IQOl] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. I 17 



the wilds ! It was some time before we sank into slumber- 

 broken occasionally by the strange wood noises. About ^ A.M. 

 \\x- awoke shivering. A fire was quickly kindled and it was 

 kept roaring until daylight. \Ye were read}- and willing to 

 make an early start, but found that we were unfamiliar with 

 our team, for at the first hill Gray stopped as though never to 

 go again. \Ve argued the case but to no advantage ; we un- 

 loaded ; we unhitched and drove a team without a wagon, 

 then rehitched, but still there was no .<;<> , we applied a tough 

 persuader. Finally, while we were lamenting the situation 

 and debating the advisability of a slow fire under the sphinx- 

 like creature, a team came from the opposite direction and the 

 driver wished to pass but the road was too narrow. He finally 

 came to our assistance with a long lithe whip and Gray soon 

 moved on once more. We learned that Gray needed, in fact, 

 must have, a down hill pull the first thing in the morning if 

 we wished to avoid trouble. Give him an easy start and he- 

 was good for all day, but up a steep incline, just after break- 

 fast, there he put his foot down. The next event of import- 

 ance w'as the descent of Floyd's Hill, a feat for which none of 

 our friends or enemies had prepared us ; our friends because they 

 did not wish to discourage us ; our enemies, because they hoped 

 we would never come back. Imagine, if you can, a rocky hill 

 over a mile in length, every step of which seems the jumping 

 off place, yet as one makes the various turns in the road and 

 looks ahead, the descent is found always to be a little less than 

 90. One at the reins and one at the brakes, we finally made it, 

 then took a long breath, remembered that home and friends lay 

 beyond that hill and wondered if there was a way around it. 

 The natives assured us there was not. Like the elassir writer 

 who crossed the Rubicon, we passed on but wondered what the 

 mountain* were, if this was Floyd's /////. We were too busy that 

 day managing brake and reins to do any collecting. If there- 

 were insects we failed to see them. This was Saturday and 

 late that evening we went into cam]) on the banks of Clear 

 Creek, just beyond Idaho Springs. Here we- -.pent Sunday 

 resting and writing to friends. Here we enjoyed our first 

 rainstorm in camp, heard the thunder roll about the rocky peaks 



