THE HAYMAKER OF THE HEIGHTS 19 



But he came running back with something in 

 his mouth more hay. This he dropped against 

 the side of the stack and ran off again behind 

 the boulder. 



I looked behind the boulder. There was a 

 small hay field, a ragged space covered with 

 grass and wild flowers, surrounded with boul- 

 ders and with ice and old snow at one corner. 

 Acres of barren rocks were all around and Long's 

 Peak rose a rocky crag high above. 



Back from the stack came the cony and leaped 

 into the field, rapidly bit off a number of grass 

 blades and carrying these in his mouth raced off 

 for the stack. The third time he cut off three 

 tall, slender plant stalks and at the top of one 

 a white and blue flower fluttered. With these 

 stalks crosswise in his teeth, the stalks extend- 

 ing a foot each side of his cheeks, he galloped 

 off to his stack. 



Many kinds of plants were mixed in this hay- 

 stack. Grass blades, short, long, fine, and 

 coarse; large leaves and small; stalks woody and 

 stalks juicy. Flowers still clung to many of 

 these stalks yellow avens, alpine gentians, 

 blue polemonium, and purple primrose. 



The home of Rocky was at approximately 

 1 3, ooo feet. The cony is found over a belt 

 that extends from this altitude down to 9,500. 

 In many regions timberline splits the cony zone. 



