Part 17 (1/2)

”'Oh! so h I have seen h as it, and yet it was said they did not measure the half of 14,000 feet'

”'That arises fro this one from the sea-level, as you did them The plain upon which it stands, and from which we view it, is of itself elevated nearly half as h tables of the American continent'

”Here, for a minute or so, the conversation stopped; and we travelled on in silence, all of us with our eyes fixed on the white and roseate peak that glittered before us, leading our eyes far up into the heavens

”Frank again resumed the discourse, which had been broken off by our admiration of this beautiful object

”'Is it not curious,' said he, 'that the snow should lie so regularly, co just like the cape of a coat or the heht line all around the mountain'

”'That line,' rejoined his mother, 'is, as you say, a curious phenomenon, and caused by the laws of heat and cold, which we have just been explaining It is called the ”snow-line,” and a good deal of speculation has arisen araphers about the elevation of this line Of course, on ht above the level of the sea As you advance northward or southward to the Poles, it will be found lower and lower, until within the frigid zones it ether--for there, as we have said, snow covers the whole earth, and there can be no ”snow-line”

”'Froht be for the elevation of the snow-line for all latitudes But that could not be done Observation has shown that it not only differs on mountains that lie in the saher on one side than the other--particularly on those of great extent, as the Himmalehs of India This is all quite natural, and easily accounted for The position of reat distance froive them a colder or warmer atmosphere, independent of latitude Moreover, the same mountain may have a warmer climate on one side than the other; and of course the snow-line will be higher on that side which is the war of the snow This line, too, varies in summer and winter for a like reason--as we see here upon our own mountain, where it has already descended several feet since the weather becae, is all very natural; and you will see, too, that Nature, although apparently capricious in ularly in this one, as perhaps in all others'

”'But, et to the top of the mountain? I should like to have some snow to make snow-balls, and pelt Frank with them'

”'It would be a very difficult task, Master Hal; and h with I think Frank will escape being snow-balled this time'

”'But people have climbed to the top of the Hiher than this, I am sure'

”'Never,' interrupted Frank; 'no one has ever climbed the Himmalehs

Have they, h as the sureat mountains, which are more than five miles above the level of the ocean

Even could they be climbed, it is not likely that any anis seened by the Creator to afford us objects for sublime contemplation--objects far above the reach of mortal man, and that can never be rendered common by his contact Do they not seem so?'

”We had now reached the foot of thenear the entrance of the ravine, we loosed Pompo from his cart, and rested ourselves on the banks of the little strea up into the defile in search of the pinons As we advanced, Mary pointed out the trees which she had noticed on a forreen colour, rew near them We made towards one which stood apart, and was ht prove to be the bread-pine tree; and we approached it with feelings of anxiety and expectation

”In a short time ere under its branches; and if we had had no other test thanthere, corance of the tree, we could have told that it could be no other than the pinon

The ground was covered with cones, each of the them, we found them all broken open and the seed extracted Some animal had been there before us, and relished their contents--thus affording a proof that they were good to eat

There were stilluntil we had split some of them open and tasted their ripe seeds

”'It is it!' cried ht 'It is the nut-pine! This will serve for bread until we can grow our wheat and corn Corove of the sarew at a short distance; and we all hurried to the grove, and co them into heaps

”We had soon collected aswe returned to the valley, with our little cart half-full of pine-nuts On reaching home, some of them were parched and pounded into a sort of coarsemany weeks, we had cakes to our supper

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

THE MENAGERIE, AVIARY, AND BOTANIC GARDEN

”We were busy of course every day, as we had plenty of work to do We laid a floor in our cabin, and fenced a couple of fields--one to plant our corn in, and the other to keep Po with soht feel inclined to devour hi several red-deer and a couple of elk, which we stored up for our winter provision We did not find the black-tails very palatable, and most of their flesh went to feed Castor and Pollux

”Cudjo was the busiest of all of us He reat service to us He also constructed for hih, which would serve every purpose--as there was a considerable portion of the ground that ithout turf, and could be easily turned This part had been covered with beautiful flowers, such as sunflowers, red and orange-coloured poppies, and asclepias It was alh them up

”With an eye to the future scarcity of our a with a weapon which would answer all our purposes al the latter of course for great occasions We had found sorowing in the valley This is the fa a hint fro them--as the Indians do--with the sinews of the deer For arroe had the straight cane-reeds; and Cudjo made us a set of barbs out of iron spikes that we had taken fro at a mark, before the winter was over, ere all three able to use our neeapons to soht, could bring down a squirrel frohest tree in the valley As a marksman, both with the bow and rifle, he was quite superior to Frank, who, instead of feeling jealous, seemed rather to be proud of the skill of his brother Harry, during all the winter, kept our table loaded with partridges, squirrels--of which there were several species--hares, and wild turkeys; the last of which, being much finer than tame ones, of course ere all very fond of