94 SHORT STALKS 



soaked and tired as we were, was out of the question, so 

 ^ve went into camp at once, and there were destined to 

 remain for some time. 



The weather now for a time completely broke up. 

 Owino' to the dense timber, which we knew covered the 

 ranges that lay beyond, through which there was, at that 

 time, no known track, and the serious delay which this 

 involves with heavily-laden animals, we had intended to 

 leave most of our horses and equipage, with two of the 

 men, hereabouts, and to make a forced march from this 

 point to the Creyser Basin, with little besides the clothes 

 we stood in and the horses we rode, afterwards returning 

 on our tracks. But with snow lying deeply, an unusual 

 circumstance in the first week in September, it would 

 have been hardly prudent to traverse the high -lying 

 intervening ranges thus lightly equipped, and, our time 

 being strictly limited, we could not afford a slower rate of 

 progress. The Park was therefore struck out of our pro- 

 gramme, and we consoled ourselves by the reflection that 

 that region has become sadly vulgarised. After all, the 

 wonders of nature that abide with a man are not those 

 which he has read of in o-iude-books. These are half stale 

 before they are seen. It is one's own casual discoveries, 

 the unexpected, some mountain glory or vision of cloud 

 and water, which paint the lasting pictures of which he 

 never tires. 



My chief trouble was that, at the Geyser Basin, we 

 shoidd have touched the fringe of civilisation, and we 

 lost the only opportunity of posting a letter. I therefore 

 bribed Dick to undertake the journey and to be my 

 postman. lie returned to us in a remarkably short time, 



