Fox's Earth to Mountain Tarn 



Still as is the cairn-topped mountain summit, 

 charming in its weathering to the lichen hues of 

 the ptarmigan's summer plumage, it is capable 

 of bringing forth something larger than a mouse. 

 It has often an interesting fauna of its own. 

 Dramatic incidents happen, with or without wit- 

 ness, at some of which I have been present. 

 The fox is found there, the badger beside him, in 

 a strange but picturesque partnership. From the 

 opening of the lair, a pair of eyes are fixed on a 

 bird, which, to dull human sense, is but a part of 

 that on which it rests. 



From its poise the eagle looks down with a 

 glance keen enough to separate bird from stone. 

 Rivals they : the situation intense. The fox in 

 the cairn, the eagle aloft, and the lichen-tinted 

 bird against the lichen-tinted stone, with its silent 

 appeal to nature. And what an arena ! Cloud 

 and sky : mountain beyond the shadows, dwarfed 

 glen, and distant gleam of water. 



Surely artists do not know where to go for 

 stirring events or noble scenes. Nor naturalists 

 for those psychological moments when wild life is 

 greatest and most itself ; they dabble about hedge 

 sides with cameras and snap at sparrows. Nor 

 sportsmen, to learn what pictures they blot out in 

 their lowlier sphere of influence, by the vivid 

 interest and silent grandeur of scenes and forms 

 beyond their everyday reach. 



230 



