OCTOBER SNOW. IO9 
to determine what it could be, danger was for- 
gotten ; and she was within easy range when the 
report of her fire rang out, and a fine buck fell 
struggling in the grass. The afternoon was 
passed by Mrs. Maxwell in skinning her trophy 
and in taking measurements of it, to assist her in 
building up the artificial body over which the 
skin was to be placed. 
Of these measurements, in large animals, from 
fifteen to twenty were needed, and, aside from the 
length and the height, it was desirable to take 
them from the body after the removal of the 
skin. This work, together with the cleaning of 
such bones as it was important to preserve, was 
neither easy nor agreeable, but she always pre- 
ferred doing it herself, as it gave her the oppor- 
tunity of studying the shape and disposition of 
prominent muscles, etc. She considered a knowl- 
edge of the anatomy of an animal as essential in 
taxidermy, as in sculpture, to the finest artistic 
effect. 
The next morning the wind rose, and snow 
began to fall. It was late in October, and their 
altitude was not less than 8,000 feet above the 
level of the sea ; so that what would have been a 
mild autumnal rain in a lower region, there was 
snow and sleet. Not the snow that poets rhap- 
sodize, that comes floating earthward through 
the shadowed air, 
