ring me very
much nor trusting me. He was probably about five hundred pounds in
weight, a broad, rusty bundle of ungovernable wildness, a happy fellow
whose lines have fallen in pleasant places. The flowery glade in which I
saw him so well, framed like a picture, is one of the best of all I have
yet discovered, a conservatory of Nature's precious plant people. Tall
lilies were swinging their bells over that bear's back, with geraniums,
larkspurs, columbines, and daisies brushing against his sides. A place
for angels, one would say, instead of bears.

In the great canyons Bruin reigns supreme. Happy fellow, whom no famine
can reach while one of his thousand kinds of food is spared him. His
bread is sure at all seasons, ranged on the mountain shelves like stores
in a pantry. From one to the other, up or down he climbs, tasting and
enjoying each in turn in different climates, as if he had journeyed
thousands of miles to other countries north or south to enjoy their
varied productions. I should like to know my hairy brothers
better--though after this particular Yosemite bear, my very neighbor,
had sauntered out of sight this morning, I reluctantly went back to camp
for the Don's rifle to shoot him, if necessary, in defense of the flock.
Fortunately I couldn't find him, and after tracking him a mile or two
towards Mount Hoffman I bade him Godspeed and gladly returned to my work
on the Yosemite Dome.

The house-fly also seemed at home and buzzed about me as I sat
sketching, and enjoying my bear interview now it was over. I wonder what
draws house-flies so far up the mountains, heavy gross feeders as they
are, sensitive to cold, and fond of domestic ease. How have they been
distributed from continent to continent, across seas and deserts and
mountain chains, usually so influential in determining boundaries of
species both of plants and animals. Beetles and butterflies are
sometimes restricted to small areas. Each mountain in a range, and even
the different zones of a mountain, may have its own peculiar species.
But the house-fly seems to be everywhere. I wonder if any island in
mid-ocean is flyless. The bluebottle is abundant in these Yosemite
woods, ever ready with his marvelous store of eggs to make all dead
flesh fly. Bumblebees are here, and are well fed on boundless stores of
nectar and pollen. The honeybee, though abundant in the foothills, has
not yet got so high. It is only a few years since the first swarm was
broug