e spruce forest. "Where water has been, water may be
again," we argued and, leading the horses, picked our way among the trees
and over fallen logs to a fairly open hill slope where we attempted to
ride, but our animals were nearly done. After climbing a few feet they
stood with heaving sides and trembling legs, the breath rasping through
distended nostrils. We felt the altitude almost as badly as the horses for
the meadow itself was twelve thousand feet above the level of the sea and
the air was very thin.

There seemed to be no hope of finding even a suitable snow bank when it was
slowly borne in upon us that the subdued roaring in our ears was the sound
of water and not the effect of altitude as we both imagined. Above and to
the left was a sheer cliff, hundreds of feet in height, and as we toiled
upward and emerged beyond timber line we caught a glimpse of a silver
ribbon streaming down its face. It came from a melting snow crater and we
could follow its course with our eyes to where it swung downward along a
rock wall not far from the upper end of the meadow. It was so hidden by the
trees that had we not climbed above timber line, it never would have been
discovered.

This solved the question of our camp and we looked about us happily. On the
way through the forest we had noticed small mammal runways under almost
every log and, when we stood above the tree limit, the grassy slope was cut
by an intricate network of tiny tunnels. These were plainly the work of a
meadow vole (_Microtus_) and at this altitude it certainly would prove to
be a species new to our collection.

The sun had already dropped behind the mountain and the meadow was in
shadow when we reached it again on our homeward way. By five o'clock we
were in the temple eating a belated tiffin and making preparations for an
early start. But our hopes were idle, for in the morning three of the mules
had strayed, and we did not arrive at the meadow until two o'clock in the
afternoon.

Our camp was made just at the edge of the spruce forest a few hundred yards
from the snow stream. As soon as the tents were up we climbed to the grassy
slope above timber line, with Heller, to set a string of traps in the vole
runways and under logs and stumps in the forest.

The hunters made their camp beside a huge rock a short distance away and
slept in their ragged clothes without a blanket or shelter of any kind. It
was delightfully warm, even at this altitude, when the