ROCKIES IN SEPTEMBER 133 



Thus, for instance, of the half-dozen heads I brought back 

 to this country, no two at all closely resemble each other, 

 though all of them belonged to buck of well-matured age. 

 With our two saddle-horses we carried to camp the 

 whole of this fat deer and both of the heads — Mat tramp- 

 ing alongside his horse for six hot miles of rough climbing. 

 No work is too severe for these hardy backwoodsmen, 

 when once the spirit moves them to undertake anything. 

 Toil and discomfort are play to them when once their 

 mind is set upon accomplishing any feat. They may 

 revel in idleness at times, but they revel equally in work, 

 and they seldom mix up the two. Added to which, they 

 are obliging and kindly to a degree, and thoughtful and 

 zealous for the interests and comfort of whoever they have 

 undertaken to chaperone in a sphere that is so familiar 

 to them, but so difficult — even impossible — to a stranger 

 unassisted. 



CHAPTER XIX 



ROCKIES IX SEPTEMBER — {continued) 



One warm forenoon in the same week found Jim and 

 myself riding northward along the Great Divide. Our 

 coats were folded on the saddle-bow, and the sun blazed 

 hotly, in a hurry to wipe out the frost of the early 

 morning. Underfoot every blade of grass, every sprig of 

 weed crackled from the long-continued drought, for the 

 frosted dew had evaporated, and the earth's surface was 

 parched and shrivelled. In the far distance the smoke of 

 forest fires was rising rapidly in half-a-dozen different 

 directions, the air was vividly clear, and the distant peaks 

 stood out blue and distinct, each with a yarn attached 

 from Jim's inexhaustible portfolio. Here were the " Mink- 

 Ears," round which the last herd of buffalo ran in '85 ; 

 here the " Snowy-Cap," which a thousand elk had fre- 

 quented in a band in '80 (dates take ever an important 

 place in a backwoodsman's story) ; beyond those far dim 

 peaks ran Bear Creek, " where me and my pardner trapped 

 a heap of bear and beaver in '86, though the Injins was 



