In the Sierra 



sions within a radius of eight or ten miles 

 of the camps to learn something of the 

 plants, animals, and rocks ; for he assured 

 me that I should be left perfectly free to 

 follow my studies. I judged, however, that 

 I was in no way the right man for the place, 

 and freely explained my shortcomings, con- 

 fessing that I was wholly unacquainted with 

 the topography of the upper mountains, 

 the streams that would have to be crossed, 

 and the wild sheep-eating animals, etc. ; in 

 short that, what with bears, coyotes, rivers, 

 canons, and thorny, bewildering chaparral, I 

 feared that half or more of his flock would 

 be lost. Fortunately these shortcomings 

 seemed insignificant to Mr. Delaney. The 

 main thing, he said, was to have.a man about 

 the camp whom he could trust to see that 

 the shepherd did his duty, and he assured me 

 that the difficulties that seemed so formid- 

 able at a distance would vanish as we went 

 on; encouraging me further by saying that 

 the shepherd would do all the herding, that 

 [ 5 ] 



