Krag, the Kootenay Ram 



gray, and white the landscape grows in turn ; 

 and one by one the flowers are painted out. 



But the lupines, on their taller, stiffer stems, can •'■', ^ 



fight the snow for long : they bow their whitened ^tf >>'; 



heads beneath its load; then, thanks no little rf5$r. . / 



to the wind itself, shake free and stand up i/^JJ'SW/i 



defiantly straight, as fits their royal purple. ff/7' 1 ! • v v.Ml 



And when the snowfall ends as suddenly as it il',** '' v -- 

 began, the clouds roll by, and the blue sky sees j £ v ^ *V^.. 

 an upland shining white, but streaked and f V^,' \ 



patched with blots and belts of lovely purple ty\ > 



bloom. * 



And wound across, and in and out, are two flp 

 long trails of track. 



II 



Late snow is good trailing, and Scotty Mac- 

 Dougall took down his rifle and climbed the 

 open hills behind his shanty on Tobacco Creek, 

 toward the well-known Mountain Sheep range. 

 The broad white upland, with its lupine bands 

 and patches, had no claim on Scotty's notice, 

 nor was his interest aroused until he came on 

 the double trail in the new snow. At a glance 

 he read it— two full-grown female Mountain 



l 9 



