f course in his philosophy. The others, however, could not
repress their wonder. The slide ran for several minutes, sometimes
subsiding and then breaking out in full force again, as the vast mass
of snow, dammed up by the edge of the rock wall, would from time to
time assume such proportions that the snow behind it finally drove it
forward over the brink. Thus in successive cascades it ran on, until
at last it died away in a faint dribble of thin white. Silence once
more reigned in the valley. With their glasses they could now plainly
see a vast mass of white choking the upper valley almost entirely
across.

"Now, boys," said their leader, "there is something in this mountain
work besides just hunting bear. The people who live in the lowlands
don't always stop to think very much where their rivers come from and
what keeps them up. Here you have seen the birth of a river, or a part
of a river. That mass of packed snow will lie there nearly all summer,
just melting a little bit at times, and feeding this stream which
runs right past us here. Still farther back in the mountains you'll
see the glaciers--great ice-fields which never thaw out completely.
These are the upper sponges of the mountains, squeezed each year by
the summer sun. That is why the rivers run and keep on running."

"It's wonderful to me," said Jesse. "I'm glad we saw that--and glad,
too, that we weren't camped right where it came down."

"Yes," assented his uncle. "In that case there would have been no
possible help for us. But good hunters in the high country always take
care not to pitch their camp where a slide can possibly come down on
them. We wouldn't have been more than so many straws under that mass
of snow and rocks."

They sat for some time in the bright morning sun, their wet clothing
gradually becoming dryer upon them as they moved about a little now
and then, or resumed their wait with Leo on the log. The young Indian
sat motionless, apparently indifferent to all discomforts, and with no
interest in anything except the controlling impulse of the hunt. His
keen eye roved from time to time over all the faces of the slides
near them in the valley, especially the one directly in front of them
at the right. Presently they noted that he was gazing intently for
some time at one spot, although he said nothing.

"Do you see anything, Leo?" asked John, idly.

"Yes, see 'um four bears, grizzlum," said Leo, quietly.

At once all the others starte