LV THE FAR WEST. 39 



pitch the camp in a deep chasm a short distance away. Into 

 this we marched accordingly after dinner, but we experienced 

 much difficulty in getting- the horses to the bottom, owing- to 

 the steepness of the walls and the difficulty of getting- a foot- 

 hold. On reaching the base, the tepees were soon erected, and 

 when this was done the horses were let loose to pick up such 

 herbage as they could find during the night. 



The inmates of the encampment then retired to rest, and I 

 should judge that they were soon asleep, as I saw no one stir- 

 ring about ; but I found it impossible to woo gentle slumber, 

 owing to the strangeness of my surroundings. The chasm 

 was, in the first place, so deep and gloomy that the darkness 

 was fairly inky in hue, and so dense that all that could be seen 

 were the shadowy walls and the twinkling stars, which seemed 

 to be unusually far away. A turbulent river roared past the 

 camp with such power and velocity that the air appeared to 

 vibrate ; and, to increase the din, several ospreys, which 

 occupied islets in the stream, screamed in the loudest manner 

 at intervals, as if they objected to the intrusion on their 

 domain. The whole scene, which was weird in the extreme, 

 and seemed to belong to another planet, or to the land of the 

 ogres rather than to this earth, impressed me so much that I 

 could not sleep, so I laid and tossed on my hard couch on the 

 ground all night. I often sighed for the morning, and was 

 delighted on seeing the first grey glimmering of the dawn in 

 the sky above. On noticing this, I seized my rifle, and started 

 out to find my mustang, for I was rather afraid that he might 

 have tumbled into the river during the night, as it hugged the 

 banks so closely in some places that there was no shore-line, 

 and not even a talus, owing to the strength of the current. 

 Groping my way to the right of the camp, I followed the 

 courses of crags or the few open spots where a long, dank grass 

 grew in profusion, and in half-an-hour reached a rock which 

 gave me a good view some distance up the river. I waited 

 there until the light was strong enough to enable one to note 

 objects distinctly, and when that time came I saw the horses 

 huddled together on a sort of cape that jutted a consider- 

 able way out into the stream. On approaching them I saw 



