181 



unbroken streams of water. These are what are usually known in tlie 

 mountains as water-spouts. We left the summit before the electricity 

 became very troublesome, but the rain which followed we could not 

 avoid. Packing up our books and instruments, we walked down to the 

 place where the mules ought to have been, but where, to our amaze- 

 ment, they were not. Looking over the ridge, we saw the mules, still 

 hitched together, standing on the steep east slope, about forty yards 

 from the summit, but the round stone was nowhere to be seen. A heavy 

 furrow through the snow-bank, near the top of the ridge, with several 

 deep indentations in the soil below, told a curious tale. It seems that as 

 the storm came on a strong cold wind arose from the west, which, with 

 the accompanying rain, made the mules feel very uncomfortable, as 

 they were on the west side of the ridge. In order to better themselves, 

 they moved over to the other side, slowly dragging the stone after them, 

 till, reaching the brink, the steep slope animated the otherwise inert 

 stone with a considerable power, and it in turn took the mules in tow. 

 Of course, as soon as they found themselves pulled they drew back, 

 but, finding the stone inexorable, one of them moved up a step and 

 found herself relieved of the strain, and commenced nibbling the 

 short grass to be found in this vicinity. But what one gains the other 

 loses. The whole weight of the stone now pulls on the second mule; 

 but it is not in the nature of the beast to resist for long a steady and unre- 

 laxing strain when unaccompanied by swearing. She moves a step forward, 

 and, finding relief, goes to grazing. The first by this time has forgotten all 

 about the stone, and, finding herself suddenly jerked, her whole asinine 

 obstinacy is aroused, and she braces herself for resistance, but after 

 a minute or so, finding the pulling force unaltered, and hearing no oaths 

 proceed from the stone, she slowly comes to the conclusion that this is 

 not a human contrivance, and moves up. Thus by slow degrees the 

 stone pulls them down the slope, over the little snow-bank and some 

 distance beyond, disputing, of course, each step of the way, for such, 

 alas! have we too often found, to our sorrow, to be the nature of the 

 beast. After reaching a short distance from the top of the ridge, the 

 rope evidently slipped off the stone, and the latter, rolling faster and 

 faster, could have found no obstruction to its course for full 3,000 feet 

 down the mountain. What the mules themselves thought of their mys- 

 terious leader they never revealed ; nor did we wait long in the cold 

 rain to hear their story,but hurriedly putting on the saddles, we dragged 

 them down that mountain much faster than the stone did ; but they 

 moved on joyfully, for they knew as well as we that they were going to 

 camp and to grass. Their shriveled forms and backs, curved up when 

 we first found them, indicated clearly the fact that they were disgusted 

 with the country, and especially all of it above 13,000 feet in elevation. 

 The rain now fell in torrents, and the grass being thoroughly wet the 

 walking was very disagreeable, but the slope was very steep and riding 

 on our tired beasts very slow, so we walked most of the way and dragged 

 our mules after us. Eeaching Howard ville, Mr. Wilson found that the 

 expected supplies had not arrived, so he concluded to finish the piece of 

 country east of Howardville and down the Eio Grande as far as might 

 be convenient. The next day, August 18, we started eastward up Cun- 

 ningham Gulch, up which a well-marked trail leads over to the Eio 

 Grande. This is by far the most interesting of the secondary canons of 

 the Animas system. After passing the main bend, which is about two 

 miles east of Howardville, the side-slopes become steeper and steeper, 

 and finally end altogether in becoming nearly vertical bluffs. These are 

 nearly, if not quite, as high as those along the upper course of the Ani- 



