LONG LEAGUES 65 



take us to Port Visser, so the next morning we leisurely 

 packed a box of the specimens we had collected here, and 

 started at about nine across the country without a trail. 

 After covering some six miles we came to a puesta where 

 they told us we were headed right and Port Visser was only 

 six leagues. We were not even so well off as the two Irish- 

 men, who having asked how far it was to a certain village, 

 were told "two miles." After walking another half hour, 

 another query brought the same reply, "two miles." 

 Turning to his companion Pat said, "Thank God we are 

 holding our own." This man pointed out a light buggy 

 track made a fortnight before and told us to follow it. 



In the course of three hours this track led to the top of a 

 200-foot bluff which seemed almost straight down. But 

 go we must, so we tied the brake up fast and also the hind 

 wheels so they could not turn. Then Billy took the reins 

 and started straight down. It made our hair curl to see the 

 wagon slide, but it landed right side up at the bottom, and 

 we untied the wheels and continued to follow the buggy 

 track. Failing to find any water we had to make a dry 

 camp for the night, eating simply galletas for supper. 

 We concluded to watch the horses for fear they would 

 institute a water search for themselves; so Billy and I 

 made a little "Indian fire" and sat over it until midnight 

 telling yarns and occasionally looking up the horses. At 

 that time they seemed to have no intention of leaving, so 

 we turned in. However, next morning they were gone and 

 had left almost no trail on the hard ground. It took us 

 three hours to find them, and then they were feeding by a 

 water hole which their keen sense had located some three 

 miles from the camp. 



This was a day of making roads and finding possible 

 crossings over gulches. We passed two or three huts, but 

 they were deserted, the drought of the previous years hav- 

 ing made the habitation of them untenable. Finally about 

 three we reached Port Visser, and after two days of not less 



