84 SADDLE AND CAMP 



the previous noon and were evidently suffer- 

 ing from thirst even more than ourselves. 



In the distance we could see the smoke from 

 locomotives at Winslow. It seemed very near, 

 but John assured me it was fully forty miles 

 away. 



Between us and the Toltec Divide, which 

 shimmered through the heat waves to the west- 

 ward, lay Clear Creek, running down across 

 the desert to empty its waters into the Little 

 Colorado not far from Winslow. We knew it 

 was there, though nothing on the expanse of 

 sand and sage brush indicated its presence. 



The horses showed such evidences of suffer- 

 ing and our own physical beings called so 

 loudly for water that we turned from our trail 

 in a short cut to the creek. At length we came 

 suddenly to the rim of a deep canon. This was 

 Clear Creek Canon, but nothing suggested its 

 presence until we were within a few yards of it. 

 It was simply a deep, crooked gash with per- 

 pendicular walls cut down into the sagebrush 

 desert. We peered into its depth, only to dis- 

 cover the bed of Clear Creek at its bottom dry 

 as ashes. 



Then we turned back to the trail and pushed 

 on. Once a bunch of six antelopes scurried 

 away. At length we glimpsed cattle and knew 



