(gocfig (TUounfain 'Xt7onbet(anb 



falls are caught in one small space that sweeps 

 up into the blue and cloud in one grand picture. 



In many localities there are such numbers of 

 dwarfed plants that one may blunder through 

 a fairy flower-garden without seeing it. To see 

 these tiny flowers at their best, one needs to lie 

 down and use a reading-glass. There are dimin- 

 utive bellflowers that rise only half an inch above 

 the earth and masses of cushion pinks and tiny 

 phlox still finer and shorter. 



The Arctic-Alpine zone, with its cloud and 

 bright sunshine, rests upon the elevated and 

 broken world of the Rockies. This realm is full 

 of interest through all the seasons, and with its 

 magnificence are lovely places, brilliant flowers, 

 and merry birds to cheer its solitudes. During 

 winter these polar mountain-stretches have a 

 strange charm, and many a time my snowshoe 

 tracks have left dotted trails upon their snowy 

 distances. 



These cheerful wild gardens are threatened 

 with ruin. Cattle and sheep are invading them 

 farther and farther, and leaving ruin behind. 

 With their steep slopes, coarse soil, and shallow 



120 



