106 THE ADVENTURES OF A NATURE GUIDE 



carefully into the crevices in the broken bark. A 

 stockman was concealed behind a tree clump a 

 short distance away, watching me. He was quite 

 unable to understand why an unarmed person 

 should be prowling through the woods miles from 

 anywhere; and why any one should climb into a 

 tree and examine it so minutely was beyond his 

 comprehension. His astonishment knew no bounds 

 when I descended and rapidly removed earthy 

 matter from the roots so as to examine them. 



From this tree-top I had seen and decided to 

 examine a tall spruce which appeared to be dying 

 from a beetle attack, and I hoped to discover the 

 species of insect that was doing the damage. To- 

 ward this tree I walked rapidly, and hurriedly 

 climbed up into it. The stockman's curiosity got 

 the better of him. He made haste to follow me 

 and reached the bottom of the tree about the time 

 I had gained the limb entanglement in the top. 

 Throwing up a club to attract my attention, he 

 demanded: "Which one of the monkey families 

 are you a member of, anyway?" 



I descended to have a talk with him. My ex- 

 planation of nature study as the motive for the 

 strange actions he had witnessed was accepted, 

 evidently, with the proverbial grain of salt. But 

 as I appeared harmless he let the matter pass and 

 told me something of himself. Droughty condi- 

 tions on the plains had led him to drive his small 

 herd of cattle into the mountains where there was 



