re those of the wet coast
country, where the trees are enormous and set close together, thickets
and ferns clutter the ground beneath them, and moss clings to the lower
limbs; sunlight, if not a total stranger, at best is but an itinerant
acquaintance.

When the whim seized it the fickle trail deserted one bank of the Elwha
for the other, one of us leading Billy across while his companion, in
vain effort to keep dry-shod, essayed perilous crossings on logs, often
as not resulting in disaster.

Toward evening of the fourth day we dragged Billy up a final hill.
Except for scattered and weather-beaten blazes, all vestiges of the
trail had vanished, and, in fact, Grant Humes had told us that no one
had been that way for two years, a fact testified by fallen trees and
the unrepaired destruction of spring freshets. Hidden at the base of
giant Douglas firs was all that remained of the Elwha, now scarcely more
than a brook, its waters opaquely white with the silt of glaciers close
at hand. Suddenly we emerged upon a hillock and below us lay Elwha
Basin, where the river has its birth.

A cup, carpeted with grass, walled with crags; an amphitheater studded
with trees, hemmed in by banks of snow, and roofed by blue sky--such is
the basin of the Elwha. At the far end is a wall of rock, over which
tumbles the jolly little infant river in a silvery cascade, and beyond
is a snow bank jutting into the greenery of an upper meadow. From a dark
cave at the glacial snowbank's base the river seemed to have its start,
though beyond the snow, from still loftier cliffs, fluttered another
ribbon of water coming from unseen heights beyond. Westerly a few jagged
snow peaks peered down upon us over the nearer cliffs, and great shadows
reached across the pleasant valley to the very base of our little hill
of vantage.

At the near end of the basin we found a wonderful camp place all
prepared by our thoughtful nature hostess. It was a cave at the foot of
a cliff, whose ceiling of overhanging rock protected admirably against
the vagaries of the elements, while wood and water were close at hand,
and ferns and flowers made Elysian setting. We turned Billy loose in
the knee-high grass, where he spent a week of loafing, unable, for once,
to escape, thanks to the cliffs and a back trail easily blocked by
felling a few small trees. Happily, then, we sprawled upon our blankets,
with the sweet-smelling spruce boughs beneath us and the warm light of
the f