FROM BEND TO BURNS 49 



west, the snowy peaks of Jefferson and the Three 

 Sisters. 



There was nothing else to be seen ; not at this 

 point, that is, for we were but just starting, and 

 were using all our eyes to hang on with. 



I had never ridden from Bend to Burns by 

 auto-stage before, and I did not realize at first that 

 you could hold yourself down by merely anchor- 

 ing your feet under the rail and gripping every- 

 thing in sight. It is a simple matter of using all 

 your hands and knees and feet. But at the start 

 I was wasting my strength, as, with eyes fixed 

 and jaw set, I even held on to my breath in order 

 to keep up with the car. 



The desert was entirely new to me ; so was the 

 desert automobile. I had been looking forward 

 eagerly to this first sight of the sage plains ; but 

 I had not expected the automobile, and could see 

 nothing whatever of the sagebrush until I had 

 learned to ride the car. I had ridden an automo- 

 bile before; I had driven one, a staid and even- 

 going Eastern car, which I had left at home in the 

 stable. I thought I knew an automobile; but I 

 found that I had never been on one of the Western 

 desert breed. The best backer at the Pendleton 



