TAKING TO THE TRAIL 11 



were plentiful, without regard to needs, and 

 until quite recently the law offered the animals 

 no protection. Even now, though antelope are 

 perpetually protected by law, not many natives 

 will let pass an opportunity to kill them. 



I had engaged a man to take me to Pinedale, 

 and at eight o'clock on the morning following 

 the storm, in a light rig drawn by a pair of able 

 horses, we turned into the road across the 

 southern desert. The sun was fearfully hot, the 

 country through which we drove a gently rising 

 plain of sand and sagebrush, with no other visi- 

 ble life than rapidly moving lizards and chame- 

 leons, sluggish horned toads, or an occasional 

 jack rabbit, which scurried away at our ap- 

 proach, or sat in fancied safety behind a bit 

 of low brush, his long ears overtopping his 

 hiding place and betraying his presence. Once 

 or twice heavily laden freighters were met, with 

 cargoes of wool from distant ranches, slowly 

 and toilsomely winding their way to the rail- 

 road. Each outfit consisted of two ponderous 

 wagons, one hitched behind the other, drawn by 

 six jaded horses, urged forward by a driver 

 mounted upon the off-wheel animal. 



I was glad indeed when Snowflake, a small 

 Mormon settlement, a green oasis in the desert, 

 was sighted shortly after noon, for here we were 



