58 CAMP-FIRES OF A NATURALIST. 



mule bucks jumped up and started to run, going over 

 and under the logs with remarkable ease. Getting 

 sight of one of the bucks as it was going between the 

 trees about three hundred yards away, Dyche fired, 

 but with no apparent result. Getting another op- 

 portunity he shot again. The burros were left and 

 search made in all directions for the deer ; but noth- 

 ing could be found, and Dyche was just about to give 

 up when Brown, who had gone on about seventy 

 yards farther, shouted : 



" Here ! here ! here's your old buck, dead as a door- 

 nail." 



Pushing on up the mountain, camp was made at 

 dark by a spring on the west slope. This place re- 

 ceived the name of Camp Wild Buck, but, owing 

 to later developments, was named Hungry Canon. 

 Cacheing the greater portion of the venison in a snow- 

 drift the next morning, they travelled three or four 

 miles north until the ridge was reached. This was 

 the watershed between the Rio Grande on the south 

 and the Arkansas on the north, and led towards the 

 Jicorilla Mountains, gradually rising and becoming 

 narrower as it extended above timber-line. 



At one o'clock they reached a high point in the 

 country, and from this place was seen one of the 

 grandest sights in the high ranges. Off to the west 

 was a vast ocean of mountain-tops, the timbered 

 slopes being surrounded by high peaks, running 

 above timber-line. 



The river, winding in the canon far below, was a 

 mere thread of silver among the trees, thousands of 

 feet down. Through a narrow opening of the moun- 



