VI. 



A FIRE RIDE 



N THE East one may 

 have nothing more orig- 

 inal than a banana peel 

 or a railroad accident 

 to threaten life, but in 

 the Rockies one has 

 flood, fire, cyclone, quicksand, bog- 

 holes in endless variety, and animals 

 from the fretful quill-pig in his quills 

 to the fighting elk, equipped with 

 an arsenal of polished ivory points. 

 It happened on the Fourth of July 

 about an hour after the usual caval- 

 cade had strung out for the day's 

 march, that we met with an adven- 



