CHAPTER VI 



EXPEDITION TO THE OREGON DESERT 

 IN 1877 



Monument Station, I was surprised to 

 see Mr. S. W. Williston get aboard with 

 all his outfit. Williston did not know at 

 first that I was on the train, and when he 

 entered my car, he was greatly astonished, thinking 

 that I was on his trail. He tried to find out my 

 destination, but failed. We slept together at Den- 

 ver. Then he took a train south, while I went north 

 toward Cheyenne and the West. 



Onward our train sped toward the land of the 

 setting sun, through the grand and impressive 

 scenery of the Rockies and Sierra Nevadas. At 

 Sacramento I took the railroad for Redding, where, 

 with seven other passengers, I entered a Concord 

 coach drawn by a team of eight horses, and con- 

 tinued my journey by stage. 



It was a lovely August evening. The moon was 

 at its full, and the night was almost as bright as day. 

 No sound broke the deep silence, except now and 



then the whoo of an owl as it called to its mate far 



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