LIFE IX THE FAR WEST. 207 



The fate of one of the humble characters who have 

 figured in these pages we must yet tarry a little longer to 

 describe. 



During the past winter, a party of mountaineers, flying 

 from overpowering numbers of hostile Sioux, found them- 

 selves, one stormy evening, in a wild and dismal canon 

 near the elevated mountain valley called the " New Park." 



The rocky bed of a dry mountain torrent, whose waters 

 were now locked up at their spring-heads by icy fetters, 

 was the only road up which they could make their difficult 

 way ; for the rugged sides of the gorge rose precipitously 

 from the creek, scarcely affording a foot-hold to even the 

 active bighorn, which occasionally looked down upon the 

 travellers from the lofty summit. Logs of pine uprooted 

 by the hurricanes which sweep incessantly through the 

 mountain denies, and tossed headlong from the surround- 

 ing ridges, continually obstructed their way; and huge 

 rocks and boulders, fallen from the heights and blocking 

 up the bed of the stream, added to the difficulty, and 

 threatened them every instant with destruction. 



Towards sundown they reached a point where the canon 

 opened out into a little shelving glade or prairie, a few 

 hundred yards in extent, the entrance to which was al- 

 most hidden by thicket of dwarf pine and cedar. Here 

 they determined to encamp for the night, in a spot secure 

 from Indians, and, as they imagined, untrodden by the 

 foot of man. 



What, however, was their astonishment, on breaking 

 through the cedar-covered entrance, to perceive a solitary 

 horse standing motionless in the centre of the prairie. 

 Drawing near, they found it to be an old grizzled mus- 

 tang, or Indian pony, with cropped ears and ragged tail 

 (well picked by hungry mules), standing doubled up with 

 cold, and at the very last gasp from extreme old age and 

 weakness. Its bones were nearly through the stiffened 

 skin, the legs of the animal were gathered under it ; whilst 

 its forlorn-looking head and stretched-out neck hung list- 

 lessly downwards, almost overbalancing its tottering body. 

 The glazed and sunken eye the protruding and froth- 



