In the Sierra 



island in mid-ocean is flyless. The bluebot- 

 tle is abundant in these Yosemite woods, 

 ever ready with his marvelous store of eggs 

 to make all dead flesh fly. Bumblebees are 

 here, and are well fed on boundless stores of 

 nectar and pollen. The honeybee, though 

 abundant in the foothills, has not yet got so 

 high. It is only a few years since the first 

 swarm was brought to California. 



A queer fellow and a jolly fellow is the 

 grasshopper. Up the mountains he comes 

 on excursions, how high I don't know, but 

 at least as far and high as Yosemite tourists. 

 I was much interested with the hearty en- 

 joyment of the one that danced and sang 

 for me on the Dome this afternoon. He 

 seemed brimful of glad, hilarious energy, 

 manifested by springing into the air to a 

 height of twenty or thirty feet, then diving 

 and springing up again and making a sharp 

 musical rattle just as the lowest point in the 

 descent was reached. Up and down a dozen 

 times or so he danced and sang, then alighted 

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