ESS--NED PROVES HIMSELF TO BE A FRIEND IN NEED AND IN DEED, AS WELL
AS AN EXCELLENT DOCTOR, HUNTER, COOK, AND NURSE--DEER-SHOOTING BY
FIRELIGHT.

During the course of their wanderings among the mountains our hero and
his companion met with many strange adventures and saw many strange
sights, which, however, we cannot afford space to dwell upon here.
Their knowledge in natural history, too, was wonderfully increased, for
they were both observant men, and the school of nature is the best in
which any one can study. Audubon, the hunter-naturalist of America,
knew this well! and few men have added so much as he to the sum of human
knowledge in his peculiar department, while fewer still have so
wonderfully enriched the pages of romantic adventure in wild, unknown
regions.

In these wanderings, too, Ned and Tom learned to know experimentally
that truth is indeed stranger than fiction, and that if the writers of
fairy-tales had travelled more they would have saved their imaginations
a deal of trouble, and produced more extraordinary works.

The size of the trees they encountered was almost beyond belief, though
none of them surpassed the giant of which an account has been already
given. Among other curious trees they found _sugar-pines_ growing in
abundance in one part of the country. This is, perhaps, the most
graceful of all the pines. With a perfectly straight and cylindrical
stem and smooth bark, it rears its proud crest high above other trees,
and flings its giant limbs abroad, like a sentinel guarding the forest.
The stem rises to about four-fifths of its height perfectly free of
branches; above this point the branches spread out almost horizontally,
drooping a little at the ends from the weight of the huge cones which
they bear. These cones are about a foot-and-a-half long, and under each
leaf lies a seed the size of a pea, which has an agreeably sweet taste,
and is much esteemed by the Indians, who use it as an article of food.

Another remarkable sight they saw was a plain, of some miles in extent,
completely covered with shattered pieces of quartz, which shone with
specks and veins of pure gold. Of course they had neither time nor
inclination to attempt the laborious task of pulverising this quartz in
order to obtain the precious metal; but Ned moralised a little as they
galloped over the plain, spurning the gold beneath their horses' hoofs,
as if it had been of no value whatever! They both puzzled themselv