. If we 

 stood quite still the little brown creatures 

 would venture away from their holes and hop 

 softly over the rocks as if we were not 

 present. 



