72 THE ADVENTURES OF A NATURE GUIDE 



Divide. Great light bars, miles in length, and long 

 shadow pennants of peaks lay across the basin. 

 As the sun descended, these lengthened and pushed 

 down the descending slopes. Finally they reached 

 out upon the Great Plains nearly a hundred miles 

 distant. Near by a solitaire sang with inspiring 

 and unrivalled eloquence. He sang from a crag 

 and from a tree-top, and then with intense ecstasy, 

 while darting and dropping, wheeling and gliding, 

 he gladdened the air above his nesting mate. Once 

 he rose high above the shadows and for a moment 

 poured forth his song in the bright sunlight above. 



As he ceased, the beavers began making merry 

 in a pond just below. I watched them and the 

 purple ripples they made. Presently the ripples 

 faded from sight, but in the darkness the easy 

 movements and dividing wavelets of the swimmers 

 were revealed by the rocking of the reflected stars. 



In the night a white-crowned sparrow repeatedly 

 sang briefly. A camp-bird quietly waited for my 

 awakening. Later a tiny chipmunk bashfully 

 called. An astonished squirrel first stared in 

 silence, then with jerky note scolded and bluffed 

 from a safety-first distance, but at last gave way 

 to curiosity and came closer. 



Big game is common along the boundary of 

 woodland and grassland. Deer and elk frequent 

 timberline during the summer, and mountain sheep 

 may be seen at any time. In the autumn it is 

 frequented by bears. The mountain lion, coyote, 



