KOCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT. 279 



CHAPTER XX. 



ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT 



T N llie vast ranges of wild and desolate heights, 

 ■^ alternating with deep valleys and tremen- 

 dous gorges, well named the Rocky Mountains, 

 over and through which the adventurous trap- 

 per makes his way in pursuit of the rich fur of 

 the beaver or the hide of the bison, there are 

 scenes which the soul must be dull indeed not 

 to admire. In these majestic solitudes all is on 

 a scale to awaken the sublimest emotions and 

 fill the heart with a consciousness of the infinite 

 Being " whose temple is all space, whose altar 

 earth, sea, skies." 



Nothing, indeed, can compare with the sensa- 

 tions induced by a view from some lofty peak 

 of these great mountains, for there the imagina- 

 tion may wander unfettered, may go back with- 

 out a check through ages of time to the period 

 when an Almighty power upheaved the gigantic 

 masses which lie on all sides far beneath and 

 around the beholder, and find no spot upon 



