2IO THE ADVENTURES OF A NATURE GUIDE 



falling. Every one fell a number of times. A 

 few times all four feet shot from beneath a sheep 

 at once, and in his sliding a number of rising efforts 

 were made, only to result in the sheep's falling each 

 time before it got on its feet again. 



Even butterflies play. Climbers on Long's 

 Peak sometimes see them floating up the 

 Trough. Often there is an air current flowing up 

 the Trough, and sometimes this catches hats and 

 takes them with it. 



One calm, sunny day I looked down over the 

 summit of the Peak and saw a procession of but- 

 terflies floating or sailing up the Trough. On 

 reaching the summit a majority of them dropped 

 down the vertical south wall of the peak about 

 four hundred feet, then flew westward and swung 

 in behind a pinnacle where they reentered the 

 Trough near the bottom. At a point where an 

 upstanding rock in the Trough changed the cur- 

 rent there was a lively flapping of wings as though 

 these aviators, like boatmen in rapids, were tensely 

 concentrated. Rarely did a butterfly leave the 

 ranks in ascending, though in coming down the 

 line was more broken. 



It was a wild region for these fragile-winged crea- 

 tures. The first time that I saw them I long 

 watched and wondered what it was all about. But 

 after seeing similar exhibitions elsewhere, and 

 after watching repeated flights at this place, I con- 

 cluded that butterflies, as well as other life, play. 



