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NATURE FOB ITS OWN SAKE 



guished by forms of timber, rock, or grass, but 

 these features often undergo odd changes with 

 various lights. The mountain lines against the 

 sky change also as we change our position. We 

 think we know the profile until we see it from 

 a different side and in a different light. The 

 Man's Head, the Anthony's Nose, or the Devil's 

 Pipe, outlined by some projecting crag against 

 the sky, has nothing to do with mountain in- 

 dividuality, though it may have to do with local 

 name and identity. Such fancied marks lose 

 all likeness as soon as we move away from a 

 certain position. Even the little hills have a 

 way of tricking us with different aspects ; and 

 every hunter in the Bad Lands who has made 

 a mental " blaze " of a butte on his trail knows 

 how often he has failed to recognize that butte 

 when coming upon it from a new direction. 



Bulk and mass also have some influence 

 in marking the mountain, though these, too, 

 apparently change as we shift our standing 

 ground ; and color gives some distinct charac- 

 ter, yet this is, perhaps, the most inconstant 

 of all mountain features. There are few things 

 in nature that can show distorted color so 

 well as a mountain-top under sunlight. The 

 light is continually bleaching or heightening 



