HUNTING AND PROSPECTING 405 



exertion of climbing 12,000 feet above the sea is 

 very great and when the Mesa was reached I was 

 too exhausted to speak. An hour later with half 

 a Rocky Mountain grouse, a pound of trout, and 

 a quart of tea inside and a tent and big camp-fire 

 outside, life once more seemed worth living. 



"Grub's up!" was the welcome call that ushered 

 in the new day, yet breakfast waited while we 

 reveled in the wonderful view. Far beneath us 

 was the silver thread of the Vallecito River ; upon 

 each side a strip of vivid green; a broad belt of 

 aspens around the amphitheater of the valley, yel- 

 low as ocher in their changing leaves; another 

 belt above rich with the dark green of the fir ; the 

 gray rocks above timber line; the snow-capped 

 peaks, dazzling in the sunlight, and all crowned 

 with the brilliant blue of the cloudless sky. 

 Around me and beneath my feet were forty 

 varieties of flowers, few of which I had seen out- 

 side of the Rockies and many of them with a deli- 

 cacy of form and gorgeousness of coloring rarely 

 to be found elsewhere. 



We rode the length of the Mesa, some eight 



