A Sportsman 129 



Dirt mining district I met George M. Pullman, after- 

 ward prominent in railroad affairs and President of the 

 company bearing his name. 



I made an excursion with a guide and hunter 

 named Utter for mountain goats in the ranges higher 

 up than at Central, the altitude of the latter being 

 about eight thousand feet, and where goats had been 

 seen, but without our seeing any, although Utter killed 

 a large grizzly bear, of which I still have the skin in 

 Maine. Utter tracked the bear over a thin fall of snow 

 to its den, and left our camp, which was near, at the 

 very earliest gleam of light and took his place in a 

 tree opposite the den and fatally shot the bear as it 

 came out, in less than an hour after Utter had taken 

 his position. 



Colorado at that time was as rough in its social 

 elements as new mining regions generally are, and had 

 a stronger color put on in this respect by the influx of 

 a highly dangerous class from Missouri and Kansas, 

 composed of men who belonged to the bushwhacking 

 and guerilla bands which had been broken up finally 

 by the close of the war, and those who were not killed 

 or captured had to flee for their lives and many came 

 out to Colorado, where they were more or less looked 

 after, and a good many were shot or strung up on short 

 notice upon their capture, after committing robberies 

 and murders. It is surprising to note that these des- 

 peradoes could act as badly and reckless as they did 

 in view of the disgust they created and the steady 

 decimation of their numbers which occurred from the 

 indignant communities they infested. But they kept 

 coming, and some, separating from others, distributed 

 themselves in the various mining districts, where they 



