156 In the United States vi 



Station next year. You never, in all your life, saw 

 anything half so wild and ruffianly and blood-thirsty 

 as we look. I keep to a modest and simple hide 

 and feel very Guy-of-Gisborneish, but the other two 

 are arrayed like king Solomon in all his glory, in 

 crimson and blue. Moccasins I cannot take to; they 

 are warm and comfortable enough, but the ground is 

 covered with a dwarf species of cactus with most 

 awful spines which pierce right through the stoutest 

 elk-skin, so I stick to shooting-boots, though they 

 are rather out of keeping with the rest of my barbaric 

 splendour. These cacti were, indeed, beyond speech ; 

 we have to crawl slap over them when stalking, and 

 they made us more fretful than porcupines because 

 we could not " shoot our quills." 



' The climate is cold but bright as summer, and 

 the air is clear and transparent to a remarkable 

 degree. We shall be out of all Indian dangers for 

 some time, the only savages will be the Utes, quiet 

 and peaceable animals. I shall not be sorry, for the 

 constant tension of expected attack is rather weari- 

 some, and it is a bore not being able to hunt with- 

 out soldiers dangling at one's heels. We are going 

 up into the beautiful parks in the Rockies, wide 

 valleys in the bosom of the snow mountains, where 

 we shall find all sorts of game, and if the weather 

 keeps fine — it has suddenly changed to summer — a 

 bear or two.' 



