FIRST TRIP TO MEXICO 151 



meat for camp and dogs. Two turkeys and two 

 deer settled that question, at least for a while. 

 The following morning there was a general feel- 

 ing of something doing in camp, and we were 

 all astir long before the sun had signaled the 

 commencement of another day. It was not long 

 before we rode out of camp on our best mounts, 

 accompanied by the hound pack, which were 

 prancing here and there with overflowing spirits 

 of joy and enthusiasm. We rode south to the 

 fork of the canon to a country they call the 

 Ruffs, and it well deserves the name, for it is 

 indeed the roughest, wildest, most weird-looking 

 country I ever saw, and I have seen some rough 

 country, in Colorado, too. Great ledges of jag- 

 ged rocks, immense timbers, huge boulders, and 

 what seemed to be wondrous cracks in the earth 

 in fact, every formation imaginable seemed to be 

 tumbled here together to form what one might 

 term in its fullest sense the Ruffs. What a spot 

 for anything that enjoyed living in an inaccessi- 

 ble place! How could we get through such a 

 country? How I did I am still trying to under- 

 stand. We rode away, of course, tied our horses, 

 climbed, crawled, slid down and lowered our- 

 selves in places with ropes one by one, and then 

 the hounds, one at a time. At the foot of the 



