I90 CANADIAN NIGHTS 



which inconvenience there was about a foot of snow 

 on the ground, melted by the heat of the sun and 

 frozen by the cold, so that a thick crust had 

 formed, just strong enough to bear your weight 

 about a second, then let you through plump to the 

 ground. It was terrible ground to travel over, and 

 it exhausted me, but I was in hopes it exhausted 

 the sheep also, because the footprints began to be 

 deeply dyed with blood, showing that the sheep 

 was cutting himself with the crust on the snow. I 

 followed and followed my sheep, now and then 

 stopping to use my glass, because the tracks were 

 so fresh that I fancied he ought to be in sight ; 

 but I could not get a glimpse of him, and so 

 imagining that he must be further off than I 

 had supposed, I still followed the tracks till I got 

 near the top of a mountain which forms a 

 ridge or offshoot from the gigantic mass of Long's 

 Peak. 



Near the top of this ridge was a notch, through 

 which, as I got nearer, I could see that the tracks 

 led. I hurried as much as possible, thinking to 

 myself that he could not be very far off, and that 

 in all probability when I got to the top and looked 

 down through the notch into Willow Park beyond 

 I should see him somewhere below me, and have 



