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In the intervals of his cooking he opens the mess-boxes, sets them about 

 four feet apart, opens out the leaves, and, placing a support under the 

 middle, spreads his cloth, and the table is ready. A short time before 

 everything is ready he rings the first bell for breakfast, by yelling out, 

 in the barbarous mountain dialect, " Grub pile ! " or sometimes simply 

 " grub " for short. At this there is great commotion, and the rest of the 

 crew '' pile out" in all sorts of shapes and in all states of nudity. They 

 hurry, for there is no driver like hunger, and they now feel a yearning 

 in the inner man that cannot be repressed, and their love of sleep itself 

 gives way. A general rush for the nearest water soon takes place. In. 

 a few seconds all are washed, and immediately commence the attack on 

 the breakfast-table. They make short work of it, and at 7 o'clock all 

 are in their saddles and off. 



Following the trail up the creek, we found it very rough, but at a point 

 west of station 12 the bed of the caiion widened out, and from there 

 our riding was quite easy. Leaving a notice on a tree near this place, 

 for the train to encamp, we ascended a low peak to the south and west 

 of the creek. From this point we succeeded in clearing up some points 

 in the topography which had been unavoidably missed from station 12. 

 Two miles west of it was a very high, massive mountain, with a great 

 horizontal band of white running across the face of a high bluff on the 

 northeast side of the peak. This mountain bears on the map the name 

 of Handie's Peak, and was ascended the day after this as station 14. 



From station 13 we had a splendid view of the red mass to the north 

 and east, station 12 being the nearest of all the peaks. The last 2,000 

 feet in height was composed wholly of dull-red debris, with very few 

 bluffs. Here appeared some of the finest mountain forms any of us had 

 ever seen. From our distance, which was several miles, the individual 

 stones were all lost to the eye, and the slopes appeared as if they were 

 made of red sand, but of course having the forms which naturally result 

 from coarse debris. The to])s of the ridges were nowhere jagged, but 

 were invariably formed of gracefully-flowing curves, while mountain- 

 lines could scarcely be more beautiful than the magnificent sweeps ot 

 the curves formed hj the long debris slides. Except on the south and 

 west sides of station 12, these curves were nowhere broken by any con- 

 siderable bluffs. Having reached this station early in the morning, we 

 were not troubled with storms during our work. 



Several large silver-bearing veins crossing the ridge near this station 

 gave us the first intimation of our approach to the mining region. We 

 descended to camp, which we found just at the base of the peak, 

 and arrived quite early in the afternoon. The next day, August 14, 

 we moved up stream, leaving directions with the packers where to make 

 camp. We rode up a small creek coming in from the south, which 

 drains the basin between station 13 and Handie's Peak. The ground 

 most of the way was very miry, and the brush and timber very difficult 

 to pass through. After passing the timber-line, the only difficulties in 

 our way were the boggy ground and rocks. One or two very steep 

 slopes, along which we had to ride, were very disagreeable ; but much 

 less so for us than for the poor donkeys. At an elevation of nearly 

 13,000 feet we found a grassy patch of ground, which was large enough 

 and level enough for our mules to stand on without much danger. Hav- 

 ing secured them to the rocks, we climbed up the peak, which we found 

 a very easy matter, as the total rise was scarcely a thousand feet and 

 the slope quite gentle. A short distance below the summit, at an eleva- 

 tion ofabout 13,500 feet, we found some shallow prospect-holes sunk on 

 a vein which cut transversely across the ridge. As yet we had seen 



