THE REFERENDUM 



183 



off clown the hill as fast as his legs could 

 carry him, with the second Ute in close 

 pursuit. By the time Bill got untangled 

 from the blankets it was all over and Tom 

 was calmly cropping the grass. 



He presently located the crippled Indian 

 by his groans, and by the time that he got 

 him into the glow of the camp fire, which 

 he had stirred up, the Ute was just coming 

 to. Bill bound up his arm and gave him a 

 lift in the direction of his camp (the lift 

 being in the shape of a number ten boot 

 toe). Of course, he could figure out about 

 what had happened, and to use his own 

 words, "I jest naterally fell on that dang 

 little cuss's neck and squalled. Jest to 

 think that the blamed little duffer was 

 watchin' them red skunks all the time, and 

 when it was his play he dropped the joker 

 on them and euchered their little game. 

 Will I sell Tom? No, I guess not to-day." 

 William Albert Scott, Rawlins, Wyo. 



A PA8EO IN ECUADOR. 



Editor Recreation : 



At 3 p. m., July 3, 1903, I saddled my 

 mule and rode to the office, where I found 

 waiting for me Sr. Maxon, who was to be my 

 partner. Four p. m. found us at Zaruma, 

 buying a bottle of mayorca for our Mozo. 

 The Ecuadorian native likes a good, fiery, 

 potent liquor; none of your weak material 

 for him. 



Zaruma is a town of about 1,000 inhabit- 

 ants, and, although only one mile distant 

 from the mines, it is some 1,000 feet above 

 them. Nestled among the Andean hills, it 

 is extremely picturesque, but like many 

 other Spanish-American towns, it is not so 

 pleasant to smell. Buzzards comprise its 

 system of sewage. 



Leaving Zaruma, the trail leads rapidly 

 upward, winding in and out among the 

 mountains, sometimes deep in a cut worn by 

 generations of mules passing between Zaruma 

 and Cuenca, but more often unfolding to our 

 delighted gaze a view of surpassing loveli- 

 ness ; patches of cane, rice, plantains, bananas, 

 pine apples, mangoes and other fruit. Far 

 beyond rose the cordillera of the Andes, the 

 barrier between us and the almost unknown 

 region of the Oriente, the home of the Ji- 

 voras, Samoras and other savage tribes. 

 Scattered along the trail and dotting the val- 

 leys were the little thatched mud-plastered 

 shacks of the natives, each surrounded by its 

 banana trees and cant. 



We made our first night stand at a house 

 near the Muluncay River, and, after dicker- 

 ing for cane for the mules, we proceeded to 

 cook chuck. Didn't we eat ! I had left all the 

 arrangements for food to Maxon, and it 

 seems, he sized my appetite wrong, for I 

 nearly starved. He didn't eat enough to keep 

 a good-sized cat alive, and when I told him 

 so he pretended to be surprised. 



We turned in early, and by 6 a. m. on the 

 4th of July we were cooking breakfast. Nor 

 did we forget that it was the Fourth, for we 

 made the Andean echoes ring with shots 

 from our six-shooters. 



We had been told by an acquaintance who 

 had traveled to Quito by that road dur- 

 ing the rainy season that the Muluncay River 

 was dangerous to ford, being swift and deep, 

 but we found it, in the dry season, a beauti- 

 ful mountain stream of crystal-clear water, 

 tumbling down over a little fall and crossing 

 the road in the centre of a gulch. However, 

 evidences of its terrific force when high were 

 not wanting. 



From the Muluncay our road lay through 

 rich, sub-tropical forests. Everywhere na- 

 ture had strewn with a lavish hand huge 

 ferns, and tall trees decked in moss and para- 

 sites of all kinds, and hung from top to bot- 

 tom with llianas and giant plants, the leaves 

 of which often measured over six feet in 

 length. 



The trail was sometimes steep and difficult 

 and again it lay through some delightful 

 glade or along a ridge, bordered on each side 

 by trees and other vegetation and carpeted by 

 the softest of green grass. We saw beautiful 

 vari-colored birds and troops of chattering 

 parrots, all talking at once. Then we would 

 cross a rushing mountain brook, clear and 

 cold, yet only about 200 miles south of the 

 equator. 



During the night, and especially toward 

 morning, it had seemed cold to us, with our 

 thin blood, although at the coldest the ther- 

 mometer measured 60 degrees above zero. 

 Later we began to get the full heat of the 

 sun once more. 



Coming out on the side of a mountain we 

 obtained our first view of the ridge on which 

 Las Cuevas (the caves) were situated. In- 

 deed, had we only known it, we were able to 

 see the exact spot which was our ultimate 

 destination. 



We left the spot from which that view was 

 taken at 11 a. m., crossing the valley and 

 making camp for lunch in a little natural 

 clearing at the foot of the mountains on the 

 other side. We reached the timber line about 

 3 p. m. We had left behind us all the s~»ft 

 beauty of the wooded slope, and from there 

 on we had the grander "beauty of the bare 

 mountains. The higher we climbed, the 

 higher rose other walls before us, till, gain- 

 ing the ridge and passing some distance along 

 it, we reached The Caves about 5 p. m. 



The change in temperature had been sud- 

 den. The height was over 11,000 feet by 

 barometrical measurement, and the strong 

 wind chilled us thoroughly. We were glad 

 to get a fire started with some wood which 

 our mozo had packed up from below on one 

 of the mules. 



What a glorious view we enjoyed that af- 

 ternoon ! Far away across the great valley, 



