ROCKIES IN SEPTEMBER 121 



moved over it. A steep gulch broke the surface of the 

 phiin ; and if our present course was to be pursued, it was 

 necessary to go down a hillside not only as steep as the 

 roof of a house (not by any means as the flat top of a log 

 cabin), but laced and entangled with the same grass- 

 embedded timber. Fallen and charred, and in every 

 sense obstructive, I did not deem it possible for pack 

 mules ; but thereby only showed my want of experience 

 of their powers. I dismounted and led my Indian 

 shooting-pony, Ute, who could, I found, follow me any- 

 where, and with greater ease than I could scramble, uphill 

 or downhill ; and together we descended some 300 feet, 

 crossed the rocky torrent (a creek, of course, in American 

 parlance), clambered up the opposite bank, where I lit my 

 pipe and watched with interest the mule train. They made 

 their way very deliberately and carefully, sniffing for a 

 while at each difficult obstacle, to make sure that those in 

 front had really gone that way ; but, beyond knocking one 

 of their number into the water, where, with the whole of 

 our cook's outfit weighing him down, he lay groaning 

 until unpacked, they all came scatheless out of the gulch. 



As they strung from the creek I was riding parallel and 

 above them, when, round a knoll, and on the bank of a 

 tributary creek, 1 caught sight of a good buck grazing 

 beneath me. The horns were fair enough ; and though 

 he was standing awkwardly for a shot, the distance was 

 not more than sixty yards, and as he raised his head I 

 fired from the saddle, the bullet taking him through his 

 fat ribs and going out through his chest. Amid the noise 

 of the torrent 1 signalled the cook, as the member of the 

 party most easily to be spared on the march, and with his 

 help soon had the head off, the liver out, and the meat 

 duly cared for, to be fetched on the morrow. 



At five o'clock we brought up at our new camping 

 ground — an ideal spot, such as is to be found only near 

 the summits of the Rockies, where a sparkling stream 

 dashes out of the very mountain-top, with willows sur- 

 rounding its outlet, with the highest clusters of pines 

 encircling its earliest reaches, with heavy meadows adjoining 

 its banks, and stretches of park land touching it here and 



