THREE HARDT MOUNTAINEERS 247 



" I should think, if they are, the Government could put 

 a fence around them to keep people from straying in." 



" That would be a fine piece of work," said Mr. Blake, 

 laughing. " Imagine putting a fence around an irreg- 

 ular strip, that runs east of the Rockies, making all 

 sorts of side excursions, from Canada to Mexico, and 

 containing more than a million square miles! It would 

 take all the trees in Canada for fence posts, and the 

 first post would be old and decayed before the last was 

 put in. But let us return to our story. 



" It was in early summer, and the party I had joined 

 was fairly located for making a railway survey across 

 the Cascade Mountains, not far southeast of Seattle, in 

 what is now the state of Washington. Look at your 

 map and you will find that these mountains, named 

 from the streams of clear, cold water dashing down 

 their slopes, lie between the Rockies and the Pacific 

 coast, and are about as far west as any mountains ex- 

 cept the Olympic group. 



" While the camp was waiting for some instruments 

 that had not arrived, three or four of us determined to 

 do a little surveying for Sheep and Goats on our own 

 account. After keeping together for two days and 

 nights, until we had worked our way well up, we de- 

 cided to divide, three of the party to continue on 

 above timber-line after the Goats, Avhile I, accompanied 

 by Crawling Joe, a typical mountaineer engaged by our 

 camp as a guide, meat provider, and useful man, was to 

 go southward along the ledges toward some woodlands 

 and plateaus where Bighorns were likely to graze." 



" Why was the man called Crawling Joe ? " asked 

 Dodo. 



