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house was in progress, while the old houses were 

 receiving repairs. It was a serene autumn day 

 when I came into the picturesque village of these 

 primitive people. The aspens were golden, the 

 willows rusty, the grass tanned, and the pines 

 were purring in the easy air. 



The colony-site was in' a small basin amid 

 morainal debris at an altitude of nine thousand 

 feet above the sea-level. I at once christened it 

 the Moraine Colony. The scene was utterly wild. 

 Peaks of crags and snow rose steep and high 

 above all ; all around crowded a dense evergreen 

 forest of pine and spruce. A few small swamps 

 reposed in this forest, while here and there in it 

 bristled several gigantic windrows of boulders. 

 A ragged belt of aspens surrounded the several 

 ponds and separated the pines and spruces from 

 the fringe of water-loving willows along the shores. 

 There were three large ponds in succession and 

 below these a number of smaller ones. The dams 

 that formed the large ponds were willow-grown, 

 earthy structures about four feet in height, and 

 all sagged downstream. The houses were grouped 

 in the middle pond, the largest one, the dam of 



