SIX IN HAND. 167 



brouglit to my mind and may be of interest to my 

 readers. Wliile driving the Mohican I had an entire 

 family from the West, and as they had travelled ex- 

 tensively on the coaches out there they evidently im- 

 agined that city coachmen Avere "not in if' with the 

 Western drivers. We were returning home and as- 

 cending a long steep hill nearly a niile in length. The 

 horses were walking, and even at this pace found 

 plenty to do to keep the coach moving. The party 

 were beginning to feel uneasy about getting to the 

 ho eel in time for dinner, so they requested me to 2:0 a 

 little faster, but not acceeding to their request, one 

 of the gentlemen commenced to recite his coaching 

 experiences in the West, making special mention of a 

 certain driver by the name of Hank, who, he said, 

 drove up and down hills at a furious pace. I was 

 silent, but went along very steadily imtil I came to 

 the top of the hill, when I put on the brake and com- 

 menced the descent, which was very steep. There were 

 embankments on each side of the road, \A'hich naturally 

 got higher as we descended. Thei^ ,was a lake at the 

 bottom of the hill directly in front of us, and the turn 

 to the right which I intended taking was almost im- 

 perceptible to the party. As a rule, when commencing 

 to descend steep hills, I go very steadily, giving myself 

 an opportunity to see if the brake holds good and is 



