e glaciers, oftentimes
beyond the reach of the most daring hunter. They seem to be as much
at home on the ice and snowfields as on the crags, making their way in
flocks from ridge to ridge on the great volcanic mountains by crossing
the glaciers that lie between them, traveling in single file guided
by an old experienced leader, like a party of climbers on the Alps. On
these ice-journeys they pick their way through networks of crevasses
and over bridges of snow with admirable skill, and the mountaineer may
seldom do better in such places than to follow their trail, if he can.
In the rich alpine gardens and meadows they find abundance of food,
venturing sometimes well down in the prairie openings on the edge of
the timberline, but holding themselves ever alert and watchful, ready to
flee to their highland castles at the faintest alarm. When their summer
pastures are buried beneath the winter snows, they make haste to the
lower ridges, seeking the wind-beaten crags and slopes where the snow
cannot lie at any great depth, feeding at times on the leaves and twigs
of bushes when grass is beyond reach.

The wild sheep is another admirable alpine rover, but comparatively
rare in the Oregon mountains, choosing rather the drier ridges to the
southward on the Cascades and to the eastward among the spurs of the
Rocky Mountain chain.

Deer give beautiful animation to the forests, harmonizing finely in
their color and movements with the gray and brown shafts of the trees
and the swaying of the branches as they stand in groups at rest, or
move gracefully and noiselessly over the mossy ground about the edges of
beaver meadows and flowery glades, daintily culling the leaves and tips
of the mints and aromatic bushes on which they feed. There are three
species, the black-tailed, white-tailed, and mule deer; the last being
restricted in its range to the open woods and plains to the eastward of
the Cascades. They are nowhere very numerous now, killing for food, for
hides, or for mere wanton sport, having well-nigh exterminated them in
the more accessible regions, while elsewhere they are too often at the
mercy of the wolves.

Gliding about in their shady forest homes, keeping well out of sight,
there is a multitude of sleek fur-clad animals living and enjoying their
clean, beautiful lives. How beautiful and interesting they are is about
as difficult for busy mortals to find out as if their homes were beyond
sight in the sky. Hence the s