In Cowboy Land 279 



railroad, who was just coming in from his 

 summer's work. It was the first of October. 

 There had been a heavy snow-storm and the 

 snow was still falling. Riding a stout pony 

 each, and leading another packed with our 

 bedding, etc., we broke our way from the 

 upper to the middle geyser basin. Here we 

 found a troop of the ist Cavalry camped, 

 under the command of old friends of mine, 

 Captain Frank Edwards and Lieutenant (now 

 Captain) John Pitcher. They gave us hay 

 for our horses and insisted upon our stopping 

 to lunch, with the ready hospitality always 

 shown by army officers. After lunch we be- 

 gan exchanging stories. My traveling com- 

 panion, the surveyor, had that spring per- 

 formed a feat of note, going through one of 

 the canyons of the Big Horn for the first time. 

 He went with an old mining inspector, the 

 two of them dragging a cottonwood sledge 

 over the ice. The walls of the canyon are 

 so sheer and the water is so rough that it 

 can be descended only when the stream is 

 frozen. However, after six days' labor and 

 hardship the descent was accomplished ; and 

 the surveyor, in concluding, described his 

 experience in going through the Crow Res- 

 ervation. 



