198 Life of a Fossil Hunter 



we found that a number of large cheeses had been 

 taken out into the road and rolled along for some 

 distance with a stick. We followed up the trail 

 which they had made in the deep dust, and put one 

 of them on our pack. We went into one of the 

 houses on the road, and found that the Indians had 

 broken up all the furniture, including the sewing- 

 machine, etc. In the front room they had poured 

 out a barrel of molasses, spread over it several sacks 

 of flour, and stuck a little woolly dog in the mixture. 

 The poor little fellow was dead. A little farther 

 on, a sheepman's house had been burned, and near 

 by two thousand sheep had been mutilated and 

 thrown into piles to die. The herders were found 

 scalped a few days later. At one farmhouse a fine 

 brood mare had been killed because she could not 

 keep up with the herd. 



Some days later, on the twenty-ninth of July, I 

 believe, there was a total eclipse of the sun. The 

 heavens were like brass, and there was a peculiar 

 condition of the atmosphere such as I have never 

 experienced before or since. A report was spread 

 abroad that the Indians had returned and burned all 

 the farmhouses along the river. I was at the time 

 with Leander Davis, and we rode up to Perkins 

 ranch, where a lot of men had congregated and were 

 taking turns standing guard for fear of the Indians. 

 When we rode up they were standing about, uncer- 



