THE HAYMAKER OF THE HEIGHTS — 19 
But he came running back with something in 
his mouth—more hay. This he dropped against 
the side of the stack and ran off again behind 
the boulder. 
I looked behind the boulder. There was a 
small hay field, a ragged space covered with 
grass and wild flowers, surrounded with boul- 
ders and with ice and old snow at one corner. 
Acres of barren rocks were all around and Long’s 
Peak rose a rocky crag high above. 
Back from the stack came the cony and leaped 
into the field, rapidly bit off a number of grass 
blades and carrying these in his mouth raced off 
for the stack. The third time he cut off three 
tall, slender plant stalks and at the top of one 
a white and blue flower fluttered. With these 
stalks crosswise in his teeth, the stalks extend- 
ing a foot each side of his cheeks, he galloped 
off to his stack. 
Many kinds of plants were mixed in this hay- 
stack. Grass blades, short, long, fine, and 
coarse; large leaves and small; stalks woody and 
stalks juicy. Flowers still clung to many of 
these stalks—yellow avens, alpine gentians, 
blue polemonium, and purple primrose. 
The home of Rocky was at approximately 
13,000 feet. The cony is found over a belt 
that extends from this altitude down to 9,500. 
in many regions timberline splits the cony zone. 
