64 A CALIFORNIA TRAMP. 



his side, when the trigger somehow caught and the load went 

 off, the bullet just grazing him, and mortally wounding one 

 of his oxen. It was a narrow escape, but the accident fur- 

 nished us with a supply of fresh beef, which was, however, too 

 tough and gristly for general eating. We came in sight of the 

 celebrated Chimney Rock in the afternoon. This famous land- 

 mark, although some thirty miles distant, was plainly visible, 

 owing to the extreme purity of the atmosphere. 



Near here we passed an emigrant wagon, the cover of which 

 had been removed and the bows festooned with strips of buf- 

 falo meat, which was in process of being dried or "jerked." 

 This gets well covered with dust and as dry and hard as 

 wood. It is soaked and boiled before being eaten. 



We nooned on the 23d by Chimney Rock, w^hich is about 

 forty miles west from the Court House and seventy from Ash 

 Hollow. This rock, or rather column, is set upon a semi- 

 spherically shaped hill, and is about twenty-five feet in 

 diameter at the bottom, gradually tapering to half that at the 

 top. Its summit is about one hundred and fifty feet above 

 the plain, but it was at one time much higher, early travelers 

 say five hundred feet. The winds and rains, acting upon the 

 soft materials of which it is composed, are gradually wearing 

 it away, and the ground around its base is covered with pieces 

 which have fallen from its summit. I cannot account for the 

 formation of this singular object, except by supposing that it 

 was originally a hutte, or isolated mound, through the centre 

 of which, from its base to its summit, ran a column of harder 

 material than its surroundings, and that the rain and wind, 

 acting on the surface, have worn away its softer constituents 

 and left a column standing. The desert, called the Indian's 

 Enchanted Ground, extending between the North Platte and 

 White River, is in some places covered with bluffs and buites, 

 which the action of the elements has converted in a similar 

 manner into all imaginable shapes. Towers, walls and 



