THE STREETS OF THE 

 MOUNTAINS 



ALL streets of the mountains lead to 

 the citadel; steep or slow they go 

 up to the core of the hills. Any trail that 

 goes otherwhere must dip and cross, sidle 

 and take chances. Rifts of the hills open 

 into each other, and the high meadows 

 are often wide enough to be called valleys 

 by courtesy; but one keeps this distinction 

 in mind, — valleys are the sunken places 

 of the earth, canons are scored out by 

 the glacier ploughs of God. They have a 

 better name in the Rockies for these hill- 

 fenced open glades of pleasantness ; they 

 call them parks. Here and there in the 

 hill country one comes upon blind gullies 

 fronted by high stony barriers. These 

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