CHAPTER XIII. 



A Peculiar Danger Four Goats in Four Shots A Rapidly 

 Disappearing Tribe Description and Habits A Persist- 

 ent Hunter. 



EANTIME the mountain fires had been 

 steadily increasing and advancing until 

 the camp was threatened, and Dyche be- 

 gan to fear that all his labour would be in 

 vain, for if the fire came down the mountain the 

 skins and skeletons would be destroyed. It was with 

 a feeling of great joy that the naturalist awoke next 

 morning and saw the rain pouring down. It was 

 the first of the season in that locality and came in 

 such quantities that the fires were soon checked and 

 then were drowned out entirely, with the exception 

 of smouldering logs here and there. The air cleared, 

 and the thin spiral columns of smoke ascending from 

 various points over the mountain were the only evi- 

 dences of the conflagration that had lately been 

 raging within a few miles of the camp. 



Dyche at once started after his specimens and 

 brought them into camp, putting the skins in a pickle. 

 It continued to rain, and soon the tops of the moun- 

 tains took on a mantle of white ; and as the rain in- 

 creased, the snow-line crept lower and lower, until it 

 reached the green of the timber. Now another dan- 



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