the earth, built a fire, and soon forgot the peril- 

 ous descent. After eating from my supply of rai- 

 sins, I dozed a little, and woke to find all calm 

 and the moon shining in glory on a snowy moun- 

 tain-world of peaks and pines. I put on my snow- 

 shoes, climbed upward beneath the moon, and 

 from the summit of Lead Mountain, thirteen 

 thousand feet high, saw the sun rise in splendor 

 on a world of white. 



The tracks and records in the snow which I 

 read in passing made something of a daily news- 

 paper for me. They told much of news of the 

 wilds. Sometimes I read of the games that the 

 snowshoe rabbit had played ; of a starving time 

 among the brave mountain sheep on the heights ; 

 of the quiet content in the ptarmigan neighbor- 

 hood ; of the dinner that the pines had given the 

 grouse ; of the amusements and exercises on the 

 deer's stamping-ground ; of the cunning of foxes ; 

 of the visits of magpies, the excursions of lynxes, 

 and the red records of mountain lions. 



The mountain lion is something of a game- 

 hog and an epicure. He prefers warm blood for 

 every meal, and is very wasteful. I have much 



9 



