avely as if in glad defiance of the drift to quench it, and,
notwithstanding but little trace of my nest could be seen after the
snow had leveled and buried it, I was snug and warm, and the passionate
uproar produced a glad excitement.

Day after day the storm continued, piling snow on snow in weariless
abundance. There were short periods of quiet, when the sun would seem
to look eagerly down through rents in the clouds, as if to know how
the work was advancing. During these calm intervals I replenished my
fire--sometimes without leaving the nest, for fire and woodpile were
so near this could easily be done--or busied myself with my notebook,
watching the gestures of the trees in taking the snow, examining
separate crystals under a lens, and learning the methods of their
deposition as an enduring fountain for the streams. Several times, when
the storm ceased for a few minutes, a Douglas squirrel came frisking
from the foot of a clump of dwarf pines, moving in sudden interrupted
spurts over the bossy snow; then, without any apparent guidance, he
would dig rapidly into the drift where were buried some grains of barley
that the horses had left. The Douglas squirrel does not strictly
belong to these upper woods, and I was surprised to see him out in such
weather. The mountain sheep also, quite a large flock of them, came to
my camp and took shelter beside a clump of matted dwarf pines a little
above my nest.

The storm lasted about a week, but before it was ended Sisson became
alarmed and sent up the guide with animals to see what had become of me
and recover the camp outfit. The news spread that "there was a man on
the mountain," and he must surely have perished, and Sisson was blamed
for allowing any one to attempt climbing in such weather; while I was as
safe as anybody in the lowlands, lying like a squirrel in a warm, fluffy
nest, busied about my own affairs and wishing only to be let alone.
Later, however, a trail could not have been broken for a horse, and some
of the camp furniture would have had to be abandoned. On the fifth day I
returned to Sisson's, and from that comfortable base made excursions,
as the weather permitted, to the Black Butte, to the foot of the Whitney
Glacier, around the base of the mountain, to Rhett and Klamath Lakes, to
the Modoc region and elsewhere, developing many interesting scenes and
experiences.

But the next spring, on the other side of this eventful winter, I saw
and felt still mor