At St. Mary's 



western peaks, blighting all they touched 

 with their darkened shapes, turning the 

 silver of the mountain streams to ink, veil- 

 ing the forest with a hood of gloom, si- 

 lently, relentlessly creeping up the slopes, 

 higher and higher, until at last they 

 entered our shelter, and sought us out. 

 The air grew chill ; the leaves dropped 

 motionless. 



The sun had set ; it was night. 



Weary and stiff, and rather disgusted 

 with sheep-hunting as a means of sport, 

 we now betook ourselves to the timber 

 below, and began making preparations for 

 the night. 



Selecting a smooth bit of ground, we 

 covered it with twigs of pine, chopped 

 with our hunting-knives from the sur- 

 rounding trees. At the foot of our impro- 

 vised bed we built a fire ; and its cheerful 

 warmth soon put us in better humor, and 

 made our eyelids heavy as well. We fell 

 asleep, and slept soundly until we slipped 

 into the fire, which may have been ten 

 minutes after slumber overtook us. Harde- 

 man and I were good travelling compan- 

 ions, each making a point of always doing 

 his part of the work, and undergoing his 

 half of the privations. I suppose that this 

 is the reason that neither of us, as he 



286 



