404 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS 



a broken one was my great good fortune. A 

 bronco will climb like a cat up the face of a 

 precipice but his forefeet come down like pile 

 drivers and it is most difficult to keep out of their 

 way. 



We struggled on and on, often changing our 

 course, for hours. We were checked by an over- 

 hanging wall of rock on the face of which 

 Mackenzie found a shelf which a big-horn would 

 have distrusted. I closed mv eves with diz- 

 ziness while Bay Billy carried me across. All 

 crossed in safety but the burro, whose project- 

 ing pack threw his center of gravity outside the 

 shelf just as its end was reached. By great good 

 fortune he landed in the branches of a tree that 

 projected from the precipice forty feet below the 

 shelf and was the only obstacle to a fall of several 

 hundred feet. Lariats and ropes were collected 

 and Tim was lowered into the tree. At the end 

 of some hours of hazardous work both burro and 

 pack had been recovered, but the former was in- 

 capable of carrying his load. When his pack 

 had been distributed we all had to walk. The 



