124 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 



mountains, and by following the little valley which skirted a creek, 

 they kept on level ground, and saved their animals considerable 

 labor and fatigue. Williams always rode ahead, his body bent 

 over his saddle-horn, across which rested a long heavy rifle, his 

 keen gray eyes peering from under the slouched brim of a flexible 

 felt-hat, black and shining with grease. His buckskin hunting- 

 shirt, bedaubed until it had the appearance of polished leather, 

 hung in folds over his bony carcass ; his nether extremities being 

 clothed in pantaloons of the same material (with scattered fringes 

 down the outside of the leg — which ornaments,. however, had been 

 pretty well thinned to supply " whangs" for mending moccasins or 

 pack-saddles), which, shrunk with wet, clung tightly to his long, 

 spare, sinewy legs. His feet were thrust into a pair of Mexican 

 stirrups made of wood, and as big as coal-scuttles ; and iron spurs 

 of incredible proportions, with tinkling drops attached to the 

 rowels, were fastened to his heel — a bead- worked strap, four inches 

 broad, securing them over the instep. In the shoulder-belt which 

 sustained his powder-horn and bullet-pouch, were fastened the 

 various instruments essential to one pursuing his mode of life. An 

 awl, with deer-horn handle, and the point defended by a case of 

 cherry-wood carved by his own hand, hung at the back of the belt, 

 side by side with a worm for cleaning the rifle ; and under this 

 was a squat and quaint-looking bullet-mold, the handles guarded 

 by strips of buckskin to save his fingers from burning when running 

 balls, having for its companion a little bottle made from the point 

 of an antelope's horn, scraped transparent, which contained the 

 "medicine" used in baiting the traps. The old coon's face was 

 sharp and thin, a long nose and chin hob-nobbing each other ; and 

 his head was always bent forward giving him the appearance of 

 being hump-backed. He appeared to look neither to the right nor 

 left, but, in fact, his little twinkling eye was every where. He 

 looked at no one he was addressing, always seeming to be thinking 

 of something else than the subject of his discourse, speaking in a 



