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comrade's first attempt, she " made the riffle " with little trouble. Other 

 experiences of a little less exciting nature served to heighten our dis- 

 gust for this creek. Having climbed over 2,000 feet in the morning, and 

 made two stations, we felt very tired, and our mules walked slowly on. 

 After a while darkness began to come on, and camp did not appear. 

 ^' Bones " began to take on that pitiful look engendered by her horror of 

 having to stay out. Every time that such a contingency seemed probable 

 her lower lip would fall and hang down in a strangely sorrowful way. 

 She seemed to recall that awful night in the Greenhorn Mountains, in 

 1873, when she slept out away from her companions, and where, after 

 several months of unceasing labor, that one night broke her down and 

 made her lip hang down as it never hung before and never did again. 

 Soon, however, we came again upon the tracks of the train, nnd her long 

 ears pricked up and she became so excited over it that I could scarcely 

 keep her in a walk. When the camp-tire appeared and she got the scent 

 of her companions, she seemed perfectly happy and contented, as we 

 were also. For some distance below camp the stream-bed had widened 

 out into quite a little valley, which continued above camp up to the 

 head of the stream. 



The next day, August 22, we made the ascent of the Eio Grande 

 Pyramid. The day was beautiful to its close, a remarkable circumstance 

 for this season of the year in these mountains. As we were camped at 

 the foot of the mountain we had plenty of time. Wishing to give the 

 mules a little rest, Mr. Wilson directed Ford, one of the packers, to 

 follow after and bring them back to camp. We rode up the west 

 slope of the mountain to near 13,000 feet elevation. Taking off our in- 

 struments, we threw the stirrups over the saddles, and fixed the bridles 

 and ropes so that they could not get caught in the timber. We then 

 tried to start the mules back to camp by throwing stones at them. 

 They would move off a little, but if we tried to drive them farther 

 they would dodge back. The reason seemed to be that they had 

 noticed that camp always was made in a different place each day, and 

 they were afraid of getting lost if they strayed off. Their great horror 

 of getting lost was very noticeable in many cases. In every case where 

 we had to hunt for the camp after dark, they seemed to give up entirely 

 and put their whole trust in their riders. OJften have we left them loose, 

 at elevations ranging from 12,000 to 13,000 feet, far above the tim- 

 ber-line, but they never attempted to stray away, although they w^ould 

 crop whatever grass they could find near. At times when they could not 

 be tied so as to get enough grass, we would take off saddle and bridle, 

 and leave them perfectly loose, but it seemed to make no difference. 



The climb on foot was quite easy, and did not amount to more than 

 about one thousand feet vertical. On the top we found a nicely-built 

 monument of stones, which we increased in height to about 6 feet. Some 

 •enterprising climber seems to have taken a just pride in leaving his 

 mark on this beautiful peak. The fact that the monument was on the 

 true summit indicated the fact that its builder was something else than 

 a common miner. The height of this peak (station 21) is 13,773 feet 

 above the sea. The view from here is very fine. The whole mass of 

 the quartzite peaks, so often mentioned as prominent features in the 

 views from previous stations, from here stand out clearer than from 

 any point yet visited. Almost all of the higher points are clearly 

 visible, but they are massed together in such a way that from this point 

 the drainage of the system cannot be made out at all. In one place, 

 to the south of us, we could see low rolling country, indicating that we 

 were near the southern termination of the high mountains. To the 



