284 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Mat 13, 1881 



wrtsmar.' Eonmt 



ON THE I, Willi vVEEP. 



In Turks Pai.ts— Part 1 

 TGNOTUS dropped into tin- office one morning, with the 

 1 abrupt nnnaik, "I'm tired of this; let's get out of 

 here." 



"All right, where shall we go?" 



"Ever been over on the Larriweep, the other side of El 

 Conquistador?" 



"No," 



" Well-, lei's go. I can't stand being cooped up here iu Ar- 

 gentina much longer, and Mexican Jo says there's a cabin 

 over theri In pretty good order, and plenty of game up on 

 the Meani Let's fry it, anyhpw, an I if it' doesn't pan 

 oui, we can come back. Pack up and we'll start in the 

 lnorn'mg." 



The proposal chimed well with a certain restlessness that had 

 possessed me for a few days, and when Ignotus came around 

 next morning I was all ready. The sun had not yel appeared 

 above Ltoa Hermonos, but tho snow on the top of Red Peak 

 had caught his light and glowed like a sheet of frosted silver. 

 In the new wine of the morning air there were at least tiirce 

 disiinci flavors: one, slightly saline, rrom tlie lixivialion 

 works ut, the fool oi tho villain-; a creosolic tamr from the 

 charcoal burner's heaps on. the hillside above, and the bal- 

 samic savni- of the spruce bud?, and of the resinous sap of 

 the yellow pine. Intoxicated by this aerial champagne, a 

 couple of '-whisky jacks," or Canada jays, -were making 

 good their name hy a Bacchanalian hilarity that was painful 

 to witness Tumbling over and over each oilier in the air, 

 trolling profane snatches of tavern glees, shrieking with 

 ■ rrinieut; they finally staggered, wing and wing, to 



sober lip, after an all-night's spree: As we rodeolT we beard 

 them, with much maudlin hiceuping, reading lectures to 

 each other on the disgrace of being drunk so "early in the 

 morning. 



For the fir-t few miles our route led up the valley of the 

 little stream which joins the Animas just below Argehtum. 

 It then turned abruptly to the left, over a rickety bridge of 

 aspen poles, and begin to climb the side of the gorge, at 

 whose head lay tin; pass by Which we were to cross into the 

 valley of the Larriweep. The trail here bad been "worked " 

 at considerable expense, and was considered an excellent 

 mountain road. Hot more thau three feel, in its widest part, 

 it crept along the side of the mountain, zig-zaggiug back and 

 forth, twisting around this boulder, Climbing -up thai bench, 

 sidling around this drift of slide-rock, coquetting wilh '.hat 

 precipice, tumbling headlong down one side of a crossrtivine, 

 and staggering drunkenly up the other Slope, but all the lime 

 mounting steadily toward the pass. The slant of the moun- 

 tain side was such that, to gain this yard in width, tin.- upper 

 or right hand side of I he trail had been enl down nearly four 

 feel, leaving a bank too steep Eur anything but a cat to ollmb, 

 while on the left the pitch downward was so abrupt that we 

 could almost touch the topmost boughs of spruce, with trunks 

 as large as Hour barrels and with roots a hundred fi ej below. 

 1 asked Ignotus what we. should do if we met a pack-train 

 coming down, and he said we would have Id lake the outer 

 side and trust to luck not lo get pushed over. On these nar- 

 row trails the right of way belongs to the regular freight- 

 trains, and the transient passenger must accommodate him- 

 self to circumstances as best he may. At one place the moun- 

 tain-side was cut into by a gorge, much like ihe gap which 



Along Its perpendicular sides the trail had been blasted out, 

 scarcely wide enough for one horse to pass. Ove- the edge 

 of the re-entr mtanglelefl by the removal ofthe sector l tickled 

 a little stream, carrying Just enough water i i make the rock 

 wet and slippery. Here Buz, whom I was riding) and «hp 

 was reputed to. be as fearless and sure-footed as a mountain 

 goat, stopped short and refused to budge. I could not dis- 

 mount, as there was not ro an lo stand on either side ; to turn 

 around was fully asiOJ 



coaxing, there seemed no alternative save to slide igno- 

 miiiiousiy over his tail, and, with fragments of basalt aid 

 porphyry, argue the matter from the rear. Fortunately, I 

 was not reduced to this utimiliath , as he finally , 



with many a snort of protest, decided to attempt tlie passage. 

 Once his foot slipped, and be hung for a moment, poised be 

 tweeu rock and sky; but he soon recovered, and. thencefor- 

 ward, till the ticklish transfer was accomplished, hogged tho 

 rock so closely as to nearly crush my leg between the Wall 

 and hie body. 



As we. traversed this gorge, 1 was struck anew with the 

 absence of ferns aud mosses in a place seemingly so well 

 adapted for I hem. Anywhere in the Appalachian range such 

 ii chasm as this would have had its rugged outlines softened 

 and its nakedness concealed hy a tapestry of green, but here 

 them was not a hint of vegetation of any kind to break the 

 b imk monotony. 



Nature was in a holiday mood when she produced tho 

 Eastern mountains, and she mitigated their roughness and 

 angularity witb every p issible device of fern and lichen, of 

 trailing ground-pine and nestling moss. But she musl have 

 been in the "doleful dumps" when she hurled up these peaks, 



and dtsdaine 





lie 



their sterile slopes with any veil of 



greenery. > 







contrast can be found than (he two 



moun ain rat 







flegheuv and tho Rocky. The one is 



Nature's lang 







r her frown. There is an air of brood- 



ing gloom ovi 







r that depresses aud chills the obser- 



ver All the 







i contrast! are the " parks" t-cattcred 



ben-, and [her 



» relic 



■ ■ i : : 



g the droarlneSH Of the otherwise un- 



bearable mou 



jtouy 



If S 



iruoe forest and naked rock. Hut 



withal, harsh 



and' t 



o.\ 



uing as these heights are, there is a 



subtle charm 



about 



111 



•mi that defies description. If Ihis 



same eii-.:-iii 



nvest 



> tl 



e Alps I wonder no longer that the. 



Swiss exile si 



often 



dn 



s of home sickness. 



O.i theopp 







if the main gorge were long 1-ines cu' 

 .1 extending from the top to the bot- 

 Bul for the sharpness of descent and 

 they might have been taken for wood 



roads, but hi 







r< ill v the path of avalanches, or, as 



they are callc. 









of tiees as fin 









the i ol med 



sad ii 





r was piled ui> iu massive, log heaps 



I"iio- us point 



■d oui 



TO 



oie the spot where, the winter before, 



% infill carrier 



BhOO 



iug 



down the gulch on his Norwegian 



Snow-shoes, had been caught and buried by a slide. His 

 : ol found till the next summer, and then the letters, 

 for which In- had given his life, were forwarded to their des- 

 tinations. 1 was reminded of some other letters, once shown 



to mo, which had lain at the bottom of the Atlantic for nearly 

 a year. They were on board the Commonwealth, bound from 

 Rio Janeiro 10 New Yolk, which went down olt Ilatteras, in 

 the great storm of '70. Recovered and forwarded, stained 

 with salt water, and with the shells and sea-sand still clinging 

 to them, they brought ua the first news we had received of 

 the death, in a Brazilian forest, of a dear young scientific 

 friend. 1 could not help wondering whether, in the mail- 

 sack of the dead snow-shoer, there were found any letteis of 

 a like melancholy character. Ignotus also told me how he 

 had once narrowly escaped death in a snow-slide. 



" A lot of us were wintering at the Highland Mary mine at 

 the time, and the snow fell so deep that year that the mail 

 had to be taken off, and we hadn't had any for nearly three 

 months. So when we got loo hungry to stand it any longer, 

 I told the boys I'd snow-shoe it over the range to Carr's 

 cabin, where the mail was lying, and get OUT letters. Il 

 wasn't more than twenty miles across, and I knew I could 

 make it there and back iu two days, easy, if 1 didn't have 

 any back luck ; so off I started. I got along all right till I 

 came to Pole Creek, and there I didn't like (he looks of 

 things. You see it was getting along toward the tiuie for 

 slides, and Pole Creek Hill' bad a mighty bad name for 'em. 

 That was where young llanford and Green and those three 

 ; teinli.-r-fect' were killed the winterbefore, audi could count 

 near twenty places where slides bad crossed the trail. You 

 know the trail runs up on the bench above the creek, makes a 

 sharp elbow and almost doubles back on itself about half a mile 

 above, at the head of the two gulches that it crosses just 

 alter ii strikes the bench. Well , I thought if I left the trail 

 and struck Straight up the hill, keeping 'on the hog hack be- 

 tween the gulches, I'd have a better show, so I turned up 

 It was tough work, climbing so straight up with snow-shoes, 

 and about half way up f stepped to rest, and lake a smoke. 

 I hadn't more than half finished 1113' pipe when I heard a 

 queer kind of a noise above me— a sort of a rasping, swish- 

 ing sound— and when I looked up, by thunder! I thought 

 the whole hill, snow, spruces and all, had broke loose and 

 was coming down on me. I had just time to sling my arms 

 around the' tree I was leaning against when it struck me. 

 My legs flew out from under me like lijrtttjfljlg, bul 1 gripped 

 the treelike grimdealh, though I thought ihe strain would 

 pull my arms out of joint. The loose snow flew so I couldn't 

 see an inch before me, and I couldn't hear a thing but that 

 swish and roar that sounded about like what a heavy freight 

 train makes when it's running with down brakes over a long 

 trestle, and Ihe crack of the big spruces as they gave way 

 before it. Then there came a smash as though the train had 

 gone through the trestle, and 1 knew Ihe slide had struck the 

 01 her side of the Pole Creek gulch. After a while the snow 

 cleared away; and 1 found I was safe. You see, being on the 

 bog-back, only the edge had struck me: but if I'd been 

 twenv vards lower down you'd never have heard this story. 

 I was buried about up to the shoulders, and I had hard work 

 I o clear myself; but it was harder work to get ray shoes, 

 and I couldn't travel without them, for the snow -. 

 feel deep in places. However, I got 'em dug out after 

 while, and stalled ahead 



•• After su h an experience as that, I should think you 

 wouldn't want, to try it again."" 



•• Well, you see. I Hi mghl lightning never struck t Wice in 

 the same spot, hut I hadn't gone fifty yards, before the snow 

 broke loose in the other gulch on the right of the hogback, 

 but I was watching fur her this time anil shinned out of her 

 way pretty, lively. When teams buck the next day; Pole 

 Creek gulch was full of snow where the slides bad struck, 

 aud I crossed on the top of it, full sixty feet above the creek. 

 I tell you, a slide isn't a thing to laugh at, and 1 never want 

 such another elose.shaVe.a4 that wajs 1 was stiff and sore 

 for nearly two weeks, as 1 hon»ii I'd been pounded all over 

 with clubs, and my shoulders haven't got right well yet." 



Wbiie fgnotus was talking, there came into my mind some 

 verses which the Rhymer bad repealed to inc, no; long before, 

 and which be said were a translation of an old Norwegian 

 ballad, though I 1 bought al the lime they sounded like his 

 own composition. If I remember them correctly, they were 

 as follows : 



Dawn the icy slope of the mountain -tccji 

 He flies, in ihe teeth of the northern wind 



The startled hare ironi ils team doth leap, 

 And the graygoss-hawk is left behind. 



Before each ringing, tanging shoe 



The BflOW spins Out in curving lines ; 

 A long thin wake of steely blue 



His arrowy trail behind' him shines. 



" A moment more, a moment more " 



This is the soul; he oUthply hums— 

 "My cabin door "—a muffled roar 



Smites on his ear -the snow-slide comes ! 



There's a rasping sound from the summit above, 

 And 11 puff of '"snow shoots up, like smoke ; 



The side of the mountain seems to move, 

 And the air is full ot* a sudden shock. 



Smit by the hammer of Thor. tho hills 

 Shiver aud shake from buttress to crest ; 



A cry from the depth of the gulch an shrills— 

 And the eddying suow-cloud sinks to reel. 



Ah ! dear hearts in the valley below, 

 Long shall you waif yoiu love's return ! 



Empty and barren, tho wastes of BllOW 

 In the dyiug sunset Hash and hm-n. 



Just before we came to timber line we passed a pack train, 

 preparing to break camp. In Hie packing between Argen- 

 tum and tho Conquistador country, this is the point where 

 the first night's bait is generally made. Two or three swarthy 

 Mexicans were catching the burros one by erne, throwing on 

 the aparejos, or pack saddles, piling up the. packs on top, aud 

 accompanying all wilh a robing fire of Spanish vocables, 

 which sounded wonderfully liquid and musical, until Ignotus 



1. .1,111-1 1 me they were "cuss words." 



Profanity seems robbed of half its wickedness, and all its 

 vulgarity, when veiled iu the guise of the sonorous '•(,'ara- 

 jos" and " OarambOH" of these dark-eyed muleteers. Pic- 

 turesque and romantic as these rascals are in the absl rac>, in 

 the concrete they are to be wisely avoided. To say nothing 

 of the minor inconveniences attending them, such as Uimct 

 , l-'cjiaili, and Ileus, they will Steal your shirt from 

 your back, or cut your throat forapinl Of apatdiente. By 

 some wise provision of Nature, Greasers and burros seem to be 

 complementary creations, but in point of morality, the burro 

 is the better brute of the two. "A blanketed nation of 

 thieves and harlots," Randolph of RoanOke called them, 

 aud sad experience leads me to give in my ndhesion to his 

 pungent characterization. Passing the camp, we emerge 

 from the timber, and enter upon the sloping plateau which 



leads up to the pass. The contour of the ground is like one 

 of the old-fashioned, double peaked MoCle'lian saddles, with 

 the addition of side flaps. We are riding up one fit these 

 flaps and will soon cross the seal, between the tWopeaks, and 

 begin 10 descend upon the other side. 



Here, almost at the summit, the.ground is as marshy as in 

 the Bl-.ck Swamp of Ohio, and the large whin- buttercup 

 grows in profusion among the Carices on either side of Ihe 

 trail. Over the peak to the right, sails a turkey-buzzard, a 

 bird 1 have never, save this" one time, seen at so high an 

 elevation, and I should doubt his identity now. did not nYV 

 field-glass bring him so near that there is no mistaking his 

 indeed head, his rounded lail. and his general vulturine aspect. 



To the left of the trail, in a cleft ol the rock, lay a patch 

 of snow not yet melted, and on ils sin face were several large 

 wlbie butterflies whose species I was unable to determine. 

 They seemed as much at home, and as comfortable, upon the 

 snow, as when flying around the buttei cups, only S lew yards 

 distant. Perhaps they resorted to the snow to cool the nectar 

 which they drew from the flowers. If so. iced sherbet is not 

 entirely a human invention. At the top of the pass, the west- 

 ern wind blows strong in our faces, and Huz and Buz snuff it 

 up, as though it bore lo their nostrils the salt smell of the 

 Pacific, or the balmy odors of the Golden Gate. At these 

 high altitudes, the influence of the radiation from the earth's 

 surface aud of the density of the air. as aff< cling 

 temperature, is very apparent. The direct rays of the sun 

 here are scorching. Ignotus' nose flames like a fig 

 aud, judging by the feeling, mine is equally well baked. My 

 pocket thermometer, exposed for a few moments in the sun- 

 light, marks lOOdeg. F., and yet within fifty yards is 

 snow two feet deep, and ten minutes rest in 'he shade ol thai 

 rock yonder would set us shivering with cold. Werowetocamp 

 here to night, we would need as many blankets as at home in mid- 

 winter. 'The woods below us look so cool and inviting, that 

 we lake- small lime for rest, but press onward. The trail 

 pitches abruptly downward over a long tract of slide-rock, 

 where we dismount and lead our horses. The sharp frag- 

 ments cut our feet and scarify our horses' legs, so that-, like 

 the Patriot army at Valley Forge, we mark our path with 

 our own blood. The heat and ihe rock* together make Ibis 

 part of the trip so unpleasant, that it is a relief to plunge once 

 more into the heavy spruce woods, and work our way down- 

 ward to where, a thousand feet below, brawls the Larriweep. 

 The Indians have been selling fire to the woods hereabouts, 

 and we presently come lo a stretch of burnt forest, through 

 which our trail leads. The spruce needles, accumulating fOr 

 years, had formed a thick mat upon the ground, and in this 

 the fire had slowly smouldered till a bed of ashes, several 

 inches deep, was left. Through this wc plow our way, the 

 horses sinking to their fetlocks at every step. The charred 

 trunks of the spruces, looking like gigantic black pen-holders. 

 loom up all around. Solitary pen-holder* clumps of them— 

 long vistas of them— enough to set up a Brobdignag Stationer 

 iu business. As we thread our ghostly way through then. 

 the ashes so deaden our footfalls that, if one had a sufficiently 

 lively imagination, he might fancy us disembodied spirits, 

 tracking our way through a dead and burm-out world. 

 Stirred by our progress, they settle down in an afmosl impal- 

 pable powder, till horses and rideis arc all the same gray lint, 

 aud Ignotus murmurs that we will soon be able to furnish lye 

 enough to supply a campaign editor. The constant inhala- 

 tion of Ihe fine ashes soon produces a choking thirst, and man 

 and beast alike rejoice when wo emerge ii-an this Vale of 

 Asber, and see before lis the Larriweep, and our cabin wait- 

 ing hospitably for us with open doors. 



Out of the side of the mountain is scooped g semi elliptical 

 plot some hundred yards in length, and halfjas many in width 

 Behind rises a wull of rock, the buttress & 1 mesa, which 

 rolls on still further back a mile or more, till from ; 

 clear and sharp, ihe mountain proper, the peak of El Con- 

 quistador. On this mesa are clumps of spruce, balsam fir 

 and quaking. BBpen—JPopul ■ islanded in a sea 



of gramma and 'bunched grasses. It is a chosen resort for 

 deer and elk, who find shelter in the groves and succulent 

 food among the grasses. The peak itself is tenanted by the 

 cimarrou or mountain sheep, while the heads of the gulches 

 which cut the mesa like earthquake clefts, tempt the bears- 

 frost, black and cinnamon, with tidbits of wild parsnips and 

 celery. The front edge of the half ellipse is formed by the 

 Larriweep, clear, cold and foaming, and On its 

 stands our cabin, reached from the trail ope 

 bv a huge foot-lug of spruce. True, the Moor is ol native 

 dirt, the only window, a chink between two 

 dant oilcloth must do duty for a door; but the gaping fire- 

 place, builtof flat Stones fronftberock-slide abovi 

 in one corner, which shall be filled With fragrant spruce 

 boughs and piled with our fur robes and Navajo blankets, 

 the slab-tables, benches and stools— these promise solid 

 comfort. 



With deer aud bear and cinnamon meat from the mesa 

 above, and grouse and duck and trout from the 

 our table will be well supplied. As for the more aesthetic 

 parts of our nature,, artistic hunger shall be satisfied with the 

 changing tints of the suow upon the opposite peaks, the 

 grays aud the browns of the rocks, the green of the cot ton- 

 woods, the blue and the olives of the sky, and the Starry 

 flowers that spring up everywhere. For music, have wc not 

 the voices of the mountain calling all- the night, the whisper 

 of the wind in hemlock boughs, and the ptuan of the 

 brook ? 



For literature, the pages ofthe "Great StoneBoofc" lie 

 spread out before us, waiting for an interpreter. Ignotus and 

 1 exchange glances, and each answers the other's unspoken 

 question by quietly dismounting and begiuuing to unpack. 

 Thousands of years ago Nature foresaw this expedition, and 

 prepared for us, on the other side of the stream, a pasture of 

 about fifty acres, so hemmed in by mountain walls that ten 

 minutes work with an axe barricades its only outlet, and here 

 Huz and Buz, Rob and Rena are turned out tb spend idyllic 

 days. Pitch— pine knots from a fallen tree soou crowd the 



fireplace, aud civilization and solitude have shake 



Your true nomad claims a right of homestead wherever he 

 spreads his blankets, and when I started out with m , n, b 

 hopes of a stray grouse, Ignotus asked me, in the :; 

 ter-of-fact way, if I would he "home" for supper. I had 

 ays looked upon the absenteeism of landlords as an evil 

 strongly to be condemned, and was the more convinced of 

 the justice of my views, when I found that in our absence 

 our preserves had been so thoroughly poached that 1 Was 

 forced to return grouseless to camp. 1 was well repaid for 

 my walk, however, by discovering in one of the > 

 a trait I had never before suspected. On the ledge behind the 

 cabin grew a number of "sar vice-berry " bushes, loaded with 

 ripe fruit. 



Noticing a movement in one of them, I drew near to see 

 what was going on, much in the spirit of a thrifty house- 



