l little hopper. No cloud of care in his day, no winter
of discontent in sight. To him every day is a holiday; and when at
length his sun sets, I fancy he will cuddle down on the forest floor and
die like the leaves and flowers, and like them leave no unsightly
remains calling for burial.

Sundown, and I must to camp. Good-night, friends three,--brown bear,
rugged boulder of energy in groves and gardens fair as Eden; restless,
fussy fly with gauzy wings stirring the air around all the world; and
grasshopper, crisp, electric spark of joy enlivening the massy sublimity
of the mountains like the laugh of a child. Thank you, thank you all
three for your quickening company. Heaven guide every wing and leg.
Good-night friends three, good-night.

[Illustration: MT. CLARK TOP OF S. DOME MT. STARR KING

ABIES MAGNIFICA]

_July 22._ A fine specimen of the black-tailed deer went bounding past
camp this morning. A buck with wide spread of antlers, showing admirable
vigor and grace. Wonderful the beauty, strength, and graceful movements
of animals in wildernesses, cared for by Nature only, when our
experience with domestic animals would lead us to fear that all the
so-called neglected wild beasts would degenerate. Yet the upshot of
Nature's method of breeding and teaching seems to lead to excellence of
every sort. Deer, like all wild animals, are as clean as plants. The
beauties of their gestures and attitudes, alert or in repose, surprise
yet more than their bounding exuberant strength. Every movement and
posture is graceful, the very poetry of manners and motion. Mother
Nature is too often spoken of as in reality no mother at all. Yet how
wisely, sternly, tenderly she loves and looks after her children in all
sorts of weather and wildernesses. The more I see of deer the more I
admire them as mountaineers. They make their way into the heart of the
roughest solitudes with smooth reserve of strength, through dense belts
of brush and forest encumbered with fallen trees and boulder piles,
across canyons, roaring streams, and snow-fields, ever showing forth
beauty and courage. Over nearly all the continent the deer find homes.
In the Florida savannas and hummocks, in the Canada woods, in the far
north, roaming over mossy tundras, swimming lakes and rivers and arms of
the sea from island to island washed with waves, or climbing rocky
mountains, everywhere healthy and able, adding beauty to every
landscape,--a truly admirable creature