STEEP TRAILS 



mittens, and a tail broad enough for a blanket; 

 the grouse is densely feathered down to the 

 ends of his toes; and the wild sheep, besides 

 his undergarment of fine wool, has a thick 

 overcoat of hair that sheds off both the snow 

 and the rain. Other provisions and adaptations 

 in the dresses of animals, relating less to climate 

 than to the more mechanical circumstances of 

 life, are made with the same consummate skill 

 that characterizes all the love-work of Nature. 

 Land, water, and air, jagged rocks, muddy 

 ground, sand-beds, forests, underbrush, grassy 

 plains, etc., are considered in all their possible 

 combinations while the clothing of her beauti- 

 ful wildlings is preparing. No matter what the 

 circumstances of their Uves may be, she never 

 allows them to go dirty or ragged. The mole, 

 living always in the dark and in the dirt, is 

 yet as clean as the otter or the wave-washed 

 seal; and our wild sheep, wading in snow, 

 roaming through bushes, and leaping among 

 jagged storm-beaten cliffs, wears a dress so 

 exquisitely adapted to its mountain life that 

 it is always found as unruffled and stainless 

 as a bird. 



On leaving the Shasta hunting-grounds I 

 selected a few specimen tufts, and brought 

 them away with a view to making more lei- 

 surely examinations; but, owing to the imper- 



6 



