AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 245 



the top of the mountain to the foot. There were 

 narrow strips of the mountain side that had escaped 

 these fallen masses. Here the outcropping granite 

 re -named in its natural shape irregular ledges with 

 small patches of earth intervening. Pines, hemlocks, 

 cedars, and various kinds of shrubs grew in these 

 places as far up the mountain side as the timber line. 

 I ascended this north wall one morning and after 

 a weary and toilsome climb of about two miles, 

 and when in snow about six inches deep, I came 

 upon the track of a very large goat. It was 

 some hours old, but he had been feeding deliberately 

 along the mountain side, and as they are not rapid 

 travelers in any case, I knew he was not a great 

 distance away. I took up the trail and followed it. 

 It led over a succession of these vast rock piles, 

 which, owing to their being covered with snow, made 

 the traveling doubly dangerous. A slight misstep 

 at any point, or an unfortunate slip would be liable 

 to let my foot drop in between two of these rocks 

 and throw me in such a way as to break a leg, an arm, 

 or possibly my head. The greatest care was there- 

 fore necessary in picking my way over this dangerous 

 country, and I was frequently struck with the wise 

 provisions which Nature makes for fulfilling her 

 ends when I saw where the animal I was pursuing 

 had bounded lightly from rock to rock over chasms 

 many feet in width; or where he had walked up the 

 sharp edge of some slab of granite not more than 

 three or four inches wide and lying at a high angle; 

 or where he ha 1 walked up over a flat slab of it, 

 tilted so steep that no other large animal in the 

 mountains could have followed him. There were 



