30 Rod, Gun, and Palette in the High Rockies 



majesty, the fresh snow upon their great shoulders and in their 

 hollows bright in sun from a rift in the clouds that make the 

 overhead gray. 



Here I halt and paint, with a keen delight in the peaceful 

 isolation of it all, whose memory will carry one over many weary 

 city days to come. 



The temperature rises, and by noon the sleet and snow are 

 gone from the camp, and have left the sagebrush on the flats above. 

 Odd pairs of ducks were observed on the river, and near to camp 

 California robins, cedar waxwings, camp robbers (a variety of jay) 

 and finches. The robins are especially tame and unconcerned. 

 They are broader of beam than the eastern bird, rather larger and 

 more heavily built; have a gray spot on each shoulder, black 

 heads, and haunt the water's edge. There are continual excur- 

 sions, alarums, ambuscades, and free skirmishes between them 

 and the camp robbers. Elk signs were reported a short distance 

 northwest of camp, and an eagle in the same direction in the 

 middle of the afternoon. Gray and red squirrels are very active. 

 Trout are rising quite freely on the river. 



In spite of heavy clouds and threatening rain in the afternoon, 

 an Evinrude motor, brought by Bill from Chicago in a small 

 trunk, was fitted to the leaky boat. Guns, decoys, rods, and 

 fishing tackle were overhauled. Rods were set up and experi- 

 mentally whipped in the hand, as a test of joints, spring, and 

 response. Reels, taken from a box that was handled sacredly, 

 as a reliquary, with comparison of their mechanism and merits, 

 were apportioned, each to its rod. There was an inspection of 

 fly books and leader boxes. Gun barrels were squinted through, 

 and though speckless, for the hundredth time the lubricative rag 

 was passed through. Breech blocks and actions were tried, oiled, 

 and wiped. Ammunition boxes were opened, and, critical appraise- 

 ment being made of their contents, were stacked upon the messtent 

 table, where, between a couple of militantly red Dutch cheeses, 

 flanked by the other tinned and jarred comestibles, they suggested 

 a doubly bellical preparation. These several things were done 

 with a leisurely care, a lingering particularity that distinguished 

 the afternoons' employment as being the ritualistic crown and 

 cap of many such adjustments and inspections o' dull evenings 

 in long city-bound months preceding the supreme event. 



