(Focfig (mountain 1t?onberCanb 



of flies, moths, grasshoppers, and other insects 

 often accumulate along or on the edge of snow 

 or ice fields in the heights, attracted, apparently, 

 by the brilliant whiteness of the ice or the snow. 

 The cold closely surrounding air zone appears 

 to benumb or paralyze them, and they drop in 

 great numbers near the margin. Occasionally 

 swarms of insects are carried by storms up the 

 heights and dropped upon the snow or ice fields 

 which lie in the eddying-places of the wind. 



One autumn I accompanied a gentleman to 

 the Hallett Glacier. On arriving, we explored 

 a crevasse and examined the bergschrund at the 

 top. When we emerged from the bergschrund, 

 the new snow on the glacier was so softened in 

 the sunshine that we decided to have the fun of 

 coasting down the steep face to the bottom of 

 the slope. Just as we slid away, I espied a bear 

 at the bottom, toward which we were speeding. 

 He was so busily engaged in licking up insects 

 that he had not noticed us. Naturally the gentle- 

 man with me was frightened, but it was im- 

 possible to stop on the steep, steel-like, and 

 snow-lubricated slope. Knowing something of 



io8 



