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Show I j The Winter Life of Animals Ii ' It is a clear, crisp morning when ; you set out. There was a snowfall ; tho day before yesterday not yes's yes-'s tcrday, because animals usually re-I re-I ', ; main in their holes several hours aft-I aft-I j ' or a storm. The countryside is span-I span-I gled white. The rusty tamaracks In I . the swamps, tho tawny roadsides wil- lows, thc delicate lilac of the bare jr J blackberry vines, give a note of sub- j dued but rich color to the land-U land-U ; ' scape. I , ' From the village behind, wood I , pmolce rises in the still air. Ahead 7 i you see the slender second growth I trees up the mountains Uke a dcll- '. cate cross-hatching made with gray ( ' crayon on a white ground. The world is lovely, but not wild. "Winter Is in her best mood. Not a mile from home! you enter the still woods, where there I Is no sign of life save for an occa-l sional squirrel or chickadee, but where, through a break In the trees, i I or over the wall where the weasel )t ; lives, you can Btill see the vil'age ( spire. What wild things passed j through here last night None, sure-1 5;S ly, for the high school sleigh ride i ' ' rartv wpiiI chnnllnr 'v n the road. I ' 1 But let us look at thc telltale snow and see. Here is a little clearing, a small meadow or forest lawn, no doubt Tho snow by the border is all crossed and rccrossed with a delicate, lacy design, made by tiny feet. See, between be-tween the prints often trails a line. This little four-footed creaturo had a tall. But why do thc tracks here cover the snow like lace work? There was a moon last night. That was why the high school went on a sleigh ride, and why the dcer.-mlce danced! Had you been hidden at the edge of this bit of moon-blanched open you might have seen them, like tiny sprites, or liko' dead, curled up tub-set tub-set brown oak leaves wind blown over thes now, with their tails for stems. Follow one of the tracks back from I the open. It leads to a rotten old stump. Inside, somewhere, thc mouse is sleeping. I We have passed Mr. Weasel's wall, and tho spot where thc deer-mice I danced Keeping our eyes to tho I ground, we sec Innumerable squirrel ' tracks, groups of four prints, some- times three feet apart, when the squir- rel took a long bound, und every now j and again they disappear Into a round I hole In the snow. Usually there is a second hole a , few feet farther on. The squirrel came up again probably with a cone. Follow his track and It will lead to tho base of a tree or an old stump, and there you will find fresh bits of the cone crumbs from his table. You will find tracks of partridges, too, and places where they hne scratched the i snow on a southern bank till the fresh I fieen of thc partridge-berry vines gleams through, and perhaps a red berry or two, overlooked by the bird. 1 Squirrels aud partridges, to be sure, are day neighbors rather than night, i hut you may be certain they were up i earlier than we were- Walter Prich- I ard Eaton in Harper's Magazine. this examination wa3 very gratifying, disclosing values In excess of nny as say returns secured by Mr. Callahan himself But for the dlsHonting vote of ono man the property would have been taken over by Mr. Bromlcv and associates. Mr. Miller of tho Miller Mining company, com-pany, having property at Crescent, has returned from his home In Missouri Just whnt he intends to do is not known. ' There is considerable activity over I in thc Clark MounLnin district, somo twenty-one 'miles west of Nlpion, in San Bernardino county. The Coliseum Ib about to bo equipped with reduction machlnory. On this property there ip a large amount of ore. but thc grade Is such as to necessitate Its treatment i on tho ground. , T. J. Fitzpatrick has fine zinc ore in soveral places on his Uncompahgre property, nnd is shipping steadily by thc way of Ivanpah on the Santa Fe, route. John H. Williams, owning a tung-! sten property in tho sao vicinity, is' reported to bo preparing to Install4 mnchincry on his property Las Vegas Ve-gas Age , |
