into the corral, killed a
sheep and made off with it without being seen, while still another was
lost by trampling and suffocation against the side of the corral. Now
that our mutton has been tasted, I suppose it will be difficult to put a
stop to the ravages of these freebooters.

The Don arrived to-day from the lowlands with provisions and a letter.
On learning the losses he had sustained, he determined to move the flock
at once to the Upper Tuolumne region, saying that the bears would be
sure to visit the camp every night as long as we stayed, and that no
fire or noise we might make would avail to frighten them. No clouds save
a few thin, lustrous touches on the eastern horizon. Thunder heard in
the distance.

CHAPTER VIII

THE MONO TRAIL

_August 7._ Early this morning bade good-bye to the bears and blessed
silver fir camp, and moved slowly eastward along the Mono Trail. At
sundown camped for the night on one of the many small flowery meadows so
greatly enjoyed on my excursion to Lake Tenaya. The dusty, noisy flock
seems outrageously foreign and out of place in these nature gardens,
more so than bears among sheep. The harm they do goes to the heart, but
glorious hope lifts above all the dust and din and bids me look forward
to a good time coming, when money enough will be earned to enable me to
go walking where I like in pure wildness, with what I can carry on my
back, and when the bread-sack is empty, run down to the nearest point on
the bread-line for more. Nor will these run-downs be blanks, for,
whether up or down, every step and jump on these blessed mountains is
full of fine lessons.

[Illustration: VIEW OF TENAYA LAKE SHOWING CATHEDRAL PEAK]

[Illustration: ONE OF THE TRIBUTARY FOUNTAINS OF THE TUOLUMNE CANYON
WATERS, ON THE NORTH SIDE OF THE HOFFMAN RANGE]

_August 8._ Camp at the west end of Lake Tenaya. Arriving early, I took
a walk on the glacier-polished pavements along the north shore, and
climbed the magnificent mountain rock at the east end of the lake, now
shining in the late afternoon light. Almost every yard of its surface
shows the scoring and polishing action of a great glacier that enveloped
it and swept heavily over its summit, though it is about two thousand
feet high above the lake and ten thousand above sea-level. This
majestic, ancient ice-flood came from the eastward, as the scoring and
crushing of the surface shows. Even below the waters of the lake the
rock in some plac