i 7 o THE ADVENTURES OF A NATURE GUIDE 



came rushing in to report that a side of a canon had 

 fallen in. Children hurried right and left to tell 

 others, and in a few minutes all were off to see the 

 landslide. They forgot to take lunch along. 

 Eagerly they discussed the probable causes of this 

 slide and also the results from it. It dammed the 

 gulch and was already forming a pond. How long, 

 we wondered, before water-loving plants and ani- 

 mals would come to live here. 



This gave an excellent opportunity to discuss the 

 supreme productive resource — soil. Other resources 

 had their innings — water, forests, birds; and so, 

 too, did erosion, topography, and streams. I had 

 to tell of landslides I had seen and where the best 

 accounts of big landslides might be read. 



We were returning from a day's outing when we 

 came upon an unextinguished camp-fire. "Here 

 is a mighty forest fire!" I said. "How many 

 will volunteer to fight it to a finish?" Instantly 

 everyone volunteered. A boy was sent for help, a 

 girl was sent for a pail of water. We fought and 

 won. That night we read up on fire fighting. 



We often walked home through the rain; during 

 several downpours we deliberately went out into 

 the storm. On a few gray days we climbed up the 

 mountainside through a solid sky of clouds until 

 we were above them in the sunshine. We also 

 made little journeys after dark, visiting pine 

 woods, beaver colonies, and streams; calling on 

 hundreds of sleepy flowers; watching shadowy 



