PECULIAE EOCKS. 339 



experience. I was riding late in the afternoon, and had just 

 passed a small band of elk, when I came to what looked like 

 the remains of an enormous gateway. It was the entrance to 

 a small valley, running up towards the main ridge, and the 

 rocks on each side were so perpendicular as to be exactly like 

 the remains of a work done by the hands of man ; I thought I 

 would see where the valley went to, so, getting off my pony, I 

 led him up a narrow deer-path, through pines and brushwood, 

 and after going a hundred yards, I came out into a small oval 

 prairie, having in the middle what at first resembled the re- 

 mains of a very high church-tower, and I began to think I had 

 got among some gigantic ruins, which had not yet been dis- 

 covered by anyone else. A second look, however, showed 

 breaks in the outline, but it was still an extraordinary rock, 

 standing as it did nearly in the middle of the prairie. It must 

 have been two hundred feet high and about four feet wide, 

 retaining this width to the top. About halfway up was a 

 hollow in the surface of the front, which might have been the 

 hole where a clock had once been. There was splendid grass 

 here, so I camped on one side cf this rock, which, by the way, 

 lost all resemblance to a tower when seen from the side. 



My usual camp on that trip was a mackintosh sheet put up as 

 a lean-to, in front of which I lit a fire, and when I took the 

 trouble to put about six inches of small pine- boughs under the 

 sheet, it was a first-rate bed and shelter. An equally good and 

 much lighter one can be made of a large sheet of common 

 cotton-drill, and if stretched properly it is nearly as waterproof. 

 I remained in this camp two nights, and found lots of game, 

 and I think I could have killed twenty or thirty deer a day 



had I wished to do so. On the second day I climbed the main 



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