There we stayed and watched the sun take his nightly plunge into the sea of mountains, now dimly visible.

Behind us stretched the prairie, sweeping out level to the sky and cut by the winding coulee of the Swan.

Great long shadows from the hills were lying upon its yellow face, and far at the distant edge the gray haze was deepening into purple.

Before us lay the hills, softly curving like the shoulders of great sleeping monsters, their tops still bright, but the separating valleys full of shadow.

And there, far beyond them, up against the sky, was the line of the mountains--blue, purple, and gold, according as the light fell upon them.