34 CANADIAN NIGHTS 



Park, between 7000 and 8000 feet above sea-level, 

 it consists of alternate short storms and long spells 

 of fine weather. You will have several days of 

 bright clear weather, hard frost, the thermometer 

 very low, but the sun so powerful that you can 

 lie down and go fast asleep, as I have frequently 

 done, on a warm, sunny, and sheltered bank in the 

 very depth of winter. Then the clouds begin to 

 accumulate, growing denser and denser, till they 

 break and descend in a snowstorm of some hours' 

 duration. The cattle, which before dotted all the 

 open ground, disappear as if by magic, seeking and 

 finding shelter in little hidden gulches and un- 

 noticed valleys, and the land looks utterly desolate. 

 The snowstorm is invariably succeeded by a violent 

 tempest of wind, which speedily clears the ground 

 of snow, heaping it up in drifts, and blowing 

 the greater part of it into the air in such a thin 

 powdery condition that it is taken up by the 

 atmosphere and disappears completely. So dry is 

 the air and so warm the venter's sun that snow 

 evaporates without leaving any moisture behind 

 it. Another period of clear, still, cold weather 

 then follows after the gale. 



The violence of these tempests is very great. 

 Many a night have I lain awake listening to the 



