Expedition to John Day River 185 



" What if she should butt us off ? " I said to Bill, 

 and the position we were in, clinging to the face of 

 the rock with our toes and fingers, made the idea so 

 inexpressibly funny that he began to laugh, louder 

 and louder the more I tried to hush him up. When 

 I had led the sheep up to within ten feet of us, she 

 concluded that we were not her lost lamb, and turn- 

 ing like a flash, started on a run for the mountains a 

 mile away. Out of a side canyon came the lamb, 

 and fell in behind its mother; and we could see the 

 dirt flying out behind them until they appeared to be 

 about the size of a rabbit and a ground squirrel. 



One day Bill and I were out together in the beds, 

 and when we got back to dinner, Jake did not show 

 up. We were not much concerned about him, as 

 we concluded that he had found a specimen and was 

 digging it out; but when we came in at night and 

 there was still no Jake, we made up our minds that 

 he had either fallen and killed himself or that he 

 was lying in some gulch with a broken limb. In 

 great anxiety we started out into the Bad Lands to 

 find him. 



It was a dangerous enough expedition in the day- 

 time, but doubly so at night, and we risked our lives 

 many times; but we did not give up until we had 

 made the desolate region ring with our calls. At 

 last, about midnight, with fear and sorrow in our 

 heart, we returned to camp. By the moonlight I 



