AMONG THE ANIMALS OF THE YOSEMITE 205 



Most of them glint and dart on the sunny 

 rocks and across open spaces from bush to bush, 

 swift as dragonflies and humming-birds, and 

 about as brilliantly colored. They never make 

 a, long-sustained run, whatever their object, but 

 dart direct as arrows for a distance of ten or 

 twenty feet, then suddenly stop, and as suddenly 

 start again. These stops are necessary as rests, 

 for they are short-winded, and when pursued 

 steadily are soon run out of breath, pant piti- 

 fully, and may easily be caught where no retreat 

 in bush or rock is quickly available. 



If you stay with them a week or two and be- 

 have well, these gentle saurian s, descendants of 

 an ancient race of giants, will soon know and 

 trust you, come to your feet, play, and watch 

 your every motion with cunning curiosity. You 

 will surely learn to like them, not only the 

 bright ones, gorgeous as the rainbow, but the 

 little ones, gray as lichened granite, and scarcely 

 bigger than grasshoppers ; and they will teach 

 you that scales may cover as fine a nature as 

 hair or feathers or anything tailored. 



There are many snakes in the canons and 

 lower forests, but they are mostly handsome and 

 harmless. Of all the tourists and travelers who 

 have visited Yosemite and the adjacent moun- 

 tains, not one has been bitten by a snake of any 

 sort, while thousands have been charmed by 

 them. Some of them vie with the lizards in 



