The Journal of a Sporting Nomad 
had escaped, and from the prisoner, condemned 
him to death. He was then taken at once on to 
the glacier, on the edge of which grew a small, 
shaking aspen tree. To this he was strung up 
by the neck, the body being cut down only an 
hour or so before our arrival, and thrown into 
a crevasse in the glacier. To show the ¢allous- 
ness of this brute, the only words he spoke when 
he was being conducted to trial were these, 
‘“* Waal, I guess you’re going to kill the smartest 
revolver shot in the Western States of America.” 
Such is “‘ lynch” law, or the law of the land. 
Primitive civilization requires desperate remedies 
sometimes, but I think that in the vast majority 
of cases the prisoner gets a fair trial, and perhaps 
the “‘ benefit of the doubt.” It is essential that 
some such law must be enforced to safeguard 
life and belongings, and it resolves itself into the 
Mosaic system, ‘‘ an eye for an eye.” There are 
certain unwritten laws in a wild country such as 
this that must be upheld, the penalty of the 
breaking of them being death. One of these 
is murder, another theft. The consequences 
attaching to the latter may seem severe, but 
are well known to every one living in the country, 
native or white man. I consider the law is 
therefore just, for this simple reascn—know- 
ing that the penalty for theft is death, a man 
cannot excuse himself on the plea of ignor- 
ance. It would be impossible in such a 
208 
