68 HUNTING TRIPS 



most as unreal as if we had been in fairy- 

 land. The flood of clear moonlight turned 

 the white faces of the cliffs and the grounds 

 between them into shining silver, against 

 which the pines showed dark and sombre, 

 while the intensely black shadows of the 

 buttes took on forms that were grimly fan- 

 tastic. Every cave or cranny in the crags 

 looked so black that it seemed almost to be 

 thrown out from the surface, and when the 

 branches of the trees moved, the bright 

 moonlight danced on the ground as if it were 

 a sheet of molten metal. Neither in shape 

 nor in color did our surroundings seem to 

 belong to the dull gray world through which 

 we had been travelling all day. 



But by next morning every thing had 

 changed. A furious gale of wind was blow- 

 ing, and we were shrouded in a dense, driz- 

 zling mist, through which at times the rain 

 drove in level sheets. Now and then the fog 

 would blow away, and then would come on 

 thicker than ever ; and when it began to clear 

 off a steady rain took its place, and the wind 



