36 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 



been often wiped after cutting his food or "butchering the 

 carcass of deer and buffalo, were of genuine mountain- 

 make. His face, clean shaved, exhibited, in its well-tanned 

 and weather-beaten complexion, the effects of such natural 

 cosmetics as sun and wind ; and under the mountain-hat of 

 felt which covered his head, long uncut hair hung in Indian 

 fashion on his shoulders. All this would have passed 

 muster, had it not been for the most extraordinary equip- 

 ment of a double-barrelled rifle, which, when it had 

 attracted the eyes of the mountaineers, elicited no little 

 astonishment, not to say derision. But perhaps nothing 

 excited their admiration so much as the perfect docility of 

 the stranger's animals, which, almost like dogs, obeyed his 

 voice and call ; and albeit that one, in a small sharp head 

 and pointed ears, expanded nostrils, and eye twinkling and 

 malicious, exhibited the personification of a "lurking 

 devil," yet they, could not but admire the perfect ease with 

 which even this one, in common with the rest, permitted 

 herself to be handled. 



Dismounting, and unhitching from the horn of his saddle 

 the coil of skin rope, one end of which was secured round 

 the neck of the horse, he proceeded to unsaddle ; and whilst 

 so engaged, the three mules, two of which were packed, one 

 with the unbutchered carcass of a deer, the other with a 

 pack of skins, &c., followed leisurely into the space chosen 

 for the camp, and, cropping the grass at their ease, waited 

 until a whistle called them to be unpacked. 



The horse was a strong square-built bay ; and although 

 the severities of a prolonged winter, with scanty pasture 

 and long and trying travel, had robbed his bones of fat and 

 flesh, tucked up his flank, and " ewed " his neck, still his 

 clean and well-set legs, oblique shoulder, and withers fine 

 as a deer's, in spite of his gaunt half-starved appearance, 

 bore ample testimony as to what he had been ; while his 

 clear cheerful eye, and the hearty appetite with which he 

 fell to work on the coarse grass of the bottom, proved that 

 he had something in him still, and was game as ever. His 

 tail, gnawed by the mules in days of strait, attracted the 

 observant mountaineers. 



