176 CAMP-FIRES OF A NATURALIST. 



the canon, and Dyche climbed the west side. After 

 hours of hard work he reached a projecting crag, 

 where the full beauty and magnificence of the moun- 

 tain fire burst on his gaze. Thousands upon thou- 

 sands of veritable monarchs of the forest were being 

 swallowed up in the dreadful conflagration. Ruin 

 was spreading over miles of territory, simply that 

 the lazy Indians might hunt more easily. 



On the way down the mountain he noticed a bunch 

 of white bristly hair attached to a jutting rock, and 

 by the light of the camp-fire he decided that it had 

 been scratched from the side of a Eocky Mountain 

 goat. This convinced the naturalist that he was 

 near the animals for which this trip had been made, 

 and daylight next morning found him on his way up 

 the side of the mountain. 



Here were the steepest and most inaccessible of the 

 steep and rugged Cascades. Long ages of frost and 

 sunshine had torn great masses of rock from the sides 

 of the projecting crags, which had plunged to the bot- 

 tom, ploughing immense furrows down the moun- 

 tain's sides and piling up in a confused jumble at 

 the base. From the almost perpendicular sides of the 

 precipices projected here and there shelves or benches 

 of rock, to which clung stunted and dwarfed growths 

 of pines and spruce, while zigzagging up from one 

 bench to another were little gulches or chasms 

 which gave the explorer an opportunity to reach the 

 top after the expenditure of great labour. Two 

 hours of hard work placed Dyche about two-thirds 

 of the way up the mountain, and here he found 

 a shelf running apparently around the face of the 



