86 
DIFFICULTIES INCREASE. 
the next four miles, descended constantly, in 
many places as rapidly as was practicable and 
permit teams to pass over it. The only way it 
was possible for a road to be there at all, was by 
having its bed dug into the mountain side and 
carried back and forth zigzag fashion, running a 
short distance in one direction, then turning 
abruptly and running back again, each turn being 
on a lower plane. The lower side was prevented 
from being washed away by logs and rocks, 
which formed, with the steep slopes, a nearly 
perpendicular precipice ; while on the upper side 
was in most places a high wall of earth. The 
whole affair, like all mountain and canon roads, 
was no wider than was necessary to make a safe 
track for one vehicle, except in occasional places 
where, for the length of a team, it was widened 
for a “ turn-out.” 
With great difficulty the three horses were led 
to a point where the child could resume her lost 
seat, and then, amid pelting rain-drops — for the 
storm had begun — and gathering gloom, Mrs. 
Maxwell attempted to guide them all three 
abreast down the steep and slippery road. As 
the pack-animal required for its bulky load dou- 
ble space, and the broncho was so vicious, the 
experiment was both difficult and dangerous. 
She was soon obliged to give it up, as her horse, 
in defending itself from its malicious neighbor, 
