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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/755-h.zip b/755-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f9654de --- /dev/null +++ b/755-h.zip diff --git a/755-h/755-h.htm b/755-h/755-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..91fea87 --- /dev/null +++ b/755-h/755-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8394 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +A LADY'S LIFE IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 5%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: medium; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.salutation {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.closing {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.footnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.transnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.index {font-size: small ; + text-indent: -5% ; + margin-left: 5% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.intro {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.dedication {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 15%; + text-align: justify } + +P.published {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 15% } + +P.quote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 4% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.report {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 4% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.report2 {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 4% ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.finis { text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +H3.h3left { margin-left: 0%; + margin-right: 1%; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: left ; + clear: left ; + text-align: center } + +H3.h3right { margin-left: 1%; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: right ; + clear: right ; + text-align: center } + +H3.h3center { margin-left: 0; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: none ; + clear: both ; + text-align: center } + +H4.h4left { margin-left: 0%; + margin-right: 1%; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: left ; + clear: left ; + text-align: center } + +H4.h4right { margin-left: 1%; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: right ; + clear: right ; + text-align: center } + +H4.h4center { margin-left: 0; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: none ; + clear: both ; + text-align: center } + +H5.h5left { margin-left: 0%; + margin-right: 1%; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: left ; + clear: left ; + text-align: center } + +H5.h5right { margin-left: 1%; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: right ; + clear: right ; + text-align: center } + +H5.h5center { margin-left: 0; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: none ; + clear: both ; + text-align: center } + +IMG.imgleft { float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-top: 1%; + margin-right: 1%; + padding: 0; + text-align: center } + +IMG.imgright {float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1%; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-top: 1%; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center } + +IMG.imgcenter { margin-left: auto; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-top: 1%; + margin-right: auto; } + +.pagenum { position: absolute; + left: 1%; + font-size: 95%; + text-align: left; + text-indent: 0; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; } + +.sidenote { left: 0%; + font-size: 65%; + text-align: left; + text-indent: 0%; + width: 17%; + float: left; + clear: left; + padding-left: 0%; + padding-right: 2%; + padding-top: 2%; + padding-bottom: 2%; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; } + + + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, by Isabella L. Bird + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains + +Author: Isabella L. Bird + +Release Date: January 17, 2008 [EBook #755] +[Last updated: July 24, 2011] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LADY'S LIFE IN ROCKY MOUNTAINS *** + + + + + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +A LADY'S LIFE +<BR> +IN THE +<BR> +ROCKY MOUNTAINS +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +Isabella L. Bird +</H2> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Introduction by +<BR> +Ann Ronald +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +University of Nevada, Reno +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3> +To My Sister,<BR> +to whom<BR> +these letters were originally written,<BR> +they are now<BR> +affectionately dedicated.<BR> +</H3> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +Contents +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Introduction, by Ann Ronald +</H3> + + +<H3> +<A HREF="#chap01"> +LETTER I +</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Lake Tahoe—Morning in San Francisco—Dust—A Pacific +mail-train—Digger Indians—Cape Horn—A mountain hotel—A pioneer—A +Truckee livery stable—A mountain stream—Finding a bear—Tahoe. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#chap02"> +LETTER II +</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +A lady's "get-up"—Grizzly bears—The "Gem of the Sierras"—A tragic +tale—A carnival of color. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#chap03"> +LETTER III +</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +A Temple of Morpheus—Utah—A "God-forgotten" town—A distressed +couple—Dog villages—A temperance colony—A Colorado inn—The bug +pest—Fort Collins. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#chap04"> +LETTER IV +</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +A plague of flies—A melancholy charioteer—The Foot Hills—A mountain +boarding-house—A dull life—"Being agreeable"—Climate of +Colorado—Soroche and snakes. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#chap05"> +LETTER V +</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +A dateless day—"Those hands of yours"—A Puritan—Persevering +shiftlessness—The house-mother—Family worship—A grim Sunday—A +"thick-skulled Englishman"—A morning call—Another atmosphere—The +Great Lone Land—"Ill found"—A log camp—Bad footing for +horses—Accidents—Disappointment. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#chap06"> +LETTER VI +</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +A bronco mare—An accident—Wonderland—A sad story—The children of +the Territories—Hard greed—Halcyon hours—Smartness—Old-fashioned +prejudices—The Chicago colony—Good luck—Three notes of admiration—A +good horse—The St. Vrain—The Rocky Mountains at last—"Mountain +Jim"—A death hug—Estes Park. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#chap07"> +LETTER VII +</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Personality of Long's Peak—"Mountain Jim"—Lake of the Lilies—A +silent forest—The camping ground—"Ring"—A lady's bower—Dawn and +sunrise—A glorious view—Links of diamonds—The ascent of the +Peak—The "Dog's Lift"—Suffering from thirst—The descent—The bivouac. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#chap08"> +LETTER VIII +</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Estes Park—Big game—"Parks" in Colorado—Magnificent scenery—Flowers +and pines—An awful road—Our log cabin—Griffith Evans—A miniature +world—Our topics—A night alarm—A skunk—Morning glories—Daily +routine—The panic—"Wait for the wagon"—A musical evening. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#chap09"> +LETTER IX +</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +"Please Ma'ams"—A desperado—A cattle hunt—The muster—A mad cow—A +snowstorm—Snowed up—Birdie—The Plains—A prairie schooner—Denver—A +find—Plum Creek—"Being agreeable"—Snowbound—The grey mare. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#chap10"> +LETTER X +</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +A white world—Bad traveling—A millionaire's home—Pleasant +Park—Perry's Park—Stock-raising—A cattle king—The Arkansas +Divide—Birdie's sagacity—Luxury—Monument Park—Deference to +prejudice—A death scene—The Manitou—A loose shoe—The Ute +Pass—Bergens Park—A settler's home—Hayden's Divide—Sharp +criticism—Speaking the truth. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#chap11"> +LETTER XI +</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Tarryall Creek—The Red Range—Excelsior—Importunate pedlars—Snow and +heat—A bison calf—Deep drifts—South Park—The Great Divide—Comanche +Bill—Difficulties—Hall's Gulch—A Lord Dundreary—Ridiculous fears. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#chap12"> +LETTER XII +</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Deer Valley—Lynch law—Vigilance committees—The silver spruce—Taste +and abstinence—The whisky fiend—Smartness—Turkey Creek Canyon—The +Indian problem—Public rascality—Friendly meetings—The way to the +Golden City—A rising settlement—Clear Creek +Canyon—Staging—Swearing—A mountain town. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#chap13"> +LETTER XIII +</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +The blight of mining—Green Lake—Golden +City—Benighted—Vertigo—Boulder Canyon—Financial straits—A hard +ride—The last cent—A bachelor's home—"Mountain Jim"—A surprise—A +night arrival—Making the best of it—Scanty fare. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#chap14"> +LETTER XIV +</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +A dismal ride—A desperado's tale—"Lost! Lost! Lost!"—Winter +glories—Solitude—Hard times—Intense cold—A pack of wolves—The +beaver dams—Ghastly scenes—Venison steaks—Our evenings. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#chap15"> +LETTER XV +</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +A whisky slave—The pleasures of monotony—The mountain lion—"Another +mouth to feed"—A tiresome boy—An outcast—Thanksgiving Day—The +newcomer—A literary humbug—Milking a dry cow—Trout-fishing—A +snow-storm—A desperado's den. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#chap16"> +LETTER XVI +</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +A harmonious home—Intense cold—A purple sun—A grim jest—A perilous +ride—Frozen eyelids—Longmount—The pathless prairie—Hardships of +emigrant life—A trapper's advice—The Little Thompson—Evans and "Jim." +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3> +<A HREF="#chap17"> +LETTER XVII +</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Woman's mission—The last morning—Crossing the St. Vrain—Miller—The +St. Vrain again—Crossing the prairie—"Jim's" dream—"Keeping +strangers"—The inn kitchen—A reputed child-eater—Notoriety—A quiet +dance—"Jim's" resolve—The frost-fall—An unfortunate introduction. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H3> +Letter I +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Lake Tahoe—Morning in San Francisco—Dust—A Pacific +mail-train—Digger Indians—Cape Horn—A mountain hotel—A pioneer—A +Truckee livery stable—A mountain stream—Finding a bear—Tahoe. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +LAKE TAHOE, September 2. +</P> + +<P> +I have found a dream of beauty at which one might look all one's life +and sigh. Not lovable, like the Sandwich Islands, but beautiful in its +own way! A strictly North American beauty—snow-splotched mountains, +huge pines, red-woods, sugar pines, silver spruce; a crystalline +atmosphere, waves of the richest color; and a pine-hung lake which +mirrors all beauty on its surface. Lake Tahoe is before me, a sheet of +water twenty-two miles long by ten broad, and in some places 1,700 feet +deep. It lies at a height of 6,000 feet, and the snow-crowned summits +which wall it in are from 8,000 to 11,000 feet in altitude. The air is +keen and elastic. There is no sound but the distant and slightly +musical ring of the lumberer's axe. +</P> + +<P> +It is a weariness to go back, even in thought, to the clang of San +Francisco, which I left in its cold morning fog early yesterday, +driving to the Oakland ferry through streets with side-walks heaped +with thousands of cantaloupe and water-melons, tomatoes, cucumbers, +squashes, pears, grapes, peaches, apricots—all of startling size as +compared with any I ever saw before. Other streets were piled with +sacks of flour, left out all night, owing to the security from rain at +this season. I pass hastily over the early part of the journey, the +crossing the bay in a fog as chill as November, the number of "lunch +baskets," which gave the car the look of conveying a great picnic +party, the last view of the Pacific, on which I had looked for nearly a +year, the fierce sunshine and brilliant sky inland, the look of long +RAINLESSNESS, which one may not call drought, the valleys with sides +crimson with the poison oak, the dusty vineyards, with great purple +clusters thick among the leaves, and between the vines great dusty +melons lying on the dusty earth. From off the boundless harvest fields +the grain was carried in June, and it is now stacked in sacks along the +track, awaiting freightage. California is a "land flowing with milk +and honey." The barns are bursting with fullness. In the dusty +orchards the apple and pear branches are supported, that they may not +break down under the weight of fruit; melons, tomatoes, and squashes of +gigantic size lie almost unheeded on the ground; fat cattle, gorged +almost to repletion, shade themselves under the oaks; superb "red" +horses shine, not with grooming, but with condition; and thriving farms +everywhere show on what a solid basis the prosperity of the "Golden +State" is founded. Very uninviting, however rich, was the blazing +Sacramento Valley, and very repulsive the city of Sacramento, which, at +a distance of 125 miles from the Pacific, has an elevation of only +thirty feet. The mercury stood at 103 degrees in the shade, and the +fine white dust was stifling. +</P> + +<P> +In the late afternoon we began the ascent of the Sierras, whose sawlike +points had been in sight for many miles. The dusty fertility was all +left behind, the country became rocky and gravelly, and deeply scored +by streams bearing the muddy wash of the mountain gold mines down to +the muddier Sacramento. There were long broken ridges and deep +ravines, the ridges becoming longer, the ravines deeper, the pines +thicker and larger, as we ascended into a cool atmosphere of exquisite +purity, and before 6 P.M. the last traces of cultivation and the last +hardwood trees were left behind.[1] +</P> + +<P> +[1] In consequence of the unobserved omission of a date to my letters +having been pointed out to me, I take this opportunity of stating that +I traveled in Colorado in the autumn and early winter of 1873, on my +way to England from the Sandwich Islands. The letters are a faithful +picture of the country and state of society as it then was; but friends +who have returned from the West within the last six months tell me that +things are rapidly changing, that the frame house is replacing the log +cabin, and that the footprints of elk and bighorn may be sought for in +vain on the dewy slopes of Estes Park. +</P> + +<P> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 13.5em">I. L. B.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +(Author's note to the third edition, January 16, 1880.) +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +At Colfax, a station at a height of 2,400 feet, I got out and walked +the length of the train. First came two great gaudy engines, the +Grizzly Bear and the White Fox, with their respective tenders loaded +with logs of wood, the engines with great, solitary, reflecting lamps +in front above the cow guards, a quantity of polished brass-work, +comfortable glass houses, and well-stuffed seats for the +engine-drivers. The engines and tenders were succeeded by a baggage +car, the latter loaded with bullion and valuable parcels, and in charge +of two "express agents." Each of these cars is forty-five feet long. +Then came two cars loaded with peaches and grapes; then two "silver +palace" cars, each sixty feet long; then a smoking car, at that time +occupied mainly by Chinamen; and then five ordinary passenger cars, +with platforms like all the others, making altogether a train about 700 +feet in length. +</P> + +<P> +The platforms of the four front cars were clustered over with Digger +Indians, with their squaws, children, and gear. They are perfect +savages, without any aptitude for even aboriginal civilization, and are +altogether the most degraded of the ill-fated tribes which are dying +out before the white races. They were all very diminutive, five feet +one inch being, I should think, about the average height, with flat +noses, wide mouths, and black hair, cut straight above the eyes and +hanging lank and long at the back and sides. The squaws wore their +hair thickly plastered with pitch, and a broad band of the same across +their noses and cheeks. They carried their infants on their backs, +strapped to boards. The clothing of both sexes was a ragged, dirty +combination of coarse woolen cloth and hide, the moccasins being +unornamented. They were all hideous and filthy, and swarming with +vermin. The men carried short bows and arrows, one of them, who +appeared to be the chief, having a lynx's skin for a quiver. A few had +fishing tackle, but the bystanders said that they lived almost entirely +upon grasshoppers. They were a most impressive incongruity in the +midst of the tokens of an omnipotent civilization. +</P> + +<P> +The light of the sinking sun from that time glorified the Sierras, and +as the dew fell, aromatic odors made the still air sweet. On a single +track, sometimes carried on a narrow ledge excavated from the mountain +side by men lowered from the top in baskets, overhanging ravines from +2,000 to 3,000 feet deep, the monster train SNAKED its way upwards, +stopping sometimes in front of a few frame houses, at others where +nothing was to be seen but a log cabin with a few Chinamen hanging +about it, but where trails on the sides of the ravines pointed to a +gold country above and below. So sharp and frequent are the curves on +some parts of the ascent, that on looking out of the window one could +seldom see more than a part of the train at once. At Cape Horn, where +the track curves round the ledge of a precipice 2,500 feet in depth, it +is correct to be frightened, and a fashion of holding the breath and +shutting the eyes prevails, but my fears were reserved for the crossing +of a trestle bridge over a very deep chasm, which is itself approached +by a sharp curve. This bridge appeared to be overlapped by the cars so +as to produce the effect of looking down directly into a wild gulch, +with a torrent raging along it at an immense depth below. +</P> + +<P> +Shivering in the keen, frosty air near the summit pass of the Sierras, +we entered the "snow-sheds," wooden galleries, which for about fifty +miles shut out all the splendid views of the region, as given in +dioramas, not even allowing a glimpse of "the Gem of the Sierras," the +lovely Donner Lake. One of these sheds is twenty-seven miles long. In +a few hours the mercury had fallen from 103 degrees to 29 degrees, and +we had ascended 6,987 feet in 105 miles! After passing through the +sheds, we had several grand views of a pine forest on fire before +reaching Truckee at 11 P.M. having traveled 258 miles. Truckee, the +center of the "lumbering region" of the Sierras, is usually spoken of +as "a rough mountain town," and Mr. W. had told me that all the roughs +of the district congregated there, that there were nightly pistol +affrays in bar-rooms, etc., but as he admitted that a lady was sure of +respect, and Mr. G. strongly advised me to stay and see the lakes, I +got out, much dazed, and very stupid with sleep, envying the people in +the sleeping car, who were already unconscious on their luxurious +couches. The cars drew up in a street—if street that could be called +which was only a wide, cleared space, intersected by rails, with here +and there a stump, and great piles of sawn logs bulking big in the +moonlight, and a number of irregular clap-board, steep-roofed houses, +many of them with open fronts, glaring with light and crowded with men. +We had pulled up at the door of a rough Western hotel, with a partially +open front, being a bar-room crowded with men drinking and smoking, and +the space between it and the cars was a moving mass of loafers and +passengers. On the tracks, engines, tolling heavy bells, were mightily +moving, the glare from their cyclopean eyes dulling the light of a +forest which was burning fitfully on a mountain side; and on open +spaces great fires of pine logs were burning cheerily, with groups of +men round them. A band was playing noisily, and the unholy sound of +tom-toms was not far off. Mountains—the Sierras of many a fireside +dream—seemed to wall in the town, and great pines stood out, sharp and +clear cut, against a sky in which a moon and stars were shining +frostily. +</P> + +<P> +It was a sharp frost at that great height, and when an "irrepressible +nigger," who seemed to represent the hotel establishment, deposited me +and my carpetbag in a room which answered for "the parlor," I was glad +to find some remains of pine knots still alight in the stove. A man +came in and said that when the cars were gone he would try to get me a +room, but they were so full that it would be a very poor one. The +crowd was solely masculine. It was then 11:30 P.M., and I had not had +a meal since 6 A.M.; but when I asked hopefully for a hot supper, with +tea, I was told that no supper could be got at that hour; but in half +an hour the same man returned with a small cup of cold, weak tea, and a +small slice of bread, which looked as if it had been much handled. +</P> + +<P> +I asked the Negro factotum about the hire of horses, and presently a +man came in from the bar who, he said, could supply my needs. This +man, the very type of a Western pioneer, bowed, threw himself into a +rocking-chair, drew a spittoon beside him, cut a fresh quid of tobacco, +began to chew energetically, and put his feet, cased in miry high +boots, into which his trousers were tucked, on the top of the stove. +He said he had horses which would both "lope" and trot, that some +ladies preferred the Mexican saddle, that I could ride alone in perfect +safety; and after a route had been devised, I hired a horse for two +days. This man wore a pioneer's badge as one of the earliest settlers +of California, but he had moved on as one place after another had +become too civilized for him, "but nothing," he added, "was likely to +change much in Truckee." I was afterwards told that the usual regular +hours of sleep are not observed there. The accommodation is too +limited for the population of 2,000,[2] which is masculine mainly, and +is liable to frequent temporary additions, and beds are occupied +continuously, though by different occupants, throughout the greater +part of the twenty-four hours. Consequently I found the bed and room +allotted to me quite tumbled looking. Men's coats and sticks were +hanging up, miry boots were littered about, and a rifle was in one +corner. There was no window to the outer air, but I slept soundly, +being only once awoke by an increase of the same din in which I had +fallen asleep, varied by three pistol shots fired in rapid succession. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[2] Nelson's Guide to the Central Pacific Railroad. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +This morning Truckee wore a totally different aspect. The crowds of +the night before had disappeared. There were heaps of ashes where the +fires had been. A sleepy German waiter seemed the only person about +the premises, the open drinking saloons were nearly empty, and only a +few sleepy-looking loafers hung about in what is called the street. It +might have been Sunday; but they say that it brings a great accession +of throng and jollity. Public worship has died out at present; work is +discontinued on Sunday, but the day is given up to pleasure. Putting a +minimum of indispensables into a bag, and slipping on my Hawaiian +riding dress[3] over a silk skirt, and a dust cloak over all, I +stealthily crossed the plaza to the livery stable, the largest building +in Truckee, where twelve fine horses were stabled in stalls on each +side of a broad drive. My friend of the evening before showed me his +"rig," three velvet-covered side-saddles almost without horns. Some +ladies, he said, used the horn of the Mexican saddle, but none "in the +part" rode cavalier fashion. I felt abashed. I could not ride any +distance in the conventional mode, and was just going to give up this +splendid "ravage," when the man said, "Ride your own fashion; here, at +Truckee, if anywhere in the world, people can do as they like." +Blissful Truckee! In no time a large grey horse was "rigged out" in a +handsome silver-bossed Mexican saddle, with ornamental leather tassels +hanging from the stirrup guards, and a housing of black bear's-skin. I +strapped my silk skirt on the saddle, deposited my cloak in the +corn-bin, and was safely on the horse's back before his owner had time +to devise any way of mounting me. Neither he nor any of the loafers +who had assembled showed the slightest sign of astonishment, but all +were as respectful as possible. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[3] For the benefit of other lady travelers, I wish to explain that my +"Hawaiian riding dress" is the "American Lady's Mountain Dress," a +half-fitting jacket, a skirt reaching to the ankles, and full Turkish +trousers gathered into frills falling over the boots,—a thoroughly +serviceable and feminine costume for mountaineering and other rough +traveling, as in the Alps or any other part of the world. +</P> + +<P> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 13em">I. L. B.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +(Author's note to the second edition, November 27, 1879.) +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Once on horseback my embarrassment disappeared, and I rode through +Truckee, whose irregular, steep-roofed houses and shanties, set down in +a clearing and surrounded closely by mountain and forest, looked like a +temporary encampment; passed under the Pacific Railroad; and then for +twelve miles followed the windings of the Truckee River, a clear, +rushing, mountain stream, in which immense pine logs had gone aground +not to be floated off till the next freshet, a loud-tongued, rollicking +stream of ice-cold water, on whose banks no ferns or trailers hang, and +which leaves no greenness along its turbulent progress. +</P> + +<P> +All was bright with that brilliancy of sky and atmosphere, that blaze +of sunshine and universal glitter, which I never saw till I came to +California, combined with an elasticity in the air which removed all +lassitude, and gives one spirit enough for anything. On either side of +the Truckee great sierras rose like walls, castellated, embattled, +rifted, skirted and crowned with pines of enormous size, the walls now +and then breaking apart to show some snow-slashed peak rising into a +heaven of intense, unclouded, sunny blue. At this altitude of 6,000 +feet one must learn to be content with varieties of Coniferae, for, +except for aspens, which spring up in some places where the pines have +been cleared away, and for cotton-woods, which at a lower level fringe +the streams, there is nothing but the bear cherry, the raspberry, the +gooseberry, the wild grape, and the wild currant. None of these grew +near the Truckee, but I feasted my eyes on pines[4] which, though not +so large as the Wellingtonia of the Yosemite, are really gigantic, +attaining a height of 250 feet, their huge stems, the warm red of cedar +wood, rising straight and branchless for a third of their height, their +diameter from seven to fifteen feet, their shape that of a larch, but +with the needles long and dark, and cones a foot long. Pines cleft the +sky; they were massed wherever level ground occurred; they stood over +the Truckee at right angles, or lay across it in prostrate grandeur. +Their stumps and carcasses were everywhere; and smooth "shoots" on the +sierras marked where they were shot down as "felled timber," to be +floated off by the river. To them this wild region owes its scattered +population, and the sharp ring of the lumberer's axe mingles with the +cries of wild beasts and the roar of mountain torrents. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[4] Pinus Lambertina. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The track is a soft, natural, wagon road, very pleasant to ride on. +The horse was much too big for me, and had plans of his own; but now +and then, where the ground admitted to it, I tried his heavy "lope" +with much amusement. I met nobody, and passed nothing on the road but +a freight wagon, drawn by twenty-two oxen, guided by three fine-looking +men, who had some difficulty in making room for me to pass their +awkward convoy. After I had ridden about ten miles the road went up a +steep hill in the forest, turned abruptly, and through the blue gloom +of the great pines which rose from the ravine in which the river was +then hid, came glimpses of two mountains, about 11,000 feet in height, +whose bald grey summits were crowned with pure snow. It was one of +those glorious surprises in scenery which make one feel as if one must +bow down and worship. The forest was thick, and had an undergrowth of +dwarf spruce and brambles, but as the horse had become fidgety and +"scary" on the track, I turned off in the idea of taking a short cut, +and was sitting carelessly, shortening my stirrup, when a great, dark, +hairy beast rose, crashing and snorting, out of the tangle just in +front of me. I had only a glimpse of him, and thought that my +imagination had magnified a wild boar, but it was a bear. The horse +snorted and plunged violently, as if he would go down to the river, and +then turned, still plunging, up a steep bank, when, finding that I must +come off, I threw myself off on the right side, where the ground rose +considerably, so that I had not far to fall. I got up covered with +dust, but neither shaken nor bruised. It was truly grotesque and +humiliating. The bear ran in one direction, and the horse in another. +I hurried after the latter, and twice he stopped till I was close to +him, then turned round and cantered away. After walking about a mile +in deep dust, I picked up first the saddle-blanket and next my bag, and +soon came upon the horse, standing facing me, and shaking all over. I +thought I should catch him then, but when I went up to him he turned +round, threw up his heels several times, rushed off the track, galloped +in circles, bucking, kicking, and plunging for some time, and then +throwing up his heels as an act of final defiance, went off at full +speed in the direction of Truckee, with the saddle over his shoulders +and the great wooden stirrups thumping his sides, while I trudged +ignominiously along in the dust, laboriously carrying the bag and +saddle-blanket. +</P> + +<P> +I walked for nearly an hour, heated and hungry, when to my joy I saw +the ox-team halted across the top of a gorge, and one of the teamsters +leading the horse towards me. The young man said that, seeing the +horse coming, they had drawn the team across the road to stop him, and +remembering that he had passed them with a lady on him, they feared +that there had been an accident, and had just saddled one of their own +horses to go in search of me. He brought me some water to wash the +dust from my face, and re-saddled the horse, but the animal snorted and +plunged for some time before he would let me mount, and then sidled +along in such a nervous and scared way, that the teamster walked for +some distance by me to see that I was "all right." He said that the +woods in the neighborhood of Tahoe had been full of brown and grizzly +bears for some days, but that no one was in any danger from them. I +took a long gallop beyond the scene of my tumble to quiet the horse, +who was most restless and troublesome. +</P> + +<P> +Then the scenery became truly magnificent and bright with life. +Crested blue-jays darted through the dark pines, squirrels in hundreds +scampered through the forest, red dragon-flies flashed like "living +light," exquisite chipmunks ran across the track, but only a dusty blue +lupin here and there reminded me of earth's fairer children. Then the +river became broad and still, and mirrored in its transparent depths +regal pines, straight as an arrow, with rich yellow and green lichen +clinging to their stems, and firs and balsam pines filling up the +spaces between them, the gorge opened, and this mountain-girdled lake +lay before me, with its margin broken up into bays and promontories, +most picturesquely clothed by huge sugar pines. It lay dimpling and +scintillating beneath the noonday sun, as entirely unspoilt as fifteen +years ago, when its pure loveliness was known only to trappers and +Indians. One man lives on it the whole year round; otherwise early +October strips its shores of their few inhabitants, and thereafter, for +seven months, it is rarely accessible except on snowshoes. It never +freezes. In the dense forests which bound it, and drape two-thirds of +its gaunt sierras, are hordes of grizzlies, brown bears, wolves, elk, +deer, chipmunks, martens, minks, skunks, foxes, squirrels, and snakes. +On its margin I found an irregular wooden inn, with a lumber-wagon at +the door, on which was the carcass of a large grizzly bear, shot behind +the house this morning. I had intended to ride ten miles farther, but, +finding that the trail in some places was a "blind" one, and being +bewitched by the beauty and serenity of Tahoe, I have remained here +sketching, reveling in the view from the veranda, and strolling in the +forest. At this height there is frost every night of the year, and my +fingers are benumbed. +</P> + +<P> +The beauty is entrancing. The sinking sun is out of sight behind the +western Sierras, and all the pine-hung promontories on this side of the +water are rich indigo, just reddened with lake, deepening here and +there into Tyrian purple. The peaks above, which still catch the sun, +are bright rose-red, and all the mountains on the other side are pink; +and pink, too, are the far-off summits on which the snow-drifts rest. +Indigo, red, and orange tints stain the still water, which lies solemn +and dark against the shore, under the shadow of stately pines. An hour +later, and a moon nearly full—not a pale, flat disc, but a radiant +sphere—has wheeled up into the flushed sky. The sunset has passed +through every stage of beauty, through every glory of color, through +riot and triumph, through pathos and tenderness, into a long, dreamy, +painless rest, succeeded by the profound solemnity of the moonlight, +and a stillness broken only by the night cries of beasts in the +aromatic forests. +</P> + +<P> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 16.5em">I. L. B.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3> +Letter II +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +A lady's "get-up"—Grizzly bears—The "Gems of the Sierras"—A tragic +tale—A carnival of color. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +CHEYENNE, WYOMING, September 7. +</P> + +<P> +As night came on the cold intensified, and the stove in the parlor +attracted every one. A San Francisco lady, much "got up" in paint, +emerald green velvet, Brussels lace, and diamonds, rattled continuously +for the amusement of the company, giving descriptions of persons and +scenes in a racy Western twang, without the slightest scruple as to +what she said. In a few years Tahoe will be inundated in summer with +similar vulgarity, owing to its easiness of access. I sustained the +reputation which our country-women bear in America by looking a +"perfect guy"; and feeling that I was a salient point for the speaker's +next sally, I was relieved when the landlady, a ladylike Englishwoman, +asked me to join herself and her family in the bar-room, where we had +much talk about the neighborhood and its wild beasts, especially bears. +The forest is full of them, but they seem never to attack people unless +when wounded, or much aggravated by dogs, or a shebear thinks you are +going to molest her young. +</P> + +<P> +I dreamt of bears so vividly that I woke with a furry death hug at my +throat, but feeling quite refreshed. When I mounted my horse after +breakfast the sun was high and the air so keen and intoxicating that, +giving the animal his head, I galloped up and down hill, feeling +completely tireless. Truly, that air is the elixir of life. I had a +glorious ride back to Truckee. The road was not as solitary as the day +before. In a deep part of the forest the horse snorted and reared, and +I saw a cinnamon-colored bear with two cubs cross the track ahead of +me. I tried to keep the horse quiet that the mother might acquit me of +any designs upon her lolloping children, but I was glad when the +ungainly, long-haired party crossed the river. Then I met a team, the +driver of which stopped and said he was glad that I had not gone to +Cornelian Bay, it was such a bad trail, and hoped I had enjoyed Tahoe. +The driver of another team stopped and asked if I had seen any bears. +Then a man heavily armed, a hunter probably, asked me if I were the +English tourist who had "happened on" a "Grizzly" yesterday. Then I +saw a lumberer taking his dinner on a rock in the river, who "touched +his hat" and brought me a draught of ice-cold water, which I could +hardly drink owing to the fractiousness of the horse, and gathered me +some mountain pinks, which I admired. I mention these little incidents +to indicate the habit of respectful courtesy to women which prevails in +that region. These men might have been excused for speaking in a +somewhat free-and-easy tone to a lady riding alone, and in an unwonted +fashion. Womanly dignity and manly respect for women are the salt of +society in this wild West. +</P> + +<P> +My horse was so excitable that I avoided the center of Truckee, and +skulked through a collection of Chinamen's shanties to the stable, +where a prodigious roan horse, standing seventeen hands high, was +produced for my ride to the Donner Lake. I asked the owner, who was as +interested in my enjoying myself as a West Highlander might have been, +if there were not ruffians about who might make an evening ride +dangerous. A story was current of a man having ridden through Truckee +two evenings before with a chopped-up human body in a sack behind the +saddle, and hosts of stories of ruffianism are located there, rightly +or wrongly. This man said, "There's a bad breed of ruffians, but the +ugliest among them all won't touch you. There's nothing Western folk +admire so much as pluck in a woman." I had to get on a barrel before I +could reach the stirrup, and when I was mounted my feet only came +half-way down the horse's sides. I felt like a fly on him. The road +at first lay through a valley without a river, but some swampishness +nourished some rank swamp grass, the first GREEN grass I have seen in +America; and the pines, with their red stems, looked beautiful rising +out of it. I hurried along, and came upon the Donner Lake quite +suddenly, to be completely smitten by its beauty. It is only about +three miles long by one and a half broad, and lies hidden away among +mountains, with no dwellings on its shores but some deserted lumberers' +cabins.[5] Its loneliness pleased me well. I did not see man, beast, +or bird from the time I left Truckee till I returned. The mountains, +which rise abruptly from the margin, are covered with dense pine +forests, through which, here and there, strange forms of bare grey +rock, castellated, or needle-like, protrude themselves. On the +opposite side, at a height of about 6,000 feet, a grey, ascending line, +from which rumbling, incoherent sounds occasionally proceeded, is seen +through the pines. This is one of the snow-sheds of the Pacific +Railroad, which shuts out from travelers all that I was seeing. The +lake is called after Mr. Donner, who, with his family, arrived at the +Truckee River in the fall of the year, in company with a party of +emigrants bound for California. Being encumbered with many cattle, he +let the company pass on, and, with his own party of sixteen souls, +which included his wife and four children, encamped by the lake. In +the morning they found themselves surrounded by an expanse of snow, and +after some consultation it was agreed that the whole party except Mr. +Donner who was unwell, his wife, and a German friend, should take the +horses and attempt to cross the mountain, which, after much peril, they +succeeded in doing; but, as the storm continued for several weeks, it +was impossible for any rescue party to succor the three who had been +left behind. In the early spring, when the snow was hard enough for +traveling, a party started in quest, expecting to find the snow-bound +alive and well, as they had cattle enough for their support, and, after +weeks of toil and exposure, they scaled the Sierras and reached the +Donner Lake. On arriving at the camp they opened the rude door, and +there, sitting before the fire, they found the German, holding a +roasted human arm and hand, which he was greedily eating. The rescue +party overpowered him, and with difficulty tore the arm from him. A +short search discovered the body of the lady, minus the arm, frozen in +the snow, round, plump, and fair, showing that she was in perfect +health when she met her fate. The rescuers returned to California, +taking the German with them, whose story was that Mr. Donner died in +the fall, and that the cattle escaped, leaving them but little food, +and that when this was exhausted Mrs. Donner died. The story never +gained any credence, and the truth oozed out that the German had +murdered the husband, then brutally murdered the wife, and had seized +upon Donner's money. There were, however, no witnesses, and the +murderer escaped with the enforced surrender of the money to the Donner +orphans. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[5] Visitors can now be accommodated at a tolerable mountain hotel. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +This tragic story filled my mind as I rode towards the head of the +lake, which became every moment grander and more unutterably lovely. +The sun was setting fast, and against his golden light green +promontories, wooded with stately pines, stood out one beyond another +in a medium of dark rich blue, while grey bleached summits, peaked, +turreted, and snow slashed, were piled above them, gleaming with amber +light. Darker grew the blue gloom, the dew fell heavily, aromatic +odors floated on the air, and still the lofty peaks glowed with living +light, till in one second it died off from them, leaving them with the +ashy paleness of a dead face. It was dark and cold under the mountain +shadows, the frosty chill of the high altitude wrapped me round, the +solitude was overwhelming, and I reluctantly turned my horse's head +towards Truckee, often looking back to the ashy summits in their +unearthly fascination. Eastwards the look of the scenery was changing +every moment, while the lake for long remained "one burnished sheet of +living gold," and Truckee lay utterly out of sight in a hollow filled +with lake and cobalt. Before long a carnival of color began which I +can only describe as delirious, intoxicating, a hardly bearable joy, a +tender anguish, an indescribable yearning, an unearthly music, rich in +love and worship. It lasted considerably more than an hour, and though +the road was growing very dark, and the train which was to take me +thence was fast climbing the Sierras, I could not ride faster than a +walk. +</P> + +<P> +The eastward mountains, which had been grey, blushed pale pink, the +pink deepened into rose, and the rose into crimson, and then all +solidity etherealized away and became clear and pure as an amethyst, +while all the waving ranges and the broken pine-clothed ridges below +etherealized too, but into a dark rich blue, and a strange effect of +atmosphere blended the whole into one perfect picture. It changed, +deepened, reddened, melted, growing more and more wonderful, while +under the pines it was night, till, having displayed itself for an +hour, the jewelled peaks suddenly became like those of the Sierras, wan +as the face of death. Far later the cold golden light lingered in the +west, with pines in relief against its purity, and where the rose light +had glowed in the east, a huge moon upheaved itself, and the red +flicker of forest fires luridly streaked the mountain sides near and +far off. I realized that night had come with its EERINESS, and putting +my great horse into a gallop I clung on to him till I pulled him up in +Truckee, which was at the height of its evening revelries—fires +blazing out of doors, bar-rooms and saloons crammed, lights glaring, +gaming tables thronged, fiddle and banjo in frightful discord, and the +air ringing with ribaldry and profanity. +</P> + +<P> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 19em">I. L. B.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3> +Letter III +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +A Temple of Morpheus—Utah—A "God-forgotten" town—A distressed +couple—Dog villages—A temperance colony—A Colorado inn—The bug +pest—Fort Collins. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +CHEYENNE, WYOMING, September 8. +</P> + +<P> +Precisely at 11 P.M. the huge Pacific train, with its heavy bell +tolling, thundered up to the door of the Truckee House, and on +presenting my ticket at the double door of a "Silver Palace" car, the +slippered steward, whispering low, conducted me to my berth—a +luxurious bed three and a half feet wide, with a hair mattress on +springs, fine linen sheets, and costly California blankets. The +twenty-four inmates of the car were all invisible, asleep behind rich +curtains. It was a true Temple of Morpheus. Profound sleep was the +object to which everything was dedicated. Four silver lamps hanging +from the roof, and burning low, gave a dreamy light. On each side of +the center passage, rich rep curtains, green and crimson, striped with +gold, hung from silver bars running near the roof, and trailed on the +soft Axminster carpet. The temperature was carefully kept at 70 +degrees. It was 29 degrees outside. Silence and freedom from jolting +were secured by double doors and windows, costly and ingenious +arrangements of springs and cushions, and a speed limited to eighteen +miles an hour. +</P> + +<P> +As I lay down, the gallop under the dark pines, the frosty moon, the +forest fires, the flaring lights and roaring din of Truckee faded as +dreams fade, and eight hours later a pure, pink dawn divulged a level +blasted region, with grey sage brush growing out of a soil encrusted +with alkali, and bounded on either side by low glaring ridges. All +through that day we traveled under a cloudless sky over solitary +glaring plains, and stopped twice at solitary, glaring frame houses, +where coarse, greasy meals, infested by lazy flies, were provided at a +dollar per head. By evening we were running across the continent on a +bee line, and I sat for an hour on the rear platform of the rear car to +enjoy the wonderful beauty of the sunset and the atmosphere. Far as +one could see in the crystalline air there was nothing but desert. The +jagged Humboldt ranges flaming in the sunset, with snow in their +clefts, though forty-five miles off, looked within an easy canter. The +bright metal track, purpling like all else in the cool distance, was +all that linked one with Eastern or Western civilization. +</P> + +<P> +The next morning, when the steward unceremoniously turned us out of our +berths soon after sunrise, we were running down upon the Great Salt +Lake, bounded by the white Wahsatch ranges. Along its shores, by means +of irrigation, Mormon industry has compelled the ground to yield fine +crops of hay and barley; and we passed several cabins, from which, even +at that early hour, Mormons, each with two or three wives, were going +forth to their day's work. The women were ugly, and their shapeless +blue dresses hideous. At the Mormon town of Ogden we changed cars, and +again traversed dusty plains, white and glaring, varied by muddy +streams and rough, arid valleys, now and then narrowing into canyons. +By common consent the windows were kept closed to exclude the fine +white alkaline dust, which is very irritating to the nostrils. The +journey became more and more wearisome as we ascended rapidly over +immense plains and wastes of gravel destitute of mountain boundaries, +and with only here and there a "knob" or "butte" [6] to break the +monotony. The wheel-marks of the trail to Utah often ran parallel with +the track, and bones of oxen were bleaching in the sun, the remains of +those "whose carcasses fell in the wilderness" on the long and drouthy +journey. The daybreak of to-day (Sunday) found us shivering at Fort +Laramie, a frontier post dismally situated at a height of 7,000 feet. +Another 1,000 feet over gravelly levels brought us to Sherman, the +highest level reached by this railroad. From this point eastward the +streams fall into the Atlantic. The ascent of these apparently level +plateaus is called "crossing the Rocky Mountains," but I have seen +nothing of the range, except two peaks like teeth lying low on the +distant horizon. It became mercilessly cold; some people thought it +snowed, but I only saw rolling billows of fog. Lads passed through the +cars the whole morning, selling newspapers, novels, cacti, lollypops, +pop corn, pea nuts, and ivory ornaments, so that, having lost all +reckoning of the days, I never knew that it was Sunday till the cars +pulled up at the door of the hotel in this detestable place. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[6] The mountains which bound the "valley of the Babbling Waters," +Utah, afford striking examples of these "knobs" or "buttes." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The surrounding plains were endless and verdureless. The scanty +grasses were long ago turned into sun-cured hay by the fierce summer +heats. There is neither tree nor bush, the sky is grey, the earth +buff, the air blae and windy, and clouds of coarse granitic dust sweep +across the prairie and smother the settlement. Cheyenne is described +as "a God-forsaken, God-forgotten place." That it forgets God is +written on its face. It owes its existence to the railroad, and has +diminished in population, but is a depot for a large amount of the +necessaries of life which are distributed through the scantily settled +districts within distances of 300 miles by "freight wagons," each drawn +by four or six horses or mules, or double that number of oxen. At +times over 100 wagons, with double that number of teamsters, are in +Cheyenne at once. A short time ago it was a perfect pandemonium, +mainly inhabited by rowdies and desperadoes, the scum of advancing +civilization; and murders, stabbings, shooting, and pistol affrays were +at times events of almost hourly occurrence in its drinking dens. But +in the West, when things reach their worst, a sharp and sure remedy is +provided. Those settlers who find the state of matters intolerable, +organize themselves into a Vigilance Committee. "Judge Lynch," with a +few feet of rope, appears on the scene, the majority crystallizes round +the supporters of order, warnings are issued to obnoxious people, +simply bearing a scrawl of a tree with a man dangling from it, with +such words as "Clear out of this by 6 A.M., or——." A number of the +worst desperadoes are tried by a yet more summary process than a +drumhead court martial, "strung up," and buried ignominiously. I have +been told that 120 ruffians were disposed of in this way here in a +single fortnight. Cheyenne is now as safe as Hilo, and the interval +between the most desperate lawlessness and the time when United States +law, with its corruption and feebleness, comes upon the scene is one of +comparative security and good order. Piety is not the forte of +Cheyenne. The roads resound with atrocious profanity, and the rowdyism +of the saloons and bar-rooms is repressed, not extirpated. +</P> + +<P> +The population, once 6,000, is now about 4,000. It is an ill-arranged +set of frame houses and shanties [7] and rubbish heaps, and offal of +deer and antelope, produce the foulest smells I have smelt for a long +time. Some of the houses are painted a blinding white; others are +unpainted; there is not a bush, or garden, or green thing; it just +straggles out promiscuously on the boundless brown plains, on the +extreme verge of which three toothy peaks are seen. It is utterly +slovenly-looking, and unornamental, abounds in slouching +bar-room-looking characters, and looks a place of low, mean lives. +Below the hotel window freight cars are being perpetually shunted, but +beyond the railroad tracks are nothing but the brown plains, with their +lonely sights—now a solitary horseman at a traveling amble, then a +party of Indians in paint and feathers, but civilized up to the point +of carrying firearms, mounted on sorry ponies, the bundled-up squaws +riding astride on the baggage ponies; then a drove of ridgy-spined, +long-horned cattle, which have been several months eating their way +from Texas, with their escort of four or five much-spurred horsemen, in +peaked hats, blue-hooded coats, and high boots, heavily armed with +revolvers and repeating rifles, and riding small wiry horses. A +solitary wagon, with a white tilt, drawn by eight oxen, is probably +bearing an emigrant and his fortunes to Colorado. On one of the dreary +spaces of the settlement six white-tilted wagons, each with twelve +oxen, are standing on their way to a distant part. Everything suggests +a beyond. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[7] The discovery of gold in the Black Hills has lately given it a +great impetus, and as it is the chief point of departure for the +diggings it is increasing in population and importance. (July, 1879) +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +September 9. +</P> + +<P> +I have found at the post office here a circular letter of +recommendation from ex-Governor Hunt, procured by Miss Kingsley's +kindness, and another equally valuable one of "authentication" and +recommendation from Mr. Bowles, of the Springfield Republican, whose +name is a household word in all the West. Armed with these, I shall +plunge boldly into Colorado. I am suffering from giddiness and nausea +produced by the bad smells. A "help" here says that there have been +fifty-six deaths from cholera during the last twenty days. Is common +humanity lacking, I wonder, in this region of hard greed? Can it not +be bought by dollars here, like every other commodity, votes included? +Last night I made the acquaintance of a shadowy gentleman from +Wisconsin, far gone in consumption, with a spirited wife and young +baby. He had been ordered to the Plains as a last resource, but was +much worse. Early this morning he crawled to my door, scarcely able to +speak from debility and bleeding from the lungs, begging me to go to +his wife, who, the doctor said was ill of cholera. The child had been +ill all night, and not for love or money could he get any one to do +anything for them, not even to go for the medicine. The lady was blue, +and in great pain from cramp, and the poor unweaned infant was roaring +for the nourishment which had failed. I vainly tried to get hot water +and mustard for a poultice, and though I offered a Negro a dollar to go +for the medicine, he looked at it superciliously, hummed a tune, and +said he must wait for the Pacific train, which was not due for an hour. +Equally in vain I hunted through Cheyenne for a feeding bottle. Not a +maternal heart softened to the helpless mother and starving child, and +my last resource was to dip a piece of sponge in some milk and water, +and try to pacify the creature. I applied Rigollot's leaves, went for +the medicine, saw the popular host—a bachelor—who mentioned a girl +who, after much difficulty, consented to take charge of the baby for +two dollars a day and attend to the mother, and having remained till +she began to amend, I took the cars for Greeley, a settlement on the +Plains, which I had been recommended to make my starting point for the +mountains. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +FORT COLLINS, September 10. +</P> + +<P> +It gave me a strange sensation to embark upon the Plains. Plains, +plains everywhere, plains generally level, but elsewhere rolling in +long undulations, like the waves of a sea which had fallen asleep. +They are covered thinly with buff grass, the withered stalks of +flowers, Spanish bayonet, and a small beehive-shaped cactus. One could +gallop all over them. +</P> + +<P> +They are peopled with large villages of what are called prairie dogs, +because they utter a short, sharp bark, but the dogs are, in reality, +marmots. We passed numbers of villages, which are composed of raised +circular orifices, about eighteen inches in diameter, with sloping +passages leading downwards for five or six feet. Hundreds of these +burrows are placed together. On nearly every rim a small furry +reddish-buff beast sat on his hind legs, looking, so far as head went, +much like a young seal. These creatures were acting as sentinels, and +sunning themselves. As we passed, each gave a warning yelp, shook its +tail, and, with a ludicrous flourish of its hind legs, dived into its +hole. The appearance of hundreds of these creatures, each eighteen +inches long, sitting like dogs begging, with their paws down and all +turned sunwards, is most grotesque. The Wish-ton-Wish has few enemies, +and is a most prolific animal. From its enormous increase and the +energy and extent of its burrowing operations, one can fancy that in +the course of years the prairies will be seriously injured, as it +honeycombs the ground, and renders it unsafe for horses. The burrows +seem usually to be shared by owls, and many of the people insist that a +rattlesnake is also an inmate, but I hope for the sake of the harmless, +cheery little prairie dog, that this unwelcome fellowship is a myth. +</P> + +<P> +After running on a down grade for some time, five distinct ranges of +mountains, one above another, a lurid blue against a lurid sky, +upheaved themselves above the prairie sea. An American railway car, +hot, stuffy and full of chewing, spitting Yankees, was not an ideal way +of approaching this range which had early impressed itself upon my +imagination. Still, it was truly grand, although it was sixty miles +off, and we were looking at it from a platform 5,000 feet in height. +As I write I am only twenty-five miles from them, and they are +gradually gaining possession of me. +</P> + +<P> +I can look at and FEEL nothing else. At five in the afternoon frame +houses and green fields began to appear, the cars drew up, and two of +my fellow passengers and I got out and carried our own luggage through +the deep dust to a small, rough, Western tavern, where with difficulty +we were put up for the night. This settlement is called the Greeley +Temperance Colony, and was founded lately by an industrious class of +emigrants from the East, all total abstainers, and holding advanced +political opinions. They bought and fenced 50,000 acres of land, +constructed an irrigating canal, which distributes its waters on +reasonable terms, have already a population of 3,000, and are the most +prosperous and rising colony in Colorado, being altogether free from +either laziness or crime. Their rich fields are artificially +productive solely; and after seeing regions where Nature gives +spontaneously, one is amazed that people should settle here to be +dependent on irrigating canals, with the risk of having their crops +destroyed by grasshoppers. A clause in the charter of the colony +prohibits the introduction, sale, or consumption of intoxicating +liquor, and I hear that the men of Greeley carry their crusade against +drink even beyond their limits, and have lately sacked three houses +open for the sale of drink near their frontier, pouring the whisky upon +the ground, so that people don't now like to run the risk of bringing +liquor near Greeley, and the temperance influence is spreading over a +very large area. As the men have no bar-rooms to sit in, I observed +that Greeley was asleep at an hour when other places were beginning +their revelries. Nature is niggardly, and living is coarse and rough, +the merest necessaries of hardy life being all that can be thought of +in this stage of existence. +</P> + +<P> +My first experiences of Colorado travel have been rather severe. At +Greeley I got a small upstairs room at first, but gave it up to a +married couple with a child, and then had one downstairs no bigger than +a cabin, with only a canvas partition. It was very hot, and every +place was thick with black flies. The English landlady had just lost +her "help," and was in a great fuss, so that I helped her to get supper +ready. Its chief features were greasiness and black flies. Twenty men +in working clothes fed and went out again, "nobody speaking to nobody." +The landlady introduced me to a Vermont settler who lives in the "Foot +Hills," who was very kind and took a great deal of trouble to get me a +horse. Horses abound, but they are either large American horses, which +are only used for draught, or small, active horses, called broncos, +said to be from a Spanish word, signifying that they can never be +broke. They nearly all "buck," and are described as being more "ugly" +and treacherous than mules. There is only one horse in Greeley "safe +for a woman to ride." I tried an Indian pony by moonlight—such a +moonlight—but found he had tender feet. The kitchen was the only +sitting room, so I shortly went to bed, to be awoke very soon by +crawling creatures apparently in myriads. I struck a light, and found +such swarms of bugs that I gathered myself up on the wooden chairs, and +dozed uneasily till sunrise. Bugs are a great pest in Colorado. They +come out of the earth, infest the wooden walls, and cannot be got rid +of by any amount of cleanliness. Many careful housewives take their +beds to pieces every week and put carbolic acid on them. +</P> + +<P> +It was a glorious, cool morning, and the great range of the Rocky +Mountains looked magnificent. I tried the pony again, but found he +would not do for a long journey; and as my Vermont acquaintance offered +me a seat in his wagon to Fort Collins, twenty-five miles nearer the +Mountains, I threw a few things together and came here with him. We +left Greeley at 10, and arrived here at 4:30, staying an hour for food +on the way. I liked the first half of the drive; but the fierce, +ungoverned, blazing heat of the sun on the whitish earth for the last +half, was terrible even with my white umbrella, which I have not used +since I left New Zealand; it was sickening. Then the eyes have never +anything green to rest upon, except in the river bottoms, where there +is green hay grass. We followed mostly the course of the River +Cache-a-la-Poudre, which rises in the Mountains, and after supplying +Greeley with irrigation, falls into the Platte, which is an affluent of +the Missouri. When once beyond the scattered houses and great ring +fence of the vigorous Greeley colonists, we were on the boundless +prairie. Now and then horsemen passed us, and we met three wagons with +white tilts. Except where the prairie dogs have honeycombed the +ground, you can drive almost anywhere, and the passage of a few wagons +over the same track makes a road. We forded the river, whose course is +marked the whole way by a fringe of small cotton-woods and aspens, and +traveled hour after hour with nothing to see except some dog towns, +with their quaint little sentinels; but the view in front was glorious. +The Alps, from the Lombard Plains, are the finest mountain panorama I +ever saw, but not equal to this; for not only do five high-peaked +giants, each nearly the height of Mont Blanc, lift their dazzling +summits above the lower ranges, but the expanse of mountains is so +vast, and the whole lie in a transparent medium of the richest blue, +not haze—something peculiar to the region. The lack of foreground is +a great artistic fault, and the absence of greenery is melancholy, and +makes me recall sadly the entrancing detail of the Hawaiian Islands. +Once only, the second time we forded the river, the cotton-woods formed +a foreground, and then the loveliness was heavenly. We stopped at a +log house and got a rough dinner of beef and potatoes, and I was amused +at the five men who shared it with us for apologizing to me for being +without their coats, as if coats would not be an enormity on the Plains. +</P> + +<P> +It is the election day for the Territory, and men were galloping over +the prairie to register their votes. The three in the wagon talked +politics the whole time. They spoke openly and shamelessly of the +prices given for votes; and apparently there was not a politician on +either side who was not accused of degrading corruption. We saw a +convoy of 5,000 head of Texas cattle traveling from southern Texas to +Iowa. They had been nine months on the way! They were under the +charge of twenty mounted vacheros, heavily armed, and a light wagon +accompanied them, full of extra rifles and ammunition, not unnecessary, +for the Indians are raiding in all directions, maddened by the reckless +and useless slaughter of the buffalo, which is their chief subsistence. +On the Plains are herds of wild horses, buffalo, deer, and antelope; +and in the Mountains, bears, wolves, deer, elk, mountain lions, bison, +and mountain sheep. You see a rifle in every wagon, as people always +hope to fall in with game. +</P> + +<P> +By the time we reached Fort Collins I was sick and dizzy with the heat +of the sun, and not disposed to be pleased with a most unpleasing +place. It was a military post, but at present consists of a few frame +houses put down recently on the bare and burning plain. The settlers +have "great expectations," but of what? The Mountains look hardly +nearer than from Greeley; one only realizes their vicinity by the loss +of their higher peaks. This house is freer from bugs than the one at +Greeley, but full of flies. These new settlements are altogether +revolting, entirely utilitarian, given up to talk of dollars as well as +to making them, with coarse speech, coarse food, coarse everything, +nothing wherewith to satisfy the higher cravings if they exist, nothing +on which the eye can rest with pleasure. The lower floor of this inn +swarms with locusts in addition to thousands of black flies. The +latter cover the ground and rise buzzing from it as you walk. +</P> + +<P> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 16.5em">I. L. B.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3> +Letter IV +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +A plague of flies—A melancholy charioteer—The Foot Hills—A mountain +boarding-house—A dull life—"Being agreeable"—Climate of +Colorado—Soroche and snakes. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +CANYON, September 12. +</P> + +<P> +I was actually so dull and tired that I deliberately slept away the +afternoon in order to forget the heat and flies. Thirty men in working +clothes, silent and sad looking, came in to supper. The beef was tough +and greasy, the butter had turned to oil, and beef and butter were +black with living, drowned, and half-drowned flies. The greasy +table-cloth was black also with flies, and I did not wonder that the +guests looked melancholy and quickly escaped. I failed to get a horse, +but was strongly recommended to come here and board with a settler, +who, they said, had a saw-mill and took boarders. The person who +recommended it so strongly gave me a note of introduction, and told me +that it was in a grand part of the mountains, where many people had +been camping out all the summer for the benefit of their health. The +idea of a boarding-house, as I know them in America, was rather +formidable in the present state of my wardrobe, and I decided on +bringing my carpet-bag, as well as my pack, lest I should be rejected +for my bad clothes. +</P> + +<P> +Early the next morning I left in a buggy drawn by light broncos and +driven by a profoundly melancholy young man. He had never been to the +canyon; there was no road. We met nobody, saw nothing except antelope +in the distance, and he became more melancholy and lost his way, +driving hither and thither for about twenty miles till we came upon an +old trail which eventually brought us to a fertile "bottom," where hay +and barley were being harvested, and five or six frame houses looked +cheerful. I had been recommended to two of these, which professed to +take in strangers, but one was full of reapers, and in the other a +child was dead. So I took the buggy on, glad to leave the glaring, +prosaic settlement behind. There was a most curious loneliness about +the journey up to that time. Except for the huge barrier to the right, +the boundless prairies were everywhere, and it was like being at sea +without a compass. The wheels made neither sound nor indentation as we +drove over the short, dry grass, and there was no cheerful clatter of +horses' hoofs. The sky was cloudy and the air hot and still. In one +place we passed the carcass of a mule, and a number of vultures soared +up from it, to descend again immediately. Skeletons and bones of +animals were often to be seen. A range of low, grassy hills, called +the Foot Hills, rose from the plain, featureless and monotonous, except +where streams, fed by the snows of the higher regions, had cut their +way through them. Confessedly bewildered, and more melancholy than +ever, the driver turned up one of the wildest of these entrances, and +in another hour the Foot Hills lay between us and the prairie sea, and +a higher and broken range, with pitch pines of average size, was +revealed behind them. These Foot Hills, which swell up uninterestingly +from the plains on their eastern side, on their western have the +appearance of having broken off from the next range, and the break is +abrupt, and takes the form of walls and terraces of rock of the most +brilliant color, weathered and stained by ores, and, even under the +grey sky, dazzling to the eyes. The driver thought he had understood +the directions given, but he was stupid, and once we lost some miles by +arriving at a river too rough and deep to be forded, and again we were +brought up by an impassable canyon. He grew frightened about his +horses, and said no money would ever tempt him into the mountains +again; but average intelligence would have made it all easy. +</P> + +<P> +The solitude was becoming somber, when, after driving for nine hours, +and traveling at the least forty-five miles, without any sign of +fatigue on the part of the broncos, we came to a stream, by the side of +which we drove along a definite track, till we came to a sort of +tripartite valley, with a majestic crooked canyon 2,000 feet deep +opening upon it. A rushing stream roared through it, and the Rocky +Mountains, with pines scattered over them, came down upon it. A little +farther, and the canyon became utterly inaccessible. This was +exciting; here was an inner world. A rough and shaky bridge, made of +the outsides of pines laid upon some unsecured logs, crossed the river. +The broncos stopped and smelt it, not liking it, but some encouraging +speech induced them to go over. On the other side was a log cabin, +partially ruinous, and the very rudest I ever saw, its roof of +plastered mud being broken into large holes. It stood close to the +water among some cotton-wood trees. A little higher there was a very +primitive saw-mill, also out of repair, with some logs lying about. An +emigrant wagon and a forlorn tent, with a camp-fire and a pot, were in +the foreground, but there was no trace of the boarding-house, of which +I stood a little in dread. The driver went for further directions to +the log cabin, and returned with a grim smile deepening the melancholy +of his face to say it was Mr. Chalmers', but there was no accommodation +for such as him, much less for me! This was truly "a sell." I got +down and found a single room of the rudest kind, with the wall at one +end partially broken down, holes in the roof, holes for windows, and no +furniture but two chairs and two unplaned wooden shelves, with some +sacks of straw upon them for beds. There was an adjacent cabin room, +with a stove, benches, and table, where they cooked and ate, but this +was all. A hard, sad-looking woman looked at me measuringly. She said +that they sold milk and butter to parties who camped in the canyon, +that they had never had any boarders but two asthmatic old ladies, but +they would take me for five dollars per week if I "would make myself +agreeable." The horses had to be fed, and I sat down on a box, had +some dried beef and milk, and considered the matter. If I went back to +Fort Collins, I thought I was farther from a mountain life, and had no +choice but Denver, a place from which I shrank, or to take the cars for +New York. Here the life was rough, rougher than any I had ever seen, +and the people repelled me by their faces and manners; but if I could +rough it for a few days, I might, I thought, get over canyons and all +other difficulties into Estes Park, which has become the goal of my +journey and hopes. So I decided to remain. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +September 16. +</P> + +<P> +Five days here, and I am no nearer Estes Park. How the days pass I +know not; I am weary of the limitations of this existence. This is "a +life in which nothing happens." When the buggy disappeared, I felt as +if I had cut the bridge behind me. I sat down and knitted for some +time—my usual resource under discouraging circumstances. I really did +not know how I should get on. There was no table, no bed, no basin, no +towel, no glass, no window, no fastening on the door. The roof was in +holes, the logs were unchinked, and one end of the cabin was partially +removed! Life was reduced to its simplest elements. I went out; the +family all had something to do, and took no notice of me. I went back, +and then an awkward girl of sixteen, with uncombed hair, and a painful +repulsiveness of face and air, sat on a log for half an hour and stared +at me. I tried to draw her into talk, but she twirled her fingers and +replied snappishly in monosyllables. Could I by any effort "make +myself agreeable"? I wondered. The day went on. I put on my Hawaiian +dress, rolling up the sleeves to the elbows in an "agreeable" fashion. +Towards evening the family returned to feed, and pushed some dried beef +and milk in at the door. They all slept under the trees, and before +dark carried the sacks of straw out for their bedding. I followed +their example that night, or rather watched Charles's Wain while they +slept, but since then have slept on blankets on the floor under the +roof. They have neither lamp nor candle, so if I want to do anything +after dark I have to do it by the unsteady light of pine knots. As the +nights are cold, and free from bugs, and I do a good deal of manual +labor, I sleep well. At dusk I make my bed on the floor, and draw a +bucket of ice-cold water from the river; the family go to sleep under +the trees, and I pile logs on the fire sufficient to burn half the +night, for I assure you the solitude is eerie enough. There are +unaccountable noises, (wolves), rummagings under the floor, queer +cries, and stealthy sounds of I know not what. One night a beast (fox +or skunk) rushed in at the open end of the cabin, and fled through the +window, almost brushing my face, and on another, the head and three or +four inches of the body of a snake were protruded through a chink of +the floor close to me, to my extreme disgust. My mirror is the +polished inside of my watchcase. At sunrise Mrs. Chalmers comes in—if +coming into a nearly open shed can be called IN—and makes a fire, +because she thinks me too stupid to do it, and mine is the family room; +and by seven I am dressed, have folded the blankets, and swept the +floor, and then she puts some milk and bread or stirabout on a box by +the door. After breakfast I draw more water, and wash one or two +garments daily, taking care that there are no witnesses of my +inexperience. Yesterday a calf sucked one into hopeless rags. The +rest of the day I spend in mending, knitting, writing to you, and the +various odds and ends which arise when one has to do all for oneself. +At twelve and six some food is put on the box by the door, and at dusk +we make up our beds. A distressed emigrant woman has just given birth +to a child in a temporary shanty by the river, and I go to help her +each day. +</P> + +<P> +I have made the acquaintance of all the careworn, struggling settlers +within a walk. All have come for health, and most have found or are +finding it, even if they have not better shelter than a wagon tilt or a +blanket on sticks laid across four poles. The climate of Colorado is +considered the finest in North America, and consumptives, asthmatics, +dyspeptics, and sufferers from nervous diseases, are here in hundreds +and thousands, either trying the "camp cure" for three or four months, +or settling here permanently. People can safely sleep out of doors for +six months of the year. The plains are from 4,000 to 6,000 feet high, +and some of the settled "parks," or mountain valleys, are from 8,000 +to 10,000. The air, besides being much rarefied, is very dry. The +rainfall is far below the average, dews are rare, and fogs nearly +unknown. The sunshine is bright and almost constant, and three-fourths +of the days are cloudless. The milk, beef, and bread are good. The +climate is neither so hot in summer nor so cold in winter as that of +the States, and when the days are hot the nights are cool. Snow rarely +lies on the lower ranges, and horses and cattle don't require to be +either fed or housed during the winter. Of course the rarefied air +quickens respiration. All this is from hearsay.[8] I am not under +favorable circumstances, either for mind or body, and at present I feel +a singular lassitude and difficulty in taking exercise, but this is +said to be the milder form of the affliction known on higher altitudes +as soroche, or "mountain sickness," and is only temporary. I am +forming a plan for getting farther into the mountains, and hope that my +next letter will be more lively. I killed a rattlesnake this morning +close to the cabin, and have taken its rattle, which has eleven joints. +My life is embittered by the abundance of these reptiles—rattlesnakes +and moccasin snakes, both deadly, carpet snakes and "green racers," +reputed dangerous, water snakes, tree snakes, and mouse snakes, +harmless but abominable. Seven rattlesnakes have been killed just +outside the cabin since I came. A snake, three feet long, was coiled +under the pillow of the sick woman. I see snakes in all withered +twigs, and am ready to flee at "the sound of a shaken leaf." And +besides snakes, the earth and air are alive and noisy with forms of +insect life, large and small, stinging, humming, buzzing, striking, +rasping, devouring! +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[8] The curative effect of the climate of Colorado can hardly be +exaggerated. In traveling extensively through the Territory afterwards +I found that nine out of every ten settlers were cured invalids. +Statistics and medical workers on the climate of the State (as it now +is) represent Colorado as the most remarkable sanatorium in the world. +</P> + +<P> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 15em">I. L. B.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3> +Letter V +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +A dateless day—"Those hands of yours"—A Puritan—Persevering +shiftlessness—The house-mother—Family worship—A grim Sunday—A +"thick-skulled Englishman"—A morning call—Another atmosphere—The +Great Lone Land—"Ill found"—A log camp—Bad footing for +horses—Accidents—Disappointment. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +CANYON, September. +</P> + +<P> +The absence of a date shows my predicament. THEY have no newspaper; +<I>I</I> have no almanack; the father is away for the day, and none of the +others can help me, and they look contemptuously upon my desire for +information on the subject. The monotony will come to an end +to-morrow, for Chalmers offers to be my guide over the mountains to +Estes Park, and has persuaded his wife "for once to go for a frolic"; +and with much reluctance, many growls at the waste of time, and many +apprehensions of danger and loss, she has consented to accompany him. +My life has grown less dull from their having become more interesting +to me, and as I have "made myself agreeable," we are on fairly friendly +terms. My first move in the direction of fraternizing was, however, +snubbed. A few days ago, having finished my own work, I offered to +wash up the plates, but Mrs. C., with a look which conveyed more than +words, a curl of her nose, and a sneer in her twang, said "Guess you'll +make more work nor you'll do. Those hands of yours" (very brown and +coarse they were) "ain't no good; never done nothing, I guess." Then +to her awkward daughter: "This woman says she'll wash up! Ha! ha! look +at her arms and hands!" This was the nearest approach to a laugh I +have heard, and have never seen even a tendency towards a smile. Since +then I have risen in their estimation by improvizing a lamp—Hawaiian +fashion—by putting a wisp of rag into a tin of fat. They have +actually condescended to sit up till the stars come out since. Another +advance was made by means of the shell-pattern quilt I am knitting for +you. There has been a tendency towards approving of it, and a few days +since the girl snatched it out of my hand, saying, "I want this," and +apparently took it to the camp. This has resulted in my having a +knitting class, with the woman, her married daughter, and a woman from +the camp, as pupils. Then I have gained ground with the man by being +able to catch and saddle a horse. I am often reminded of my favorite +couplet,— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +Beware of desperate steps; the darkest day,<BR> +Live till to-morrow, will have passed away.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +But oh! what a hard, narrow life it is with which I am now in contact! +A narrow and unattractive religion, which I believe still to be +genuine, and an intense but narrow patriotism, are the only higher +influences. Chalmers came from Illinois nine years ago, pronounced by +the doctors to be far gone in consumption, and in two years he was +strong. They are a queer family; somewhere in the remote Highlands I +have seen such another. Its head is tall, gaunt, lean, and ragged, and +has lost one eye. On an English road one would think him a starving or +a dangerous beggar. He is slightly intelligent, very opinionated, and +wishes to be thought well informed, which he is not. He belongs to the +straitest sect of Reformed Presbyterians ("Psalm-singers"), but +exaggerates anything of bigotry and intolerance which may characterize +them, and rejoices in truly merciless fashion over the excision of the +philanthropic Mr. Stuart, of Philadelphia, for worshipping with +congregations which sing hymns. His great boast is that his ancestors +were Scottish Covenanters. He considers himself a profound theologian, +and by the pine logs at night discourses to me on the mysteries of the +eternal counsels and the divine decrees. Colorado, with its progress +and its future, is also a constant theme. He hates England with a +bitter, personal hatred, and regards any allusions which I make to the +progress of Victoria as a personal insult. He trusts to live to see +the downfall of the British monarchy and the disintegration of the +empire. He is very fond of talking, and asks me a great deal about my +travels, but if I speak favorably of the climate or resources of any +other country, he regards it as a slur on Colorado. +</P> + +<P> +They have one hundred and sixty acres of land, a "Squatter's claim," +and an invaluable water power. He is a lumberer, and has a saw-mill of +a very primitive kind. I notice that every day something goes wrong +with it, and this is the case throughout. If he wants to haul timber +down, one or other of the oxen cannot be found; or if the timber is +actually under way, a wheel or a part of the harness gives way, and the +whole affair is at a standstill for days. The cabin is hardly a +shelter, but is allowed to remain in ruins because the foundation of a +frame house was once dug. A horse is always sure to be lame for want +of a shoe nail, or a saddle to be useless from a broken buckle, and the +wagon and harness are a marvel of temporary shifts, patchings, and +insecure linkings with strands of rope. Nothing is ever ready or whole +when it is wanted. Yet Chalmers is a frugal, sober, hard-working man, +and he, his eldest son, and a "hired man" "Rise early," "going forth to +their work and labor till the evening"; and if they do not "late take +rest," they truly "eat the bread of carefulness." It is hardly +surprising that nine years of persevering shiftlessness should have +resulted in nothing but the ability to procure the bare necessaries of +life. +</P> + +<P> +Of Mrs. C. I can say less. She looks like one of the English poor +women of our childhood—lean, clean, toothless, and speaks, like some +of them, in a piping, discontented voice, which seems to convey a +personal reproach. All her waking hours are spent in a large +sun-bonnet. She is never idle for one minute, is severe and hard, and +despises everything but work. I think she suffers from her husband's +shiftlessness. She always speaks of me as "This" or "that woman." The +family consists of a grown-up son, a shiftless, melancholy-looking +youth, who possibly pines for a wider life; a girl of sixteen, a sour, +repellent-looking creature, with as much manners as a pig; and three +hard, un-child-like younger children. By the whole family all courtesy +and gentleness of act or speech seem regarded as "works of the flesh," +if not of "the devil." They knock over all one's things without +apologizing or picking them up, and when I thank them for anything they +look grimly amazed. I feel that they think it sinful that I do not +work as hard as they do. I wish I could show them "a more excellent +way." This hard greed, and the exclusive pursuit of gain, with the +indifference to all which does not aid in its acquisition, are eating +up family love and life throughout the West. I write this reluctantly, +and after a total experience of nearly two years in the United States. +They seem to have no "Sunday clothes," and few of any kind. The sewing +machine, like most other things, is out of order. One comb serves the +whole family. Mrs. C. is cleanly in her person and dress, and the +food, though poor, is clean. Work, work, work, is their day and their +life. They are thoroughly ungenial, and have that air of suspicion in +speaking of every one which is not unusual in the land of their +ancestors. Thomas Chalmers is the man's ecclesiastical hero, in spite +of his own severe Puritanism. Their live stock consists of two +wretched horses, a fairly good bronco mare, a mule, four badly-bred +cows, four gaunt and famished-looking oxen, some swine of singularly +active habits, and plenty of poultry. The old saddles are tied on with +twine; one side of the bridle is a worn-out strap and the other a rope. +They wear boots, but never two of one pair, and never blacked, of +course, but no stockings. They think it quite effeminate to sleep +under a roof, except during the severest months of the year. There is +a married daughter across the river, just the same hard, loveless, +moral, hard-working being as her mother. Each morning, soon after +seven, when I have swept the cabin, the family come in for "worship." +Chalmers "wales" a psalm, in every sense of the word wail, to the most +doleful of dismal tunes; they read a chapter round, and he prays. If +his prayer has something of the tone of the imprecatory psalms, he has +high authority in his favor; and if there be a tinge of the Pharisaic +thanksgiving, it is hardly surprising that he is grateful that he is +not as other men are when he contemplates the general godlessness of +the region. +</P> + +<P> +Sunday was a dreadful day. The family kept the Commandment literally, +and did no work. Worship was conducted twice, and was rather longer +than usual. Chalmers does not allow of any books in his house but +theological works, and two or three volumes of dull travels, so the +mother and children slept nearly all day. The man attempted to read a +well-worn copy of Boston's Fourfold State, but shortly fell asleep, and +they only woke up for their meals. Friday and Saturday had been +passably cool, with frosty nights, but on Saturday night it changed, +and I have not felt anything like the heat of Sunday since I left New +Zealand, though the mercury was not higher than 91 degrees. It was +sickening, scorching, melting, unbearable, from the mere power of the +sun's rays. It was an awful day, and seemed as if it would never come +to an end. The cabin, with its mud roof under the shade of the trees, +gave a little shelter, but it was occupied by the family, and I longed +for solitude. I took the Imitation of Christ, and strolled up the +canyon among the withered, crackling leaves, in much dread of snakes, +and lay down on a rough table which some passing emigrant had left, and +soon fell asleep. When I awoke it was only noon. The sun looked +wicked as it blazed like a white magnesium light. A large tree-snake +(quite harmless) hung from the pine under which I had taken shelter, +and looked as if it were going to drop upon me. I was covered with +black flies. The air was full of a busy, noisy din of insects, and +snakes, locusts, wasps, flies, and grasshoppers were all rioting in the +torrid heat. Would the sublime philosophy of Thomas a Kempis, I +wondered, have given way under this? All day I seemed to hear in +mockery the clear laugh of the Hilo streams, and the drip of Kona +showers, and to see as in a mirage the perpetual Green of windward +Hawaii. I was driven back to the cabin in the late afternoon, and in +the evening listened for two hours to abuse of my own country, and to +sweeping condemnations of all religionists outside of the brotherhood +of "Psalm-singers." It is jarring and painful, yet I would say of +Chalmers, as Dr. Holland says of another:— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +If ever I shall reach the home in heaven,<BR> +For whose dear rest I humbly hope and pray,<BR> +In the great company of the forgiven<BR> +I shall be sure to meet old Daniel Gray.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The night came without coolness, but at daylight on Monday morning a +fire was pleasant. You will now have some idea of my surroundings. It +is a moral, hard, unloving, unlovely, unrelieved, unbeautified, +grinding life. These people live in a discomfort and lack of ease and +refinement which seems only possible to people of British stock. A +"foreigner" fills his cabin with ingenuities and elegancies, and a +Hawaiian or South Sea Islander makes his grass house both pretty and +tasteful. Add to my surroundings a mighty canyon, impassable both +above and below, and walls of mountains with an opening some miles off +to the vast prairie sea.[9] +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[9] I have not curtailed this description of the roughness of a +Colorado settler's life, for, with the exceptions of the disrepair and +the Puritanism, it is a type of the hard, unornamented existence with +which I came almost universally in contact during my subsequent +residence in the Territory. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +An English physician is settled about half a mile from here over a +hill. He is spoken of as holding "very extreme opinions." Chalmers +rails at him for being "a thick-skulled Englishman," for being "fine, +polished," etc. To say a man is "polished" here is to give him a very +bad name. He accuses him also of holding views subversive of all +morality. In spite of all this, I thought he might possess a map, and +I induced Mrs. C. to walk over with me. She intended it as a formal +morning call, but she wore the inevitable sun-bonnet, and had her dress +tied up as when washing. It was not till I reached the gate that I +remembered that I was in my Hawaiian riding dress, and that I still +wore the spurs with which I had been trying a horse in the morning! +The house was in a grass valley which opened from the tremendous canyon +through which the river had cut its way. The Foot Hills, with their +terraces of flaming red rock, were glowing in the sunset, and a pure +green sky arched tenderly over a soft evening scene. Used to the +meanness and baldness of settlers' dwellings. I was delighted to see +that in this instance the usual log cabin was only the lower floor of a +small house, which bore a delightful resemblance to a Swiss chalet. It +stood in a vegetable garden fertilized by an irrigating ditch, outside +of which were a barn and cowshed. A young Swiss girl was bringing the +cows slowly home from the hill, an Englishwoman in a clean print dress +stood by the fence holding a baby, and a fine-looking Englishman in a +striped Garibaldi shirt, and trousers of the same tucked into high +boots, was shelling corn. As soon as Mrs. Hughes spoke I felt she was +truly a lady; and oh! how refreshing her refined, courteous, graceful +English manner was, as she invited us into the house! The entrance was +low, through a log porch festooned and almost concealed by a "wild +cucumber." Inside, though plain and poor, the room looked a home, not +like a squatter's cabin. An old tin was completely covered by a +graceful clematis mixed with streamers of Virginia creeper, and white +muslin curtains, and above all two shelves of admirably-chosen books, +gave the room almost an air of elegance. Why do I write almost? It +was an oasis. It was barely three weeks since I had left "the +communion of educated men," and the first tones of the voices of my +host and hostess made me feel as if I had been out of it for a year. +Mrs. C. stayed an hour and a half, and then went home to the cows, when +we launched upon a sea of congenial talk. They said they had not seen +an educated lady for two years, and pressed me to go and visit them. I +rode home on Dr. Hughes's horse after dark, to find neither fire nor +light in the cabin. Mrs. C. had gone back saying, "Those English +talked just like savages, I couldn't understand a word they said." +</P> + +<P> +I made a fire, and extemporized a light with some fat and a wick of +rag, and Chalmers came in to discuss my visit and to ask me a question +concerning a matter which had roused the latent curiosity of the whole +family. I had told him, he said, that I knew no one hereabouts, but +"his woman" told him that Dr. H. and I spoke constantly of a Mrs. +Grundy, whom we both knew and disliked, and who was settled, as we +said, not far off! He had never heard of her, he said, and he was the +pioneer settler of the canyon, and there was a man up here from +Longmount who said he was sure there was not a Mrs. Grundy in the +district, unless it was a woman who went by two names! The wife and +family had then come in, and I felt completely nonplussed. I longed to +tell Chalmers that it was he and such as he, there or anywhere, with +narrow hearts, bitter tongues, and harsh judgments, who were the true +"Mrs. Grundys," dwarfing individuality, checking lawful freedom of +speech, and making men "offenders for a word," but I forebore. How I +extricated myself from the difficulty, deponent sayeth not. The rest +of the evening has been spent in preparing to cross the mountains. +Chalmers says he knows the way well, and that we shall sleep to-morrow +at the foot of Long's Peak. Mrs. Chalmers repents of having consented, +and conjures up doleful visions of what the family will come to when +left headless, and of disasters among the cows and hens. I could tell +her that the eldest son and the "hired man" have plotted to close the +saw-mill and go on a hunting and fishing expedition, that the cows will +stray, and that the individual spoken respectfully of as "Mr. Skunk" +will make havoc in the hen-house. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +NAMELESS REGION, ROCKY MOUNTAINS, September. +</P> + +<P> +This is indeed far removed. It seems farther away from you than any +place I have been to yet, except the frozen top of the volcano of Mauna +Loa. It is so little profaned by man that if one were compelled to +live here in solitude one might truly say of the bears, deer, and elk +which abound, "Their tameness is shocking to me." It is the world of +"big game." Just now a heavy-headed elk, with much-branched horns +fully three feet long, stood and looked at me, and then quietly trotted +away. He was so near that I heard the grass, crisp with hoar frost, +crackle under his feet. Bears stripped the cherry bushes within a few +yards of us last night. Now two lovely blue birds, with crests on +their heads, are picking about within a stone's-throw. This is "The +Great Lone Land," until lately the hunting ground of the Indians, and +not yet settled or traversed, or likely to be so, owing to the want of +water. A solitary hunter has built a log cabin up here, which he +occupies for a few weeks for the purpose of elk-hunting, but all the +region is unsurveyed, and mostly unexplored. It is 7 A.M. The sun has +not yet risen high enough to melt the hoar frost, and the air is clear, +bright, and cold. The stillness is profound. I hear nothing but the +far-off mysterious roaring of a river in a deep canyon, which we spent +two hours last night in trying to find. The horses are lost, and if I +were disposed to retort upon my companions the term they invariably +apply to me, I should now write, with bitter emphasis, "THAT man" and +"THAT woman" have gone in search of them. +</P> + +<P> +The scenery up here is glorious, combining sublimity with beauty, and +in the elastic air fatigue has dropped off from me. This is no region +for tourists and women, only for a few elk and bear hunters at times, +and its unprofaned freshness gives me new life. I cannot by any words +give you an idea of scenery so different from any that you or I have +ever seen. This is an upland valley of grass and flowers, of glades +and sloping lawns, and cherry-fringed beds of dry streams, and clumps +of pines artistically placed, and mountain sides densely pine clad, the +pines breaking into fringes as they come down upon the "park," and the +mountains breaking into pinnacles of bold grey rock as they pierce the +blue of the sky. A single dell of bright green grass, on which dwarf +clumps of the scarlet poison oak look like beds of geraniums, slopes +towards the west, as if it must lead to the river which we seek. Deep, +vast canyons, all trending westwards, lie in purple gloom. Pine-clad +ranges, rising into the blasted top of Storm Peak, all run westwards +too, and all the beauty and glory are but the frame out of which +rises—heaven-piercing, pure in its pearly luster, as glorious a +mountain as the sun tinges red in either hemisphere—the splintered, +pinnacled, lonely, ghastly, imposing, double-peaked summit of Long's +Peak, the Mont Blanc of Northern Colorado.[10] +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[10] Gray's Peak and Pike's Peak have their partisans, but after seeing +them all under favorable aspects, Long's Peak stands in my memory as it +does in that vast congeries of mountains, alone in imperial grandeur. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +This is a view to which nothing needs to be added. This is truly the +"lodge in some vast wilderness" for which one often sighs when in the +midst of "a bustle at once sordid and trivial." In spite of Dr. +Johnson, these "monstrous protuberances" do "inflame the imagination +and elevate the understanding." This scenery satisfies my soul. Now, +the Rocky Mountains realize—nay, exceed—the dream of my childhood. +It is magnificent, and the air is life giving. I should like to spend +some time in these higher regions, but I know that this will turn out +an abortive expedition, owing to the stupidity and pigheadedness of +Chalmers. +</P> + +<P> +There is a most romantic place called Estes Park, at a height of 7,500 +feet, which can be reached by going down to the plains and then +striking up the St. Vrain Canyon, but this is a distance of fifty-five +miles, and as Chalmers was confident that he could take me over the +mountains, a distance, as he supposed, of about twenty miles, we left +at mid-day yesterday, with the fervent hope, on my part, that I might +not return. Mrs. C. was busy the whole of Tuesday in preparing what +she called "grub," which, together with "plenty of bedding," was to be +carried on a pack mule; but when we started I was disgusted to find +that Chalmers was on what should have been the pack animal, and that +two thickly-quilted cotton "spreads" had been disposed of under my +saddle, making it broad, high, and uncomfortable. Any human being must +have laughed to see an expedition start so grotesquely "ill found." I +had a very old iron-grey horse, whose lower lip hung down feebly, +showing his few teeth, while his fore-legs stuck out forwards, and +matter ran from both his nearly-blind eyes. It is kindness to bring +him up to abundant pasture. My saddle is an old McLellan cavalry +saddle, with a battered brass peak, and the bridle is a rotten leather +strap on one side and a strand of rope on the other. The cotton quilts +covered the Rosinante from mane to tail. Mrs. C. wore an old print +skirt, an old short-gown, a print apron, and a sun-bonnet, with a flap +coming down to her waist, and looked as careworn and clean as she +always does. The inside horn of her saddle was broken; to the outside +one hung a saucepan and a bundle of clothes. The one girth was nearly +at the breaking point when we started. +</P> + +<P> +My pack, with my well-worn umbrella upon it, was behind my saddle. I +wore my Hawaiian riding dress, with a handkerchief tied over my face +and the sun-cover of my umbrella folded and tied over my hat, for the +sun was very fierce. The queerest figure of all was the would-be +guide. With his one eye, his gaunt, lean form, and his torn clothes, +he looked more like a strolling tinker than the honest worthy settler +that he is. He bestrode rather than rode a gaunt mule, whose tail had +all been shaven off, except a turf for a tassel at the end. Two flour +bags which leaked were tied on behind the saddle, two quilts were under +it, and my canvas bag, a battered canteen, a frying pan, and two +lariats hung from the horn. On one foot C. wore an old high boot, into +which his trouser was tucked, and on the other an old brogue, through +which his toes protruded. +</P> + +<P> +We had an ascent of four hours through a ravine which gradually opened +out upon this beautiful "park," but we rode through it for some miles +before the view burst upon us. The vastness of this range, like +astronomical distances, can hardly be conceived of. At this place, I +suppose, it is not less than 250 miles wide, and with hardly a break in +its continuity, it stretches almost from the Arctic Circle to the +Straits of Magellan. From the top of Long's Peak, within a short +distance, twenty-two summits, each above 12,000 feet in height, are +visible, and the Snowy Range, the backbone or "divide" of the +continent, is seen snaking distinctly through the wilderness of ranges, +with its waters starting for either ocean. From the first ridge we +crossed after leaving Canyon we had a singular view of range beyond +range cleft by deep canyons, and abounding in elliptical valleys, +richly grassed. The slopes of all the hills, as far as one could see, +were waving with fine grass ready for the scythe, but the food of wild +animals only. All these ridges are heavily timbered with pitch pines, +and where they come down on the grassy slopes they look as if the trees +had been arranged by a landscape gardener. Far off, through an opening +in a canyon, we saw the prairie simulating the ocean. Far off, through +an opening in another direction, was the glistening outline of the +Snowy Range. But still, till we reached this place, it was monotonous, +though grand as a whole: a grey-green or buff-grey, with outbreaks of +brilliantly-colored rock, only varied by the black-green of pines, +which are not the stately pyramidal pines of the Sierra Nevada, but +much resemble the natural Scotch fir. Not many miles from us is North +Park, a great tract of land said to be rich in gold, but those who have +gone to "prospect" have seldom returned, the region being the home of +tribes of Indians who live in perpetual hostility to the whites and to +each other. +</P> + +<P> +At this great height, and most artistically situated, we came upon a +rude log camp tenanted in winter by an elk hunter, but now deserted. +Chalmers without any scruple picked the padlock; we lighted a fire, +made some tea, and fried some bacon, and after a good meal mounted +again and started for Estes Park. For four weary hours we searched +hither and thither along every indentation of the ground which might be +supposed to slope towards the Big Thompson River, which we knew had to +be forded. Still, as the quest grew more tedious, Long's Peak stood +before us as a landmark in purple glory; and still at his feet lay a +hollow filled with deep blue atmosphere, where I knew that Estes Park +must lie, and still between us and it lay never-lessening miles of +inaccessibility, and the sun was ever weltering, and the shadows ever +lengthening, and Chalmers, who had started confident, bumptious, +blatant, was ever becoming more bewildered, and his wife's thin voice +more piping and discontented, and my stumbling horse more insecure, and +I more determined (as I am at this moment) that somehow or other I +would reach that blue hollow, and even stand on Long's Peak where the +snow was glittering. Affairs were becoming serious, and Chalmers's +incompetence a source of real peril, when, after an exploring +expedition, he returned more bumptious than ever, saying he knew it +would be all right, he had found a trail, and we could get across the +river by dark, and camp out for the night. So he led us into a steep, +deep, rough ravine, where we had to dismount, for trees were lying +across it everywhere, and there was almost no footing on the great +slabs of shelving rock. Yet there was a trail, tolerably well worn, +and the branches and twigs near the ground were well broken back. Ah! +it was a wild place. My horse fell first, rolling over twice, and +breaking off a part of the saddle, in his second roll knocking me over +a shelf of three feet of descent. Then Mrs. C.'s horse and the mule +fell on the top of each other, and on recovering themselves bit each +other savagely. The ravine became a wild gulch, the dry bed of some +awful torrent; there were huge shelves of rock, great overhanging walls +of rock, great prostrate trees, cedar spikes and cacti to wound the +feet, and then a precipice fully 500 feet deep! The trail was a trail +made by bears in search of bear cherries, which abounded! +</P> + +<P> +It was getting dusk as we had to struggle up the rough gulch we had so +fatuously descended. The horses fell several times; I could hardly get +mine up at all, though I helped him as much as I could; I was cut and +bruised, scratched and torn. A spine of a cactus penetrated my foot, +and some vicious thing cut the back of my neck. Poor Mrs. C. was much +bruised, and I pitied her, for she got no fun out of it as I did. It +was an awful climb. When we got out of the gulch, C. was so confused +that he took the wrong direction, and after an hour of vague wandering +was only recalled to the right one by my pertinacious assertions acting +on his weak brain. I was inclined to be angry with the incompetent +braggart, who had boasted that he could take us to Estes Park +"blindfold"; but I was sorry for him too, so said nothing, even though +I had to walk during these meanderings to save my tired horse. When at +last, at dark, we reached the open, there was a snow flurry, with +violent gusts of wind, and the shelter of the camp, dark and cold as it +was, was desirable. We had no food, but made a fire. I lay down on +some dry grass, with my inverted saddle for a pillow, and slept +soundly, till I was awoke by the cold of an intense frost and the pain +of my many cuts and bruises. Chalmers promised that we should make a +fresh start at six, so I woke him up at five, and here I am alone at +half-past eight! I said to him many times that unless he hobbled or +picketed the horses, we should lose them. "Oh," he said "they'll be +all right." In truth he had no picketing pins. Now, the animals are +merrily trotting homewards. I saw them two miles off an hour ago with +him after them. His wife, who is also after them, goaded to +desperation, said, "He's the most ignorant, careless, good-for-nothing +man I ever saw," upon which I dwelt upon his being well meaning. There +is a sort of well here, but our "afternoon tea" and watering the horses +drained it, so we have had nothing to drink since yesterday, for the +canteen, which started without a cork, lost all its contents when the +mule fell. I have made a monstrous fire, but thirst and impatience are +hard to bear, and preventible misfortunes are always irksome. I have +found the stomach of a bear with fully a pint of cherrystones in it, +and have spent an hour in getting the kernels; and lo! now, at +half-past nine, I see the culprit and his wife coming back with the +animals. +</P> + +<P> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 16.5em">I. L. B.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +LOWER CANYON, September 21. +</P> + +<P> +We never reached Estes Park. There is no trail, and horses have never +been across. We started from camp at ten, and spent four hours in +searching for the trail. Chalmers tried gulch after gulch again, his +self-assertion giving way a little after each failure; sometimes going +east when we should have gone west, always being brought up by a +precipice or other impossibility. At last he went off by himself, and +returned rejoicing, saying he had found the trail; and soon, sure +enough, we were on a well-defined old trail, evidently made by +carcasses which have been dragged along it by hunters. Vainly I +pointed out to him that we were going north-east when we should have +gone south-west, and that we were ascending instead of descending. +"Oh, it's all right, and we shall soon come to water," he always +replied. For two hours we ascended slowly through a thicket of aspen, +the cold continually intensifying; but the trail, which had been +growing fainter, died out, and an opening showed the top of Storm Peak +not far off and not much above us, though it is 11,000 feet high. I +could not help laughing. He had deliberately turned his back on Estes +Park. He then confessed that he was lost, and that he could not find +the way back. His wife sat down on the ground and cried bitterly. We +ate some dry bread, and then I said I had had much experience in +traveling, and would take the control of the party, which was agreed +to, and we began the long descent. Soon after his wife was thrown from +her horse, and cried bitterly again from fright and mortification. +Soon after that the girth of the mule's saddle broke, and having no +crupper, saddle and addenda went over his head, and the flour was +dispersed. Next the girth of the woman's saddle broke, and she went +over her horse's head. Then he began to fumble helplessly at it, +railing against England the whole time, while I secured the saddle, and +guided the route back to an outlet of the park. There a fire was +built, and we had some bread and bacon; and then a search for water +occupied nearly two hours, and resulted in the finding of a mudhole, +trodden and defiled by hundreds of feet of elk, bears, cats, deer, and +other beasts, and containing only a few gallons of water as thick as +pea soup, with which we watered our animals and made some strong tea. +</P> + +<P> +The sun was setting in glory as we started for the four hours' ride +home, and the frost was intense, and made our bruised, grazed limbs +ache painfully. I was sorry for Mrs. Chalmers, who had had several +falls, and bore her aches patiently, and had said several times to her +husband, with a kind meaning, "I am real sorry for this woman." I was +so tired with the perpetual stumbling of my horse, as well as stiffened +with the bitter cold, that I walked for the last hour or two; and +Chalmers, as if to cover his failure, indulged in loud, incessant talk, +abusing all other religionists, and railing against England in the +coarsest American fashion. Yet, after all, they were not bad souls; +and though he failed so grotesquely, he did his incompetent best. The +log fire in the ruinous cabin was cheery, and I kept it up all night, +and watched the stars through the holes in the roof, and thought of +Long's Peak in its glorious solitude, and resolved that, come what +might, I would reach Estes Park. +</P> + +<P> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 21.5em">I. L. B.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3> +Letter VI +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +A bronco mare—An accident—Wonderland—A sad story—The children of +the Territories—Hard greed—Halcyon hours—Smartness—Old-fashioned +prejudices—The Chicago colony—Good luck—Three notes of admiration—A +good horse—The St. Vrain—The Rocky Mountains at last—"Mountain +Jim"—A death hug—Estes Park. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +LOWER CANYON, September 25. +</P> + +<P> +This is another world. My entrance upon it was signalized in this +fashion. Chalmers offered me a bronco mare for a reasonable sum, and +though she was a shifty, half-broken young thing, I came over here on +her to try her, when, just as I was going away, she took into her head +to "scare" and "buck," and when I touched her with my foot she leaped +over a heap of timber, and the girth gave way, and the onlookers tell +me that while she jumped I fell over her tail from a good height upon +the hard gravel, receiving a parting kick on my knee. They could +hardly believe that no bones were broken. The flesh of my left arm +looks crushed into a jelly, but cold-water dressings will soon bring it +right; and a cut on my back bled profusely; and the bleeding, with many +bruises and the general shake, have made me feel weak, but +circumstances do not admit of "making a fuss," and I really think that +the rents in my riding dress will prove the most important part of the +accident. +</P> + +<P> +The surroundings here are pleasing. The log cabin, on the top of which +a room with a steep, ornamental Swiss roof has been built, is in a +valley close to a clear, rushing river, which emerges a little higher +up from an inaccessible chasm of great sublimity. One side of the +valley is formed by cliffs and terraces of porphyry as red as the +reddest new brick, and at sunset blazing into vermilion. Through +rifts in the nearer ranges there are glimpses of pine-clothed peaks, +which, towards twilight, pass through every shade of purple and +violet. The sky and the earth combine to form a Wonderland every +evening—such rich, velvety coloring in crimson and violet; such an +orange, green, and vermilion sky; such scarlet and emerald clouds; +such an extraordinary dryness and purity of atmosphere, and then the +glorious afterglow which seems to blend earth and heaven! For color, +the Rocky Mountains beat all I have seen. The air has been cold, but +the sun bright and hot during the last few days. +</P> + +<P> +The story of my host is a story of misfortune. It indicates who should +NOT come to Colorado.[11] He and his wife are under thirty-five. The +son of a London physician in large practice, with a liberal education +in the largest sense of the word, unusual culture and accomplishments, +and the partner of a physician in good practice in the second city in +England, he showed symptoms which threatened pulmonary disease. In an +evil hour he heard of Colorado with its "unrivalled climate, boundless +resources," etc., and, fascinated not only by these material +advantages, but by the notion of being able to found or reform society +on advanced social theories of his own, he became an emigrant. Mrs. +Hughes is one of the most charming, and lovable women I have ever seen, +and their marriage is an ideal one. Both are fitted to shine in any +society, but neither had the slightest knowledge of domestic and +farming details. Dr. H. did not know how to saddle or harness a horse. +Mrs. H. did not know whether you should put an egg into cold or hot +water when you meant to boil it! They arrived at Longmount, bought up +this claim, rather for the beauty of the scenery than for any +substantial advantages, were cheated in land, goods, oxen, everything, +and, to the discredit of the settlers, seemed to be regarded as fair +game. Everything has failed with them, and though they "rise early, +and late take rest, and eat the bread of carefulness," they hardly keep +their heads above water. A young Swiss girl, devoted to them both, +works as hard as they do. They have one horse, no wagon, some poultry, +and a few cows, but no "hired man." It is the hardest and least ideal +struggle that I have ever seen made by educated people. They had all +their experience to learn, and they have bought it by losses and +hardships. That they have learnt so much surprises me. Dr. H. and +these two ladies built the upper room and the addition to the house +without help. He has cropped the land himself, and has learned the +difficult art of milking cows. Mrs. H. makes all the clothes required +for a family of six, and her evenings, when the hard day's work is done +and she is ready to drop from fatigue, are spent in mending and +patching. The day is one long GRIND, without rest or enjoyment, or the +pleasure of chance intercourse with cultivated people. The few +visitors who have "happened in" are the thrifty wives of prosperous +settlers, full of housewifely pride, whose one object seems to be to +make Mrs. H. feel her inferiority to themselves. I wish she did take a +more genuine interest in the "coming-on" of the last calf, the +prospects of the squash crop, and the yield and price of butter; but +though she has learned to make excellent butter and bread, it is all +against the grain. The children are delightful. The little boys are +refined, courteous, childish gentlemen, with love and tenderness to +their parents in all their words and actions. Never a rough or harsh +word is heard within the house. But the atmosphere of struggles and +difficulties has already told on these infants. They consider their +mother in all things, going without butter when they think the stock is +low, bringing in wood and water too heavy for them to carry, anxiously +speculating on the winter prospect and the crops, yet withal the most +childlike and innocent of children. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[11] The story is ended now. A few months after my visit Mrs. H. died +a few days after her confinement, and was buried on the bleak hill +side, leaving her husband with five children under six years old, and +Dr. H. is a prosperous man on one of the sunniest islands of the +Pacific, with the devoted Swiss friend as his second wife. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +One of the most painful things in the Western States and Territories is +the extinction of childhood. I have never seen any children, only +debased imitations of men and women, cankered by greed and selfishness, +and asserting and gaining complete independence of their parents at ten +years old. The atmosphere in which they are brought up is one of +greed, godlessness, and frequently of profanity. Consequently these +sweet things seem like flowers in a desert. +</P> + +<P> +Except for love, which here as everywhere raises life into the ideal, +this is a wretched existence. The poor crops have been destroyed by +grasshoppers over and over again, and that talent deified here under +the name of "smartness" has taken advantage of Dr. H. in all bargains, +leaving him with little except food for his children. Experience has +been dearly bought in all ways, and this instance of failure might be a +useful warning to professional men without agricultural experience not +to come and try to make a living by farming in Colorado. +</P> + +<P> +My time here has passed very delightfully in spite of my regret and +anxiety for this interesting family. I should like to stay longer, +were it not that they have given up to me their straw bed, and Mrs. H. +and her baby, a wizened, fretful child, sleep on the floor in my room, +and Dr. H. on the floor downstairs, and the nights are frosty and +chill. Work is the order of their day, and of mine, and at night, when +the children are in bed, we three ladies patch the clothes and make +shirts, and Dr. H. reads Tennyson's poems, or we speak tenderly of that +world of culture and noble deeds which seems here "the land very far +off," or Mrs. H. lays aside her work for a few minutes and reads some +favorite passage of prose or poetry, as I have seldom heard either read +before, with a voice of large compass and exquisite tone, quick to +interpret every shade of the author's meaning, and soft, speaking eyes, +moist with feeling and sympathy. These are our halcyon hours, when we +forget the needs of the morrow, and that men still buy, sell, cheat, +and strive for gold, and that we are in the Rocky Mountains, and that +it is near midnight. But morning comes hot and tiresome, and the +never-ending work is oppressive, and Dr. H. comes in from the field two +or three times in the day, dizzy and faint, and they condole with each +other, and I feel that the Colorado settler needs to be made of sterner +stuff and to possess more adaptability. +</P> + +<P> +To-day has been a very pleasant day for me, though I have only once sat +down since 9 A.M., and it is now 5 P.M. I plotted that the devoted +Swiss girl should go to the nearest settlement with two of the children +for the day in a neighbor's wagon, and that Dr. and Mrs. H. should get +an afternoon of rest and sleep upstairs, while I undertook to do the +work and make something of a cleaning. I had a large "wash" of my own, +having been hindered last week by my bad arm, but a clothes wringer +which screws on to the side of the tub is a great assistance, and by +folding the clothes before passing them through it, I make it serve +instead of mangle and iron. After baking the bread and thoroughly +cleaning the churn and pails, I began upon the tins and pans, the +cleaning of which had fallen into arrears, and was hard at work, very +greasy and grimy, when a man came in to know where to ford the river +with his ox team, and as I was showing him he looked pityingly at me, +saying, "Be you the new hired girl? Bless me, you're awful small!" +</P> + +<P> +Yesterday we saved three cwt. of tomatoes for winter use, and about two +tons of squash and pumpkin for the cattle, two of the former weighing +140 lbs. I pulled nearly a quarter of an acre of maize, but it was a +scanty crop, and the husks were poorly filled. I much prefer field +work to the scouring of greasy pans and to the wash tub, and both to +either sewing or writing. +</P> + +<P> +This is not Arcadia. "Smartness," which consists in over-reaching your +neighbor in every fashion which is not illegal, is the quality which is +held in the greatest repute, and Mammon is the divinity. From a +generation brought up to worship the one and admire the other little +can be hoped. In districts distant as this is from "Church +Ordinances," there are three ways in which Sunday is spent: one, to +make it a day for visiting, hunting, and fishing; another, to spend it +in sleeping and abstinence from work; and the third, to continue all +the usual occupations, consequently harvesting and felling and hauling +timber are to be seen in progress. +</P> + +<P> +Last Sunday a man came here and put up a door, and said he didn't +believe in the Bible or in a God, and he wasn't going to sacrifice his +children's bread to old-fashioned prejudices. There is a manifest +indifference to the higher obligations of the law, "judgment, mercy and +faith"; but in the main the settlers are steady, there are few flagrant +breaches of morals, industry is the rule, life and property are far +safer than in England or Scotland, and the law of universal respect to +women is still in full force. +</P> + +<P> +The days are now brilliant and the nights sharply frosty. People are +preparing for the winter. The tourists from the East are trooping into +Denver, and the surveying parties are coming down from the mountains. +Snow has fallen on the higher ranges, and my hopes of getting to Estes +Park are down at zero. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +LONGMOUNT, September 25. +</P> + +<P> +Yesterday was perfect. The sun was brilliant and the air cool and +bracing. I felt better, and after a hard day's work and an evening +stroll with my friends in the glorious afterglow, I went to bed +cheerful and hopeful as to the climate and its effect on my health. +This morning I awoke with a sensation of extreme lassitude, and on +going out, instead of the delicious atmosphere of yesterday, I found +intolerable suffocating heat, a BLAZING (not BRILLIANT) sun, and a +sirocco like a Victorian hot wind. Neuralgia, inflamed eyes, and a +sense of extreme prostration followed, and my acclimatized hosts were +somewhat similarly affected. The sparkle, the crystalline atmosphere, +and the glory of color of yesterday, had all vanished. We had borrowed +a wagon, but Dr. H.'s strong but lazy horse and a feeble hired one made +a poor span; and though the distance here is only twenty-two miles over +level prairie, our tired animal, and losing the way three times, have +kept us eight and a half hours in the broiling sun. All notions of +locality fail me on the prairie, and Dr. H. was not much better. We +took wrong tracks, got entangled among fences, plunged through the deep +mud of irrigation ditches, and were despondent. It was a miserable +drive, sitting on a heap of fodder under the angry sun. Half-way here +we camped at a river, now only a series of mud holes, and I fell asleep +under the imperfect shade of a cotton-wood tree, dreading the thought +of waking and jolting painfully along over the dusty prairie in the +dust-laden, fierce sirocco, under the ferocious sun. We never saw man +or beast the whole day. +</P> + +<P> +This is the "Chicago Colony," and it is said to be prospering, after +some preliminary land swindles. It is as uninviting as Fort Collins. +We first came upon dust-colored frame houses set down at intervals on +the dusty buff plain, each with its dusty wheat or barley field +adjacent, the crop, not the product of the rains of heaven, but of the +muddy overflow of "Irrigating Ditch No.2." Then comes a road made up +of many converging wagon tracks, which stiffen into a wide straggling +street, in which glaring frame houses and a few shops stand opposite to +each other. A two-storey house, one of the whitest and most glaring, +and without a veranda like all the others, is the "St. Vrain Hotel," +called after the St. Vrain River, out of which the ditch is taken which +enables Longmount to exist. Everything was broiling in the heat of the +slanting sun, which all day long had been beating on the unshaded +wooden rooms. The heat within was more sickening than outside, and +black flies covered everything, one's face included. We all sat +fighting the flies in my bedroom, which was cooler than elsewhere, till +a glorious sunset over the Rocky Range, some ten miles off, compelled +us to go out and enjoy it. Then followed supper, Western fashion, +without table-cloths, and all the "unattached" men of Longmount came in +and fed silently and rapidly. It was a great treat to have tea to +drink, as I had not tasted any for a fortnight. The landlord is a +jovial, kindly man. I told him how my plans had faded, and how I was +reluctantly going on to-morrow to Denver and New York, being unable to +get to Estes Park, and he said there might yet be a chance of some one +coming in to-night who would be going up. He soon came to my room and +asked definitely what I could do—if I feared cold, if I could "rough +it," if I could "ride horseback and lope." Estes Park and its +surroundings are, he says, "the most beautiful scenery in Colorado," +and "it's a real shame," he added, "for you not to see it." We had +hardly sat down to tea when he came, saying "You're in luck this time; +two young men have just come in and are going up to-morrow morning." I +am rather pleased, and have hired a horse for three days; but I am not +very hopeful, for I am almost ill of the smothering heat, and still +suffer from my fall, and not having been on horseback since, thirty +miles will be a long ride. Then I fear that the accommodation is as +rough as Chalmers's, and that solitude will be impossible. We have +been strolling in the street every since it grew dark to get the little +air which is moving. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +ESTES PARK!!! September 28. +</P> + +<P> +I wish I could let those three notes of admiration go to you instead of +a letter. They mean everything that is rapturous and +delightful—grandeur, cheerfulness, health, enjoyment, novelty, +freedom, etc., etc. I have just dropped into the very place I have +been seeking, but in everything it exceeds all my dreams. There is +health in every breath of air; I am much better already, and get up to +a seven o'clock breakfast without difficulty. It is quite +comfortable—in the fashion that I like. I have a log cabin, raised on +six posts, all to myself, with a skunk's lair underneath it, and a +small lake close to it. There is a frost every night, and all day it +is cool enough for a roaring fire. The ranchman, who is half-hunter, +half-stockman, and his wife are jovial, hearty Welsh people from +Llanberis, who laugh with loud, cheery British laughs, sing in parts +down to the youngest child, are free hearted and hospitable, and pile +the pitch-pine logs half-way up the great rude chimney. There has been +fresh meat each day since I came, delicious bread baked daily, +excellent potatoes, tea and coffee, and an abundant supply of milk like +cream. I have a clean hay bed with six blankets, and there are neither +bugs nor fleas. The scenery is the most glorious I have ever seen, and +is above us, around us, at the very door. Most people have advized me +to go to Colorado Springs, and only one mentioned this place, and till +I reached Longmount I never saw any one who had been here, but I saw +from the lie of the country that it must be most superbly situated. +People said, however, that it was most difficult of access, and that +the season for it was over. In traveling there is nothing like +dissecting people's statements, which are usually colored by their +estimate of the powers or likings of the person spoken to, making all +reasonable inquiries, and then pertinaciously but quietly carrying out +one's own plans. This is perfection, and all the requisites for health +are present, including plenty of horses and grass to ride on. +</P> + +<P> +It is not easy to sit down to write after ten hours of hard riding, +especially in a cabin full of people, and wholesome fatigue may make my +letter flat when it ought to be enthusiastic. I was awake all night at +Longmount owing to the stifling heat, and got up nervous and miserable, +ready to give up the thought of coming here, but the sunrise over the +Plains, and the wonderful red of the Rocky Mountains, as they reflected +the eastern sky, put spirit into me. The landlord had got a horse, but +could not give any satisfactory assurances of his being quiet, and +being much shaken by my fall at Canyon, I earnestly wished that the +Greeley Tribune had not given me a reputation for horsemanship, which +had preceded me here. The young men who were to escort me "seemed very +innocent," he said, but I have not arrived at his meaning yet. When +the horse appeared in the street at 8:30, I saw, to my dismay, a +high-bred, beautiful creature, stable kept, with arched neck, quivering +nostrils, and restless ears and eyes. My pack, as on Hawaii, was +strapped behind the Mexican saddle, and my canvas bag hung on the horn, +but the horse did not look fit to carry "gear," and seemed to require +two men to hold and coax him. There were many loafers about, and I +shrank from going out and mounting in my old Hawaiian riding dress, +though Dr. and Mrs. H. assured me that I looked quite "insignificant +and unnoticeable." We got away at nine with repeated injunctions from +the landlord in the words, "Oh, you should be heroic!" +</P> + +<P> +The sky was cloudless, and a deep brilliant blue, and though the sun +was hot the air was fresh and bracing. The ride for glory and delight +I shall label along with one to Hanalei, and another to Mauna Kea, +Hawaii. I felt better quite soon; the horse in gait and temper turned +out perfection—all spring and spirit, elastic in his motion, walking +fast and easily, and cantering with a light, graceful swing as soon as +one pressed the reins on his neck, a blithe, joyous animal, to whom a +day among the mountains seemed a pleasant frolic. So gentle he was, +that when I got off and walked he followed me without being led, and +without needing any one to hold him he allowed me to mount on either +side. In addition to the charm of his movements he has the catlike +sure-footedness of a Hawaiian horse, and fords rapid and rough-bottomed +rivers, and gallops among stones and stumps, and down steep hills, with +equal security. I could have ridden him a hundred miles as easily as +thirty. We have only been together two days, yet we are firm friends, +and thoroughly understand each other. I should not require another +companion on a long mountain tour. All his ways are those of an animal +brought up without curb, whip, or spur, trained by the voice, and used +only to kindness, as is happily the case with the majority of horses in +the Western States. Consequently, unless they are broncos, they +exercise their intelligence for your advantage, and do their work +rather as friends than as machines. +</P> + +<P> +I soon began not only to feel better, but to be exhilarated with the +delightful motion. The sun was behind us, and puffs of a cool elastic +air came down from the glorious mountains in front. We cantered across +six miles of prairie, and then reached the beautiful canyon of the St. +Vrain, which, towards its mouth, is a narrow, fertile, wooded valley, +through which a bright rapid river, which we forded many times, hurries +along, with twists and windings innumerable. Ah, how brightly its +ripples danced in the glittering sunshine, and how musically its waters +murmured like the streams of windward Hawaii! We lost our way over and +over again, though the "innocent" young men had been there before; +indeed, it would require some talent to master the intricacies of that +devious trail, but settlers making hay always appeared in the nick of +time to put us on the right track. Very fair it was, after the brown +and burning plains, and the variety was endless. Cotton-wood trees +were green and bright, aspens shivered in gold tremulousness, wild +grape-vines trailed their lemon-colored foliage along the ground, and +the Virginia creeper hung its crimson sprays here and there, lightening +up green and gold into glory. Sometimes from under the cool and bowery +shade of the colored tangle we passed into the cool St. Vrain, and then +were wedged between its margin and lofty cliffs and terraces of +incredibly staring, fantastic rocks, lined, patched, and splashed with +carmine, vermilion, greens of all tints, blue, yellow, orange, violet, +deep crimson, coloring that no artist would dare to represent, and of +which, in sober prose, I scarcely dare tell. Long's wonderful peaks, +which hitherto had gleamed above the green, now disappeared, to be seen +no more for twenty miles. We entered on an ascending valley, where the +gorgeous hues of the rocks were intensified by the blue gloom of the +pitch pines, and then taking a track to the north-west, we left the +softer world behind, and all traces of man and his works, and plunged +into the Rocky Mountains. +</P> + +<P> +There were wonderful ascents then up which I led my horse; wild +fantastic views opening up continually, a recurrence of surprises; the +air keener and purer with every mile, the sensation of loneliness more +singular. A tremendous ascent among rocks and pines to a height of +9,000 feet brought us to a passage seven feet wide through a wall of +rock, with an abrupt descent of 2,000 feet, and a yet higher ascent +beyond. I never saw anything so strange as looking back. It was a +single gigantic ridge which we had passed through, standing up +knifelike, built up entirely of great brick-shaped masses of bright red +rock, some of them as large as the Royal Institution, Edinburgh, piled +one on another by Titans. Pitch pines grew out of their crevices, but +there was not a vestige of soil. Beyond, wall beyond wall of similar +construction, and range above range, rose into the blue sky. Fifteen +miles more over great ridges, along passes dark with shadow, and so +narrow that we had to ride in the beds of the streams which had +excavated them, round the bases of colossal pyramids of rock crested +with pines, up into fair upland "parks," scarlet in patches with the +poison oak, parks so beautifully arranged by nature that I momentarily +expected to come upon some stately mansion, but that afternoon crested +blue jays and chipmunks had them all to themselves. Here, in the early +morning, deer, bighorn, and the stately elk, come down to feed, and +there, in the night, prowl and growl the Rocky Mountain lion, the +grizzly bear, and the cowardly wolf. There were chasms of immense +depth, dark with the indigo gloom of pines, and mountains with snow +gleaming on their splintered crests, loveliness to bewilder and +grandeur to awe, and still streams and shady pools, and cool depths of +shadow; mountains again, dense with pines, among which patches of aspen +gleamed like gold; valleys where the yellow cotton-wood mingled with +the crimson oak, and so, on and on through the lengthening shadows, +till the trail, which in places had been hardly legible, became well +defined, and we entered a long gulch with broad swellings of grass +belted with pines. +</P> + +<P> +A very pretty mare, hobbled, was feeding; a collie dog barked at us, +and among the scrub, not far from the track, there was a rude, black +log cabin, as rough as it could be to be a shelter at all, with smoke +coming out of the roof and window. We diverged towards it; it mattered +not that it was the home, or rather den, of a notorious "ruffian" and +"desperado." One of my companions had disappeared hours before, the +remaining one was a town-bred youth. I longed to speak to some one who +loved the mountains. I called the hut a DEN—it looked like the den of +a wild beast. The big dog lay outside it in a threatening attitude and +growled. The mud roof was covered with lynx, beaver, and other furs +laid out to dry, beaver paws were pinned out on the logs, a part of the +carcass of a deer hung at one end of the cabin, a skinned beaver lay in +front of a heap of peltry just within the door, and antlers of deer, +old horseshoes, and offal of many animals, lay about the den. +</P> + +<P> +Roused by the growling of the dog, his owner came out, a broad, +thickset man, about the middle height, with an old cap on his head, and +wearing a grey hunting suit much the worse for wear (almost falling to +pieces, in fact), a digger's scarf knotted round his waist, a knife in +his belt, and "a bosom friend," a revolver, sticking out of the breast +pocket of his coat; his feet, which were very small, were bare, except +for some dilapidated moccasins made of horse hide. The marvel was how +his clothes hung together, and on him. The scarf round his waist must +have had something to do with it. His face was remarkable. He is a +man about forty-five, and must have been strikingly handsome. He has +large grey-blue eyes, deeply set, with well-marked eyebrows, a handsome +aquiline nose, and a very handsome mouth. His face was smooth shaven +except for a dense mustache and imperial. Tawny hair, in thin +uncared-for curls, fell from under his hunter's cap and over his +collar. One eye was entirely gone, and the loss made one side of the +face repulsive, while the other might have been modeled in marble. +"Desperado" was written in large letters all over him. I almost +repented of having sought his acquaintance. His first impulse was to +swear at the dog, but on seeing a lady he contented himself with +kicking him, and coming to me he raised his cap, showing as he did so a +magnificently-formed brow and head, and in a cultured tone of voice +asked if there were anything he could do for me? I asked for some +water, and he brought some in a battered tin, gracefully apologizing +for not having anything more presentable. We entered into +conversation, and as he spoke I forgot both his reputation and +appearance, for his manner was that of a chivalrous gentleman, his +accent refined, and his language easy and elegant. I inquired about +some beavers' paws which were drying, and in a moment they hung on the +horn of my saddle. Apropos of the wild animals of the region, he told +me that the loss of his eye was owing to a recent encounter with a +grizzly bear, which, after giving him a death hug, tearing him all +over, breaking his arm and scratching out his eye, had left him for +dead. As we rode away, for the sun was sinking, he said, courteously, +"You are not an American. I know from your voice that you are a +countrywoman of mine. I hope you will allow me the pleasure of calling +on you." [12] +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[12] Of this unhappy man, who was shot nine months later within two +miles of his cabin, I write in the subsequent letters only as he +appeared to me. His life, without doubt, was deeply stained with +crimes and vices, and his reputation for ruffianism was a deserved one. +But in my intercourse with him I saw more of his nobler instincts than +of the darker parts of his character, which, unfortunately for himself +and others, showed itself in its worst colors at the time of his tragic +end. It was not until after I left Colorado, not indeed until after +his death, that I heard of the worst points of his character. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +This man, known through the Territories and beyond them as "Rocky +Mountain Jim," or, more briefly, as "Mountain Jim," is one of the +famous scouts of the Plains, and is the original of some daring +portraits in fiction concerning Indian Frontier warfare. So far as I +have at present heard, he is a man for whom there is now no room, for +the time for blows and blood in this part of Colorado is past, and the +fame of many daring exploits is sullied by crimes which are not easily +forgiven here. He now has a "squatter's claim," but makes his living +as a trapper, and is a complete child of the mountains. Of his genius +and chivalry to women there does not appear to be any doubt; but he is +a desperate character, and is subject to "ugly fits," when people think +it best to avoid him. It is here regarded as an evil that he has +located himself at the mouth of the only entrance to the park, for he +is dangerous with his pistols, and it would be safer if he were not +here. His besetting sin is indicated in the verdict pronounced on him +by my host: "When he's sober Jim's a perfect gentleman; but when he's +had liquor he's the most awful ruffian in Colorado." +</P> + +<P> +From the ridge on which this gulch terminates, at a height of 9,000 +feet, we saw at last Estes Park, lying 1,500 feet below in the glory of +the setting sun, an irregular basin, lighted up by the bright waters of +the rushing Thompson, guarded by sentinel mountains of fantastic shape +and monstrous size, with Long's Peak rising above them all in +unapproachable grandeur, while the Snowy Range, with its outlying spurs +heavily timbered, come down upon the park slashed by stupendous canyons +lying deep in purple gloom. The rushing river was blood red, Long's +Peak was aflame, the glory of the glowing heaven was given back from +earth. Never, nowhere, have I seen anything to equal the view into +Estes Park. The mountains "of the land which is very far off" are very +near now, but the near is more glorious than the far, and reality than +dreamland. The mountain fever seized me, and, giving my tireless horse +one encouraging word, he dashed at full gallop over a mile of smooth +sward at delirious speed. +</P> + +<P> +But I was hungry, and the air was frosty, and I was wondering what the +prospects of food and shelter were in this enchanted region, when we +came suddenly upon a small lake, close to which was a very trim-looking +log cabin, with a flat mud roof, with four smaller ones; picturesquely +dotted about near it, two corrals,[13] a long shed, in front of which a +steer was being killed, a log dairy with a water wheel, some hay piles, +and various evidences of comfort; and two men, on serviceable horses, +were just bringing in some tolerable cows to be milked. A short, +pleasant-looking man ran up to me and shook hands gleefully, which +surprised me; but he has since told me that in the evening light he +thought I was "Mountain Jim, dressed up as a woman!" I recognized in +him a countryman, and he introduced himself as Griffith Evans, a +Welshman from the slate quarries near Llanberis. When the cabin door +was opened I saw a good-sized log room, unchinked, however, with +windows of infamous glass, looking two ways; a rough stone fireplace, +in which pine logs, half as large as I am, were burning; a boarded +floor, a round table, two rocking chairs, a carpet-covered backwoods +couch; and skins, Indian bows and arrows, wampum belts, and antlers, +fitly decorated the rough walls, and equally fitly, rifles were stuck +up in the corners. Seven men, smoking, were lying about on the floor, +a sick man lay on the couch, and a middle-aged lady sat at the table +writing. I went out again and asked Evans if he could take me in, +expecting nothing better than a shakedown; but, to my joy, he told me +he could give me a cabin to myself, two minutes' walk from his own. So +in this glorious upper world, with the mountain pines behind and the +clear lake in front, in the "blue hollow at the foot of Long's Peak," +at a height of 7,500 feet, where the hoar frost crisps the grass every +night of the year, I have found far more than I ever dared to hope for. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[13] A corral is a fenced enclosure for cattle. This word, with +bronco, ranch, and a few others, are adaptations from the Spanish, and +are used as extensively throughout California and the Territories as is +the Spanish or Mexican saddle. +</P> + +<P> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 23em">I. L. B.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3> +Letter VII +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Personality of Long's Peak—"Mountain Jim"—Lake of the Lilies—A +silent forest—The camping ground—"Ring"—A lady's bower—Dawn and +sunrise—A glorious view—Links of diamonds—The ascent of the +Peak—The "Dog's Lift"—Suffering from thirst—The descent—The bivouac. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +ESTES PARK, COLORADO, October. +</P> + +<P> +As this account of the ascent of Long's Peak could not be written at +the time, I am much disinclined to write it, especially as no sort of +description within my powers could enable another to realize the +glorious sublimity, the majestic solitude, and the unspeakable +awfulness and fascination of the scenes in which I spent Monday, +Tuesday, and Wednesday. +</P> + +<P> +Long's Peak, 14,700 feet high, blocks up one end of Estes Park, and +dwarfs all the surrounding mountains. From it on this side rise, +snow-born, the bright St. Vrain, and the Big and Little Thompson. By +sunlight or moonlight its splintered grey crest is the one object +which, in spite of wapiti and bighorn, skunk and grizzly, unfailingly +arrests the eyes. From it come all storms of snow and wind, and the +forked lightnings play round its head like a glory. It is one of the +noblest of mountains, but in one's imagination it grows to be much more +than a mountain. It becomes invested with a personality. In its +caverns and abysses one comes to fancy that it generates and chains the +strong winds, to let them loose in its fury. The thunder becomes its +voice, and the lightnings do it homage. Other summits blush under the +morning kiss of the sun, and turn pale the next moment; but it detains +the first sunlight and holds it round its head for an hour at least, +till it pleases to change from rosy red to deep blue; and the sunset, +as if spell-bound, lingers latest on its crest. The soft winds which +hardly rustle the pine needles down here are raging rudely up there +round its motionless summit. The mark of fire is upon it; and though +it has passed into a grim repose, it tells of fire and upheaval as +truly, though not as eloquently, as the living volcanoes of Hawaii. +Here under its shadow one learns how naturally nature worship, and the +propitiation of the forces of nature, arose in minds which had no +better light. +</P> + +<P> +Long's Peak, "the American Matterhorn," as some call it, was ascended +five years ago for the first time. I thought I should like to attempt +it, but up to Monday, when Evans left for Denver, cold water was thrown +upon the project. It was too late in the season, the winds were likely +to be strong, etc.; but just before leaving, Evans said that the +weather was looking more settled, and if I did not get farther than the +timber line it would be worth going. Soon after he left, "Mountain +Jim" came in, and said he would go up as guide, and the two youths who +rode here with me from Longmount and I caught at the proposal. Mrs. +Edwards at once baked bread for three days, steaks were cut from the +steer which hangs up conveniently, and tea, sugar, and butter were +benevolently added. Our picnic was not to be a luxurious or +"well-found" one, for, in order to avoid the expense of a pack mule, we +limited our luggage to what our saddle horses could carry. Behind my +saddle I carried three pair of camping blankets and a quilt, which +reached to my shoulders. My own boots were so much worn that it was +painful to walk, even about the park, in them, so Evans had lent me a +pair of his hunting boots, which hung to the horn of my saddle. The +horses of the two young men were equally loaded, for we had to prepare +for many degrees of frost. "Jim" was a shocking figure; he had on an +old pair of high boots, with a baggy pair of old trousers made of deer +hide, held on by an old scarf tucked into them; a leather shirt, with +three or four ragged unbuttoned waistcoats over it; an old smashed +wideawake, from under which his tawny, neglected ringlets hung; and +with his one eye, his one long spur, his knife in his belt, his +revolver in his waistcoat pocket, his saddle covered with an old beaver +skin, from which the paws hung down; his camping blankets behind him, +his rifle laid across the saddle in front of him, and his axe, canteen, +and other gear hanging to the horn, he was as awful-looking a ruffian +as one could see. By way of contrast he rode a small Arab mare, of +exquisite beauty, skittish, high spirited, gentle, but altogether too +light for him, and he fretted her incessantly to make her display +herself. +</P> + +<P> +Heavily loaded as all our horses were, "Jim" started over the half-mile +of level grass at a hard gallop, and then throwing his mare on her +haunches, pulled up alongside of me, and with a grace of manner which +soon made me forget his appearance, entered into a conversation which +lasted for more than three hours, in spite of the manifold checks of +fording streams, single file, abrupt ascents and descents, and other +incidents of mountain travel. The ride was one series of glories and +surprises, of "park" and glade, of lake and stream, of mountains on +mountains, culminating in the rent pinnacles of Long's Peak, which +looked yet grander and ghastlier as we crossed an attendant mountain +11,000 feet high. The slanting sun added fresh beauty every hour. +There were dark pines against a lemon sky, grey peaks reddening and +etherealizing, gorges of deep and infinite blue, floods of golden glory +pouring through canyons of enormous depth, an atmosphere of absolute +purity, an occasional foreground of cottonwood and aspen flaunting in +red and gold to intensify the blue gloom of the pines, the trickle and +murmur of streams fringed with icicles, the strange sough of gusts +moving among the pine tops—sights and sounds not of the lower earth, +but of the solitary, beast-haunted, frozen upper altitudes. From the +dry, buff grass of Estes Park we turned off up a trail on the side of a +pine-hung gorge, up a steep pine-clothed hill, down to a small valley, +rich in fine, sun-cured hay about eighteen inches high, and enclosed by +high mountains whose deepest hollow contains a lily-covered lake, fitly +named "The Lake of the Lilies." Ah, how magical its beauty was, as it +slept in silence, while THERE the dark pines were mirrored motionless +in its pale gold, and HERE the great white lily cups and dark green +leaves rested on amethyst-colored water! +</P> + +<P> +From this we ascended into the purple gloom of great pine forests which +clothe the skirts of the mountains up to a height of about 11,000 feet, +and from their chill and solitary depths we had glimpses of golden +atmosphere and rose-lit summits, not of "the land very far off," but of +the land nearer now in all its grandeur, gaining in sublimity by +nearness—glimpses, too, through a broken vista of purple gorges, of +the illimitable Plains lying idealized in the late sunlight, their +baked, brown expanse transfigured into the likeness of a sunset sea +rolling infinitely in waves of misty gold. +</P> + +<P> +We rode upwards through the gloom on a steep trail blazed through the +forest, all my intellect concentrated on avoiding being dragged off my +horse by impending branches, or having the blankets badly torn, as +those of my companions were, by sharp dead limbs, between which there +was hardly room to pass—the horses breathless, and requiring to stop +every few yards, though their riders, except myself, were afoot. The +gloom of the dense, ancient, silent forest is to me awe inspiring. On +such an evening it is soundless, except for the branches creaking in +the soft wind, the frequent snap of decayed timber, and a murmur in the +pine tops as of a not distant waterfall, all tending to produce +EERINESS and a sadness "hardly akin to pain." There no lumberer's axe +has ever rung. The trees die when they have attained their prime, and +stand there, dead and bare, till the fierce mountain winds lay them +prostrate. The pines grew smaller and more sparse as we ascended, and +the last stragglers wore a tortured, warring look. The timber line was +passed, but yet a little higher a slope of mountain meadow dipped to +the south-west towards a bright stream trickling under ice and icicles, +and there a grove of the beautiful silver spruce marked our camping +ground. The trees were in miniature, but so exquisitely arranged that +one might well ask what artist's hand had planted them, scattering them +here, clumping them there, and training their slim spires towards +heaven. Hereafter, when I call up memories of the glorious, the view +from this camping ground will come up. Looking east, gorges opened to +the distant Plains, then fading into purple grey. Mountains with +pine-clothed skirts rose in ranges, or, solitary, uplifted their grey +summits, while close behind, but nearly 3,000 feet above us, towered +the bald white crest of Long's Peak, its huge precipices red with the +light of a sun long lost to our eyes. Close to us, in the caverned +side of the Peak, was snow that, owing to its position, is eternal. +Soon the afterglow came on, and before it faded a big half-moon hung +out of the heavens, shining through the silver blue foliage of the +pines on the frigid background of snow, and turning the whole into +fairyland. The "photo" which accompanies this letter is by a +courageous Denver artist who attempted the ascent just before I +arrived, but, after camping out at the timber line for a week, was +foiled by the perpetual storms, and was driven down again, leaving some +very valuable apparatus about 3,000 feet from the summit. +</P> + +<P> +Unsaddling and picketing the horses securely, making the beds of pine +shoots, and dragging up logs for fuel, warmed us all. "Jim" built up a +great fire, and before long we were all sitting around it at supper. +It didn't matter much that we had to drink our tea out of the battered +meat tins in which it was boiled, and eat strips of beef reeking with +pine smoke without plates or forks. +</P> + +<P> +"Treat Jim as a gentleman and you'll find him one," I had been told; +and though his manner was certainly bolder and freer than that of +gentlemen generally, no imaginary fault could be found. He was very +agreeable as a man of culture as well as a child of nature; the +desperado was altogether out of sight. He was very courteous and even +kind to me, which was fortunate, as the young men had little idea of +showing even ordinary civilities. That night I made the acquaintance +of his dog "Ring," said to be the best hunting dog in Colorado, with +the body and legs of a collie, but a head approaching that of a +mastiff, a noble face with a wistful human expression, and the most +truthful eyes I ever saw in an animal. His master loves him if he +loves anything, but in his savage moods ill-treats him. "Ring's" +devotion never swerves, and his truthful eyes are rarely taken off his +master's face. He is almost human in his intelligence, and, unless he +is told to do so, he never takes notice of any one but "Jim." In a +tone as if speaking to a human being, his master, pointing to me, said, +"Ring, go to that lady, and don't leave her again to-night." "Ring" at +once came to me, looked into my face, laid his head on my shoulder, and +then lay down beside me with his head on my lap, but never taking his +eyes from "Jim's" face. +</P> + +<P> +The long shadows of the pines lay upon the frosted grass, an aurora +leaped fitfully, and the moonlight, though intensely bright, was pale +beside the red, leaping flames of our pine logs and their red glow on +our gear, ourselves, and Ring's truthful face. One of the young men +sang a Latin student's song and two Negro melodies; the other "Sweet +Spirit, hear my Prayer." "Jim" sang one of Moore's melodies in a +singular falsetto, and all together sang, "The Star-spangled Banner" +and "The Red, White, and Blue." Then "Jim" recited a very clever poem +of his own composition, and told some fearful Indian stories. A group +of small silver spruces away from the fire was my sleeping place. The +artist who had been up there had so woven and interlaced their lower +branches as to form a bower, affording at once shelter from the wind +and a most agreeable privacy. It was thickly strewn with young pine +shoots, and these, when covered with a blanket, with an inverted saddle +for a pillow, made a luxurious bed. The mercury at 9 P.M. was 12 +degrees below the freezing point. "Jim," after a last look at the +horses, made a huge fire, and stretched himself out beside it, but +"Ring" lay at my back to keep me warm. I could not sleep, but the +night passed rapidly. I was anxious about the ascent, for gusts of +ominous sound swept through the pines at intervals. Then wild animals +howled, and "Ring" was perturbed in spirit about them. Then it was +strange to see the notorious desperado, a red-handed man, sleeping as +quietly as innocence sleeps. But, above all, it was exciting to lie +there, with no better shelter than a bower of pines, on a mountain +11,000 feet high, in the very heart of the Rocky Range, under twelve +degrees of frost, hearing sounds of wolves, with shivering stars +looking through the fragrant canopy, with arrowy pines for bed-posts, +and for a night lamp the red flames of a camp-fire. +</P> + +<P> +Day dawned long before the sun rose, pure and lemon colored. The rest +were looking after the horses, when one of the students came running to +tell me that I must come farther down the slope, for "Jim" said he had +never seen such a sunrise. From the chill, grey Peak above, from the +everlasting snows, from the silvered pines, down through mountain +ranges with their depths of Tyrian purple, we looked to where the +Plains lay cold, in blue-grey, like a morning sea against a far +horizon. Suddenly, as a dazzling streak at first, but enlarging +rapidly into a dazzling sphere, the sun wheeled above the grey line, a +light and glory as when it was first created. "Jim" involuntarily and +reverently uncovered his head, and exclaimed, "I believe there is a +God!" I felt as if, Parsee-like, I must worship. The grey of the +Plains changed to purple, the sky was all one rose-red flush, on which +vermilion cloud-streaks rested; the ghastly peaks gleamed like rubies, +the earth and heavens were new created. Surely "the Most High dwelleth +not in temples made with hands!" For a full hour those Plains +simulated the ocean, down to whose limitless expanse of purple, cliff, +rocks, and promontories swept down. +</P> + +<P> +By seven we had finished breakfast, and passed into the ghastlier +solitudes above, I riding as far as what, rightly, or wrongly, are +called the "Lava Beds," an expanse of large and small boulders, with +snow in their crevices. It was very cold; some water which we crossed +was frozen hard enough to bear the horse. "Jim" had advised me against +taking any wraps, and my thin Hawaiian riding dress, only fit for the +tropics, was penetrated by the keen air. The rarefied atmosphere soon +began to oppress our breathing, and I found that Evans's boots were so +large that I had no foothold. Fortunately, before the real difficulty +of the ascent began, we found, under a rock, a pair of small overshoes, +probably left by the Hayden exploring expedition, which just lasted for +the day. As we were leaping from rock to rock, "Jim" said, "I was +thinking in the night about your traveling alone, and wondering where +you carried your Derringer, for I could see no signs of it." On my +telling him that I traveled unarmed, he could hardly believe it, and +adjured me to get a revolver at once. +</P> + +<P> +On arriving at the "Notch" (a literal gate of rock), we found ourselves +absolutely on the knifelike ridge or backbone of Long's Peak, only a +few feet wide, covered with colossal boulders and fragments, and on the +other side shelving in one precipitous, snow-patched sweep of 3,000 +feet to a picturesque hollow, containing a lake of pure green water. +Other lakes, hidden among dense pine woods, were farther off, while +close above us rose the Peak, which, for about 500 feet, is a smooth, +gaunt, inaccessible-looking pile of granite. Passing through the +"Notch," we looked along the nearly inaccessible side of the Peak, +composed of boulders and debris of all shapes and sizes, through which +appeared broad, smooth ribs of reddish-colored granite, looking as if +they upheld the towering rock mass above. I usually dislike bird's-eye +and panoramic views, but, though from a mountain, this was not one. +Serrated ridges, not much lower than that on which we stood, rose, one +beyond another, far as that pure atmosphere could carry the vision, +broken into awful chasms deep with ice and snow, rising into pinnacles +piercing the heavenly blue with their cold, barren grey, on, on for +ever, till the most distant range upbore unsullied snow alone. There +were fair lakes mirroring the dark pine woods, canyons dark and +blue-black with unbroken expanses of pines, snow-slashed pinnacles, +wintry heights frowning upon lovely parks, watered and wooded, lying in +the lap of summer; North Park floating off into the blue distance, +Middle Park closed till another season, the sunny slopes of Estes Park, +and winding down among the mountains the snowy ridge of the Divide, +whose bright waters seek both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. There, +far below, links of diamonds showed where the Grand River takes its +rise to seek the mysterious Colorado, with its still unsolved enigma, +and lose itself in the waters of the Pacific; and nearer the snow-born +Thompson bursts forth from the ice to begin its journey to the Gulf of +Mexico. Nature, rioting in her grandest mood, exclaimed with voices of +grandeur, solitude, sublimity, beauty, and infinity, "Lord, what is +man, that Thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that Thou +visitest him?" Never-to-be-forgotten glories they were, burnt in upon +my memory by six succeeding hours of terror. +</P> + +<P> +You know I have no head and no ankles, and never ought to dream of +mountaineering; and had I known that the ascent was a real +mountaineering feat I should not have felt the slightest ambition to +perform it. As it is, I am only humiliated by my success, for "Jim" +dragged me up, like a bale of goods, by sheer force of muscle. At the +"Notch" the real business of the ascent began. Two thousand feet of +solid rock towered above us, four thousand feet of broken rock shelved +precipitously below; smooth granite ribs, with barely foothold, stood +out here and there; melted snow refrozen several times, presented a +more serious obstacle; many of the rocks were loose, and tumbled down +when touched. To me it was a time of extreme terror. I was roped to +"Jim," but it was of no use; my feet were paralyzed and slipped on the +bare rock, and he said it was useless to try to go that way, and we +retraced our steps. I wanted to return to the "Notch," knowing that my +incompetence would detain the party, and one of the young men said +almost plainly that a woman was a dangerous encumbrance, but the +trapper replied shortly that if it were not to take a lady up he would +not go up at all. He went on to explore, and reported that further +progress on the correct line of ascent was blocked by ice; and then for +two hours we descended, lowering ourselves by our hands from rock to +rock along a boulder-strewn sweep of 4,000 feet, patched with ice and +snow, and perilous from rolling stones. My fatigue, giddiness, and +pain from bruised ankles, and arms half pulled out of their sockets, +were so great that I should never have gone halfway had not "Jim," +nolens volens, dragged me along with a patience and skill, and withal a +determination that I should ascend the Peak, which never failed. After +descending about 2,000 feet to avoid the ice, we got into a deep ravine +with inaccessible sides, partly filled with ice and snow and partly +with large and small fragments of rock, which were constantly giving +away, rendering the footing very insecure. That part to me was two +hours of painful and unwilling submission to the inevitable; of +trembling, slipping, straining, of smooth ice appearing when it was +least expected, and of weak entreaties to be left behind while the +others went on. "Jim" always said that there was no danger, that there +was only a short bad bit ahead, and that I should go up even if he +carried me! +</P> + +<P> +Slipping, faltering, gasping from the exhausting toil in the rarefied +air, with throbbing hearts and panting lungs, we reached the top of the +gorge and squeezed ourselves between two gigantic fragments of rock by +a passage called the "Dog's Lift," when I climbed on the shoulders of +one man and then was hauled up. This introduced us by an abrupt turn +round the south-west angle of the Peak to a narrow shelf of +considerable length, rugged, uneven, and so overhung by the cliff in +some places that it is necessary to crouch to pass at all. Above, the +Peak looks nearly vertical for 400 feet; and below, the most tremendous +precipice I have ever seen descends in one unbroken fall. This is +usually considered the most dangerous part of the ascent, but it does +not seem so to me, for such foothold as there is is secure, and one +fancies that it is possible to hold on with the hands. But there, and +on the final, and, to my thinking, the worst part of the climb, one +slip, and a breathing, thinking, human being would lie 3,000 feet +below, a shapeless, bloody heap! "Ring" refused to traverse the Ledge, +and remained at the "Lift" howling piteously. +</P> + +<P> +From thence the view is more magnificent even than that from the +"Notch." At the foot of the precipice below us lay a lovely lake, wood +embosomed, from or near which the bright St. Vrain and other streams +take their rise. I thought how their clear cold waters, growing turbid +in the affluent flats, would heat under the tropic sun, and eventually +form part of that great ocean river which renders our far-off islands +habitable by impinging on their shores. Snowy ranges, one behind the +other, extended to the distant horizon, folding in their wintry embrace +the beauties of Middle Park. Pike's Peak, more than one hundred miles +off, lifted that vast but shapeless summit which is the landmark of +southern Colorado. There were snow patches, snow slashes, snow +abysses, snow forlorn and soiled looking, snow pure and dazzling, snow +glistening above the purple robe of pine worn by all the mountains; +while away to the east, in limitless breadth, stretched the green-grey +of the endless Plains. Giants everywhere reared their splintered +crests. From thence, with a single sweep, the eye takes in a distance +of 300 miles—that distance to the west, north, and south being made up +of mountains ten, eleven, twelve, and thirteen thousand feet in height, +dominated by Long's Peak, Gray's Peak, and Pike's Peak, all nearly the +height of Mont Blanc! On the Plains we traced the rivers by their +fringe of cottonwoods to the distant Platte, and between us and them +lay glories of mountain, canyon, and lake, sleeping in depths of blue +and purple most ravishing to the eye. +</P> + +<P> +As we crept from the ledge round a horn of rock I beheld what made me +perfectly sick and dizzy to look at—the terminal Peak itself—a +smooth, cracked face or wall of pink granite, as nearly perpendicular +as anything could well be up which it was possible to climb, well +deserving the name of the "American Matterhorn." [14] +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[14] Let no practical mountaineer be allured by my description into the +ascent of Long's Peak. Truly terrible as it was to me, to a member of +the Alpine Club it would not be a feat worth performing. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +SCALING, not climbing, is the correct term for this last ascent. It +took one hour to accomplish 500 feet, pausing for breath every minute +or two. The only foothold was in narrow cracks or on minute +projections on the granite. To get a toe in these cracks, or here and +there on a scarcely obvious projection, while crawling on hands and +knees, all the while tortured with thirst and gasping and struggling +for breath, this was the climb; but at last the Peak was won. A grand, +well-defined mountain top it is, a nearly level acre of boulders, with +precipitous sides all round, the one we came up being the only +accessible one. +</P> + +<P> +It was not possible to remain long. One of the young men was seriously +alarmed by bleeding from the lungs, and the intense dryness of the day +and the rarefication of the air, at a height of nearly 15,000 feet, +made respiration very painful. There is always water on the Peak, but +it was frozen as hard as a rock, and the sucking of ice and snow +increases thirst. We all suffered severely from the want of water, and +the gasping for breath made our mouths and tongues so dry that +articulation was difficult, and the speech of all unnatural. +</P> + +<P> +From the summit were seen in unrivalled combination all the views which +had rejoiced our eyes during the ascent. It was something at last to +stand upon the storm-rent crown of this lonely sentinel of the Rocky +Range, on one of the mightiest of the vertebrae of the backbone of the +North American continent, and to see the waters start for both oceans. +Uplifted above love and hate and storms of passion, calm amidst the +eternal silences, fanned by zephyrs and bathed in living blue, peace +rested for that one bright day on the Peak, as if it were some region +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +Where falls not rain, or hail, or any snow,<BR> +Or ever wind blows loudly.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +We placed our names, with the date of ascent, in a tin within a +crevice, and descended to the Ledge, sitting on the smooth granite, +getting our feet into cracks and against projections, and letting +ourselves down by our hands, "Jim" going before me, so that I might +steady my feet against his powerful shoulders. I was no longer giddy, +and faced the precipice of 3,500 feet without a shiver. Repassing the +Ledge and Lift, we accomplished the descent through 1,500 feet of ice +and snow, with many falls and bruises, but no worse mishap, and there +separated, the young men taking the steepest but most direct way to the +"Notch," with the intention of getting ready for the march home, and +"Jim" and I taking what he thought the safer route for me—a descent +over boulders for 2,000 feet, and then a tremendous ascent to the +"Notch." I had various falls, and once hung by my frock, which caught +on a rock, and "Jim" severed it with his hunting knife, upon which I +fell into a crevice full of soft snow. We were driven lower down the +mountains than he had intended by impassable tracts of ice, and the +ascent was tremendous. For the last 200 feet the boulders were of +enormous size, and the steepness fearful. Sometimes I drew myself up +on hands and knees, sometimes crawled; sometimes "Jim" pulled me up by +my arms or a lariat, and sometimes I stood on his shoulders, or he made +steps for me of his feet and hands, but at six we stood on the "Notch" +in the splendor of the sinking sun, all color deepening, all peaks +glorifying, all shadows purpling, all peril past. +</P> + +<P> +"Jim" had parted with his brusquerie when we parted from the students, +and was gentle and considerate beyond anything, though I knew that he +must be grievously disappointed, both in my courage and strength. +Water was an object of earnest desire. My tongue rattled in my mouth, +and I could hardly articulate. It is good for one's sympathies to have +for once a severe experience of thirst. Truly, there was +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +Water, water, everywhere,<BR> +But not a drop to drink.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Three times its apparent gleam deceived even the mountaineer's +practiced eye, but we found only a foot of "glare ice." At last, in a +deep hole, he succeeded in breaking the ice, and by putting one's arm +far down one could scoop up a little water in one's hand, but it was +tormentingly insufficient. With great difficulty and much assistance I +recrossed the "Lava Beds," was carried to the horse and lifted upon +him, and when we reached the camping ground I was lifted off him, and +laid on the ground wrapped up in blankets, a humiliating termination of +a great exploit. The horses were saddled, and the young men were all +ready to start, but "Jim" quietly said, "Now, gentlemen, I want a good +night's rest, and we shan't stir from here to-night." I believe they +were really glad to have it so, as one of them was quite "finished." I +retired to my arbor, wrapped myself in a roll of blankets, and was soon +asleep. +</P> + +<P> +When I woke, the moon was high shining through the silvery branches, +whitening the bald Peak above, and glittering on the great abyss of +snow behind, and pine logs were blazing like a bonfire in the cold +still air. My feet were so icy cold that I could not sleep again, and +getting some blankets to sit in, and making a roll of them for my back, +I sat for two hours by the camp-fire. It was weird and gloriously +beautiful. The students were asleep not far off in their blankets with +their feet towards the fire. "Ring" lay on one side of me with his +fine head on my arm, and his master sat smoking, with the fire lighting +up the handsome side of his face, and except for the tones of our +voices, and an occasional crackle and splutter as a pine knot blazed +up, there was no sound on the mountain side. The beloved stars of my +far-off home were overhead, the Plough and Pole Star, with their steady +light; the glittering Pleiades, looking larger than I ever saw them, +and "Orion's studded belt" shining gloriously. Once only some wild +animals prowled near the camp, when "Ring," with one bound, disappeared +from my side; and the horses, which were picketed by the stream, broke +their lariats, stampeded, and came rushing wildly towards the fire, and +it was fully half an hour before they were caught and quiet was +restored. "Jim," or Mr. Nugent, as I always scrupulously called him, +told stories of his early youth, and of a great sorrow which had led +him to embark on a lawless and desperate life. His voice trembled, and +tears rolled down his cheek. Was it semi-conscious acting, I wondered, +or was his dark soul really stirred to its depths by the silence, the +beauty, and the memories of youth? +</P> + +<P> +We reached Estes Park at noon of the following day. A more successful +ascent of the Peak was never made, and I would not now exchange my +memories of its perfect beauty and extraordinary sublimity for any +other experience of mountaineering in any part of the world. Yesterday +snow fell on the summit, and it will be inaccessible for eight months +to come. +</P> + +<P> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 18em">I. L. B.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3> +Letter VIII +</H3> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +Estes Park—Big game—"Parks" in Colorado—Magnificent scenery—Flowers +and pines—An awful road—Our log cabin—Griffith Evans—A miniature +world—Our topics—A night alarm—A skunk—Morning glories—Daily +routine—The panic—"Wait for the wagon"—A musical evening. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +ESTES PARK, COLORADO TERRITORY, October 2. +</P> + +<P> +How time has slipped by I do not know. This is a glorious region, and +the air and life are intoxicating. I live mainly out of doors and on +horseback, wear my half-threadbare Hawaiian dress, sleep sometimes +under the stars on a bed of pine boughs, ride on a Mexican saddle, and +hear once more the low music of my Mexican spurs. "There's a stranger! +Heave arf a brick at him!" is said by many travelers to express the +feeling of the new settlers in these Territories. This is not my +experience in my cheery mountain home. How the rafters ring as I write +with songs and mirth, while the pitch-pine logs blaze and crackle in +the chimney, and the fine snow dust drives in through the chinks and +forms mimic snow wreaths on the floor, and the wind raves and howls and +plays among the creaking pine branches and snaps them short off, and +the lightning plays round the blasted top of Long's Peak, and the hardy +hunters divert themselves with the thought that when I go to bed I must +turn out and face the storm! +</P> + +<P> +You will ask, "What is Estes Park?" This name, with the quiet Midland +Countries' sound, suggests "park palings" well lichened, a lodge with a +curtseying woman, fallow deer, and a Queen Anne mansion. Such as it +is, Estes Park is mine. It is unsurveyed, "no man's land," and mine by +right of love, appropriation, and appreciation; by the seizure of its +peerless sunrises and sunsets, its glorious afterglow, its blazing +noons, its hurricanes sharp and furious, its wild auroras, its glories +of mountain and forest, of canyon, lake, and river, and the +stereotyping them all in my memory. Mine, too, in a better than the +sportsman's sense, are its majestic wapiti, which play and fight under +the pines in the early morning, as securely as fallow deer under our +English oaks; its graceful "black-tails," swift of foot; its superb +bighorns, whose noble leader is to be seen now and then with his +classic head against the blue sky on the top of a colossal rock; its +sneaking mountain lion with his hideous nocturnal caterwaulings, the +great "grizzly," the beautiful skunk, the wary beaver, who is always +making lakes, damming and turning streams, cutting down young +cotton-woods, and setting an example of thrift and industry; the wolf, +greedy and cowardly; the coyote and the lynx, and all the lesser fry of +mink, marten, cat, hare, fox, squirrel, and chipmunk, as well as things +that fly, from the eagle down to the crested blue-jay. May their +number never be less, in spite of the hunter who kills for food and +gain, and the sportsman who kills and marauds for pastime! +</P> + +<P> +But still I have not answered the natural question,[15] "What is Estes +Park?" Among the striking peculiarities of these mountains are +hundreds of high-lying valleys, large and small, at heights varying +from 6,000 to 11,000 feet. The most important are North Park, held by +hostile Indians; Middle Park, famous for hot springs and trout; South +Park is 10,000 feet high, a great rolling prairie seventy miles long, +well grassed and watered, but nearly closed by snow in winter. But +parks innumerable are scattered throughout the mountains, most of them +unnamed, and others nicknamed by the hunters or trappers who have made +them their temporary resorts. They always lie far within the flaming +Foot Hills, their exquisite stretches of flowery pastures dotted +artistically with clumps of trees sloping lawnlike to bright swift +streams full of red-waist-coated trout, or running up in soft glades +into the dark forest, above which the snow peaks rise in their infinite +majesty. Some are bits of meadow a mile long and very narrow, with a +small stream, a beaver dam, and a pond made by beaver industry. +Hundreds of these can only be reached by riding in the bed of a stream, +or by scrambling up some narrow canyon till it debouches on the +fairy-like stretch above. These parks are the feeding grounds of +innumerable wild animals, and some, like one three miles off, seem +chosen for the process of antler-casting, the grass being covered for +at least a square mile with the magnificent branching horns of the elk. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[15] Nor should I at this time, had not Henry Kingsley, Lord Dunraven, +and "The Field," divulged the charms and whereabouts of these "happy +hunting grounds," with the certain result of directing a stream of +tourists into the solitary, beast-haunted paradise. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Estes Park combines the beauties of all. Dismiss all thoughts of the +Midland Counties. For park palings there are mountains, forest +skirted, 9,000, 11,000, 14,000 feet high; for a lodge, two sentinel +peaks of granite guarding the only feasible entrance; and for a Queen +Anne mansion an unchinked log cabin with a vault of sunny blue +overhead. The park is most irregularly shaped, and contains hardly any +level grass. It is an aggregate of lawns, slopes, and glades, about +eighteen miles in length, but never more than two miles in width. The +Big Thompson, a bright, rapid trout stream, snow born on Long's Peak a +few miles higher, takes all sorts of magical twists, vanishing and +reappearing unexpectedly, glancing among lawns, rushing through +romantic ravines, everywhere making music through the still, long +nights. Here and there the lawns are so smooth, the trees so +artistically grouped, a lake makes such an artistic foreground, or a +waterfall comes tumbling down with such an apparent feeling for the +picturesque, that I am almost angry with Nature for her close imitation +of art. But in another hundred yards Nature, glorious, unapproachable, +inimitable, is herself again, raising one's thoughts reverently upwards +to her Creator and ours. Grandeur and sublimity, not softness, are the +features of Estes Park. The glades which begin so softly are soon lost +in the dark primaeval forests, with their peaks of rosy granite, and +their stretches of granite blocks piled and poised by nature in some +mood of fury. The streams are lost in canyons nearly or quite +inaccessible, awful in their blackness and darkness; every valley ends +in mystery; seven mountain ranges raise their frowning barriers between +us and the Plains, and at the south end of the park Long's Peak rises +to a height of 14,700 feet, with his bare, scathed head slashed with +eternal snow. The lowest part of the Park is 7,500 feet high; and +though the sun is hot during the day, the mercury hovers near the +freezing point every night of the summer. An immense quantity of snow +falls, but partly owing to the tremendous winds which drift it into the +deep valleys, and partly to the bright warm sun of the winter months, +the park is never snowed up, and a number of cattle and horses are +wintered out of doors on its sun-cured saccharine grasses, of which the +gramma grass is the most valuable. +</P> + +<P> +The soil here, as elsewhere in the neighborhood, is nearly everywhere +coarse, grey, granitic dust, produced probably by the disintegration of +the surrounding mountains. It does not hold water, and is never wet in +any weather. There are no thaws here. The snow mysteriously disappears +by rapid evaporation. Oats grow, but do not ripen, and, when well +advanced, are cut and stacked for winter fodder. Potatoes yield +abundantly, and, though not very large, are of the best quality, mealy +throughout. Evans has not attempted anything else, and probably the +more succulent vegetables would require irrigation. The wild flowers +are gorgeous and innumerable, though their beauty, which culminates in +July and August, was over before I arrived, and the recent snow +flurries have finished them. The time between winter and winter is +very short, and the flowery growth and blossom of a whole year are +compressed into two months. Here are dandelions, buttercups, +larkspurs, harebells, violets, roses, blue gentian, columbine, +painter's brush, and fifty others, blue and yellow predominating; and +though their blossoms are stiffened by the cold every morning, they are +starring the grass and drooping over the brook long before noon, making +the most of their brief lives in the sunshine. Of ferns, after many a +long hunt, I have only found the Cystopteris fragilis and the Blechnum +spicant, but I hear that the Pteris aquilina is also found. Snakes and +mosquitoes do not appear to be known here. Coming almost direct from +the tropics, one is dissatisfied with the uniformity of the foliage; +indeed, foliage can hardly be written of, as the trees properly so +called at this height are exclusively Coniferae, and bear needles +instead of leaves. In places there are patches of spindly aspens, +which have turned a lemon yellow, and along the streams bear cherries, +vines, and roses lighten the gulches with their variegated crimson +leaves. The pines are not imposing, either from their girth or height. +Their coloring is blackish green, and though they are effective singly +or in groups, they are somber and almost funereal when densely massed, +as here, along the mountain sides. The timber line is at a height of +about 11,000 feet, and is singularly well defined. The most attractive +tree I have seen is the silver spruce, Abies Englemanii, near of kin to +what is often called the balsam fir. Its shape and color are both +beautiful. My heart warms towards it, and I frequent all the places +where I can find it. It looks as if a soft, blue, silver powder had +fallen on its deep-green needles, or as if a bluish hoar-frost, which +must melt at noon, were resting upon it. Anyhow, one can hardly +believe that the beauty is permanent, and survives the summer heat and +the winter cold. The universal tree here is the Pinus ponderosa, but +it never attains any very considerable size, and there is nothing to +compare with the red-woods of the Sierra Nevada, far less with the +sequoias of California. +</P> + +<P> +As I have written before, Estes Park is thirty miles from Longmount, +the nearest settlement, and it can be reached on horseback only by the +steep and devious track by which I came, passing through a narrow rift +in the top of a precipitous ridge, 9,000 feet high, called the Devil's +Gate. Evans takes a lumber wagon with four horses over the mountains, +and a Colorado engineer would have no difficulty in making a wagon +road. In several of the gulches over which the track hangs there are +the remains of wagons which have come to grief in the attempt to +emulate Evans's feat, which without evidence, I should have supposed to +be impossible. It is an awful road. The only settlers in the park are +Griffith Evans, and a married man a mile higher up. "Mountain Jim's" +cabin is in the entrance gulch, four miles off, and there is not +another cabin for eighteen miles toward the Plains. The park is +unsurveyed, and the huge tract of mountainous country beyond is almost +altogether unexplored. Elk hunters occasionally come up and camp out +here; but the two settlers, who, however, are only squatters, for +various reasons are not disposed to encourage such visitors. When +Evans, who is a very successful hunter, came here, he came on foot, and +for some time after settling here he carried the flour and necessaries +required by his family on his back over the mountains. +</P> + +<P> +As I intend to make Estes Park my headquarters until the winter sets +in, I must make you acquainted with my surroundings and mode of living. +The "Queen Anne mansion" is represented by a log cabin made of big hewn +logs. The chinks should be filled with mud and lime, but these are +wanting. The roof is formed of barked young spruce, then a layer of +hay, and an outer coating of mud, all nearly flat. The floors are +roughly boarded. The "living room" is about sixteen feet square, and +has a rough stone chimney in which pine logs are always burning. At +one end there is a door into a small bedroom, and at the other a door +into a small eating room, at the table of which we feed in relays. +This opens into a very small kitchen with a great American +cooking-stove, and there are two "bed closets" besides. Although rude, +it is comfortable, except for the draughts. The fine snow drives in +through the chinks and covers the floors, but sweeping it out at +intervals is both fun and exercise. There are no heaps or rubbish +places outside. Near it, on the slope under the pines, is a pretty +two-roomed cabin, and beyond that, near the lake, is my cabin, a very +rough one. My door opens into a little room with a stone chimney, and +that again into a small room with a hay bed, a chair with a tin basin +on it, a shelf and some pegs. A small window looks on the lake, and +the glories of the sunrises which I see from it are indescribable. +Neither of my doors has a lock, and, to say the truth, neither will +shut, as the wood has swelled. Below the house, on the stream which +issues from the lake, there is a beautiful log dairy, with a water +wheel outside, used for churning. Besides this, there are a corral, a +shed for the wagon, a room for the hired man, and shelters for horses +and weakly calves. All these things are necessaries at this height. +</P> + +<P> +The ranchmen are two Welshmen, Evans and Edwards, each with a wife and +family. The men are as diverse as they can be. "Griff," as Evans is +called, is short and small, and is hospitable, careless, reckless, +jolly, social, convivial, peppery, good natured, "nobody's enemy but +his own." He had the wit and taste to find out Estes Park, where +people have found him out, and have induced him to give them food and +lodging, and add cabin to cabin to take them in. He is a splendid +shot, an expert and successful hunter, a bold mountaineer, a good +rider, a capital cook, and a generally "jolly fellow." His cheery +laugh rings through the cabin from the early morning, and is +contagious, and when the rafters ring at night with such songs as "D'ye +ken John Peel?" "Auld Lang Syne," and "John Brown," what would the +chorus be without poor "Griff's" voice? What would Estes Park be +without him, indeed? When he went to Denver lately we missed him as we +should have missed the sunshine, and perhaps more. In the early +morning, when Long's Peak is red, and the grass crackles with the +hoar-frost, he arouses me with a cheery thump on my door. "We're going +cattle-hunting, will you come?" or, "Will you help to drive in the +cattle? You can take your pick of the horses. I want another hand." +Free-hearted, lavish, popular, poor "Griff" loves liquor too well for +his prosperity, and is always tormented by debt. He makes lots of +money, but puts it into "a bag with holes." He has fifty horses and +1,000 head of cattle, many of which are his own, wintering up here, and +makes no end of money by taking in people at eight dollars a week, yet +it all goes somehow. He has a most industrious wife, a girl of +seventeen, and four younger children, all musical, but the wife has to +work like a slave; and though he is a kind husband, her lot, as +compared with her lord's, is like that of a squaw. Edwards, his +partner, is his exact opposite, tall, thin, and condemnatory looking, +keen, industrious, saving, grave, a teetotaler, grieved for all reasons +at Evans's follies, and rather grudging; as naturally unpopular as +Evans is popular; a "decent man," who, with his industrious wife, will +certainly make money as fast as Evans loses it. +</P> + +<P> +I pay eight dollars a week, which includes the unlimited use of a +horse, when one can be found and caught. We breakfast at seven on +beef, potatoes, tea, coffee, new bread, and butter. Two pitchers of +cream and two of milk are replenished as fast as they are exhausted. +Dinner at twelve is a repetition of the breakfast, but with the coffee +omitted and a gigantic pudding added. Tea at six is a repetition of +breakfast. "Eat whenever you are hungry, you can always get milk and +bread in the kitchen," Evans says—"eat as much as you can, it'll do +you good"—and we all eat like hunters. There is no change of food. +The steer which was being killed on my arrival is now being eaten +through from head to tail, the meat being hacked off quite +promiscuously, without any regard to joints. In this dry, rarefied +air, the outside of the flesh blackens and hardens, and though the +weather may be hot, the carcass keeps sweet for two or three months. +The bread is super excellent, but the poor wives seem to be making and +baking it all day. +</P> + +<P> +The regular household living and eating together at this time consists +of a very intelligent and high-minded American couple, Mr. and Mrs. +Dewy, people whose character, culture, and society I should value +anywhere; a young Englishman, brother of a celebrated African traveler, +who, because he rides on an English saddle, and clings to some other +insular peculiarities, is called "The Earl"; a miner prospecting for +silver; a young man, the type of intelligent, practical "Young +America," whose health showed consumptive tendencies when he was in +business, and who is living a hunter's life here; a grown-up niece of +Evans; and a melancholy-looking hired man. A mile off there is an +industrious married settler, and four miles off, in the gulch leading +to the park, "Mountain Jim," otherwise Mr. Nugent, is posted. His +business as a trapper takes him daily up to the beaver dams in Black +Canyon to look after his traps, and he generally spends some time in or +about our cabin, not, I can see, to Evans's satisfaction. For, in +truth, this blue hollow, lying solitary at the foot of Long's Peak, is +a miniature world of great interest, in which love, jealousy, hatred, +envy, pride, unselfishness, greed, selfishness, and self-sacrifice can +be studied hourly, and there is always the unpleasantly exciting risk +of an open quarrel with the neighboring desperado, whose "I'll shoot +you!" has more than once been heard in the cabin. +</P> + +<P> +The party, however, has often been increased by "campers," either elk +hunters or "prospectors" for silver or locations, who feed with us and +join us in the evening. They get little help from Evans, either as to +elk or locations, and go away disgusted and unsuccessful. Two +Englishmen of refinement and culture camped out here prospecting a few +weeks ago, and then, contrary to advice, crossed the mountains into +North Park, where gold is said to abound, and it is believed that they +have fallen victims to the bloodthirsty Indians of the region. Of +course, we never get letters or newspapers unless some one rides to +Longmount for them. Two or three novels and a copy of Our New West are +our literature. Our latest newspaper is seventeen days old. Somehow +the park seems to become the natural limit of our interests so far as +they appear in conversation at table. The last grand aurora, the +prospect of a snow-storm, track and sign of elk and grizzly, rumors of +a bighorn herd near the lake, the canyons in which the Texan cattle +were last seen, the merits of different rifles, the progress of two +obvious love affairs, the probability of some one coming up from the +Plains with letters, "Mountain Jim's" latest mood or escapade, and the +merits of his dog "Ring" as compared with those of Evans's dog "Plunk," +are among the topics which are never abandoned as exhausted. +</P> + +<P> +On Sunday work is nominally laid aside, but most of the men go out +hunting or fishing till the evening, when we have the harmonium and +much sacred music and singing in parts. To be alone in the park from +the afternoon till the last glory of the afterglow has faded, with no +books but a Bible and Prayer-book, is truly delightful. No worthier +temple for a "Te Deum" or "Gloria in Excelsis" could be found than this +"temple not made with hands," in which one may worship without being +distracted by the sight of bonnets of endless form, and curiously +intricate "back hair," and countless oddities of changing fashion. +</P> + +<P> +I shall not soon forget my first night here. +</P> + +<P> +Somewhat dazed by the rarefied air, entranced by the glorious beauty, +slightly puzzled by the motley company, whose faces loomed not always +quite distinctly through the cloud of smoke produced by eleven pipes, I +went to my solitary cabin at nine, attended by Evans. It was very +dark, and it seemed a long way off. Something howled—Evans said it +was a wolf—and owls apparently innumerable hooted incessantly. The +pole-star, exactly opposite my cabin door, burned like a lamp. The +frost was sharp. Evans opened the door, lighted a candle, and left me, +and I was soon in my hay bed. I was frightened—that is, afraid of +being frightened, it was so eerie—but sleep soon got the better of my +fears. I was awoke by a heavy breathing, a noise something like sawing +under the floor, and a pushing and upheaving, all very loud. My candle +was all burned, and, in truth, I dared not stir. The noise went on for +an hour fully, when, just as I thought the floor had been made +sufficiently thin for all purposes of ingress, the sounds abruptly +ceased, and I fell asleep again. My hair was not, as it ought to have +been, white in the morning! +</P> + +<P> +I was dressed by seven, our breakfast hour, and when I reached the +great cabin and told my story, Evans laughed hilariously, and Edwards +contorted his face dismally. They told me that there was a skunk's +lair under my cabin, and that they dare not make any attempt to +dislodge him for fear of rendering the cabin untenable. They have +tried to trap him since, but without success, and each night the noisy +performance is repeated. I think he is sharpening his claws on the +under side of my floor, as the grizzlies sharpen theirs upon the trees. +The odor with which this creature, truly named Mephitis, can overpower +its assailants is truly AWFUL. We were driven out of the cabin for +some hours merely by the passage of one across the corral. The bravest +man is a coward in its neighborhood. Dogs rub their noses on the +ground till they bleed when they have touched the fluid, and even die +of the vomiting produced by the effluvia. The odor can be smelt a mile +off. If clothes are touched by the fluid they must be destroyed. At +present its fur is very valuable. Several have been killed since I +came. A shot well aimed at the spine secures one safely, and an +experienced dog can kill one by leaping upon it suddenly without being +exposed to danger. It is a beautiful beast, about the size and length +of a fox, with long thick black or dark-brown fur, and two white +streaks from the head to the long bushy tail. The claws of its +fore-feet are long and polished. Yesterday one was seen rushing from +the dairy and was shot. "Plunk," the big dog, touched it and has to be +driven into exile. The body was valiantly removed by a man with a long +fork, and carried to a running stream, but we are nearly choked with +the odor from the spot where it fell. I hope that my skunk will enjoy +a quiet spirit so long as we are near neighbors. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +October 3. +</P> + +<P> +This is surely one of the most entrancing spots on earth. Oh, that I +could paint with pen or brush! From my bed I look on Mirror Lake, and +with the very earliest dawn, when objects are not discernible, it lies +there absolutely still, a purplish lead color. Then suddenly into its +mirror flash inverted peaks, at first a dawn darker all round. This is +a new sight, each morning new. Then the peaks fade, and when morning +is no longer "spread upon the mountains," the pines are mirrored in my +lake almost as solid objects, and the glory steals downwards, and a red +flush warms the clear atmosphere of the park, and the hoar-frost +sparkles and the crested blue-jays step forth daintily on the jewelled +grass. The majesty and beauty grow on me daily. As I crossed from my +cabin just now, and the long mountain shadows lay on the grass, and +form and color gained new meanings, I was almost false to Hawaii; I +couldn't go on writing for the glory of the sunset, but went out and +sat on a rock to see the deepening blue in the dark canyons, and the +peaks becoming rose color one by one, then fading into sudden +ghastliness, the awe-inspiring heights of Long's Peak fading last. +Then came the glories of the afterglow, when the orange and lemon of +the east faded into gray, and then gradually the gray for some distance +above the horizon brightened into a cold blue, and above the blue into +a broad band of rich, warm red, with an upper band of rose color; above +it hung a big cold moon. This is the "daily miracle" of evening, as +the blazing peaks in the darkness of Mirror Lake are the miracle of +morning. Perhaps this scenery is not lovable, but, as if it were a +strong stormy character, it has an intense fascination. +</P> + +<P> +The routine of my day is breakfast at seven, then I go back and "do" my +cabin and draw water from the lake, read a little, loaf a little, +return to the big cabin and sweep it alternately with Mrs. Dewy, after +which she reads aloud till dinner at twelve. Then I ride with Mr. +Dewy, or by myself, or with Mrs. Dewy, who is learning to ride cavalier +fashion in order to accompany her invalid husband, or go after cattle +till supper at six. After that we all sit in the living room, and I +settle down to write to you, or mend my clothes, which are dropping to +pieces. Some sit round the table playing at eucre, the strange hunters +and prospectors lie on the floor smoking, and rifles are cleaned, +bullets cast, fishing flies made, fishing tackle repaired, boots are +waterproofed, part-songs are sung, and about half-past eight I cross +the crisp grass to my cabin, always expecting to find something in it. +We all wash our own clothes, and as my stock is so small, some part of +every day has to be spent at the wash tub. Politeness and propriety +always prevail in our mixed company, and though various grades of +society are represented, true democratic equality prevails, not its +counterfeit, and there is neither forwardness on one side nor +condescension on the other. +</P> + +<P> +Evans left for Denver ten days ago, taking his wife and family to the +Plains for the winter, and the mirth of our party departed with him. +Edwards is somber, except when he lies on the floor in the evening, and +tells stories of his march through Georgia with Sherman. I gave Evans +a 100-dollar note to change, and asked him to buy me a horse for my +tour, and for three days we have expected him. The mail depends on +him. I have had no letters from you for five weeks, and can hardly +curb my impatience. I ride or walk three or four miles out on the +Longmount trail two or three times a day to look for him. Others, for +different reasons, are nearly equally anxious. After dark we start at +every sound, and every time the dogs bark all the able-bodied of us +turn out en masse. "Wait for the wagon" has become a nearly maddening +joke. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +October 9. +</P> + +<P> +The letter and newspaper fever has seized on every one. We have sent +at last to Longmount. The evening I rode out on the Longmount trail +towards dusk, escorted by "Mountain Jim," and in the distance we saw a +wagon with four horses and a saddle horse behind, and the driver waved +a handkerchief, the concerted signal if I were the possessor of a +horse. We turned back, galloping down the long hill as fast as two +good horses could carry us, and gave the joyful news. It was an hour +before the wagon arrived, bringing not Evans but two "campers" of +suspicious aspect, who have pitched their camp close to my cabin! You +cannot imagine what it is to be locked in by these mountain walls, and +not to know where your letters are lying. Later on, Mr. Buchan, one of +our usual inmates, returned from Denver with papers, letters for every +one but me, and much exciting news. The financial panic has spread out +West, gathering strength on its way. The Denver banks have all +suspended business. They refuse to cash their own checks, or to allow +their customers to draw a dollar, and would not even give green-backs +for my English gold! Neither Mr. Buchan nor Evans could get a cent. +Business is suspended, and everybody, however rich, is for the time +being poor. The Indians have taken to the "war path," and are burning +ranches and killing cattle. There is a regular "scare" among the +settlers, and wagon loads of fugitives are arriving in Colorado +Springs. The Indians say, "The white man has killed the buffalo and +left them to rot on the plains. We will be revenged." Evans had +reached Longmount, and will be here tonight. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +October 10. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait for the wagon" still! We had a hurricane of wind and hail last +night; it was eleven before I could go to my cabin, and I only reached +it with the help of two men. The moon was not up, and the sky overhead +was black with clouds, when suddenly Long's Peak, which had been +invisible, gleamed above the dark mountains, all glistening with +new-fallen snow, on which the moon, as yet uprisen here, was shining. +The evening before, after sunset, I saw another novel effect. My lake +turned a brilliant orange in the twilight, and in its still mirror the +mountains were reflected a deep rich blue. It is a world of wonders. +To-day we had a great storm with flurries of fine snow; and when the +clouds rolled up at noon, the Snowy Range and all the higher mountains +were pure white. I have been hard at work all day to drown my +anxieties, which are heightened by a rumor that Evans has gone +buffalo-hunting on the Platte! +</P> + +<P> +This evening, quite unexpectedly, Evans arrived with a heavy mail in a +box. I sorted it, but there was nothing for me and Evans said he was +afraid that he had left my letters, which were separate from the +others, behind at Denver, but he had written from Longmount for them. +A few hours later they were found in a box of groceries! +</P> + +<P> +All the hilarity of the house has returned with Evans, and he has +brought a kindred spirit with him, a young man who plays and sings +splendidly, has an inexhaustible repertoire, and produces sonatas, +funeral marches, anthems, reels, strathspeys, and all else, out of his +wonderful memory. Never, surely was a chamber organ compelled to such +service. A little cask of suspicious appearance was smuggled into the +cabin from the wagon, and heightens the hilarity a little, I fear. No +churlishness could resist Evans's unutterable jollity or the contagion +of his hearty laugh. He claps people on the back, shouts at them, will +do anything for them, and makes a perpetual breeze. "My kingdom for a +horse!" He has not got one for me, and a shadow crossed his face when +I spoke of the subject. Eventually he asked for a private conference, +when he told me, with some confusion, that he had found himself "very +hard up" in Denver, and had been obliged to appropriate my 100-dollar +note. He said he would give me, as interest for it up to November +25th, a good horse, saddle, and bridle for my proposed journey of 600 +miles. I was somewhat dismayed, but there was no other course, as the +money was gone. +</P> + +<P> +[16] I tried a horse, mended my clothes, reduced my pack to a weight of +twelve pounds, and was all ready for an early start, when before +daylight I was wakened by Evans's cheery voice at my door. "I say, +Miss B., we've got to drive wild cattle to-day; I wish you'd lend a +hand, there's not enough of us; I'll give you a good horse; one day +won't make much difference." So we've been driving cattle all day, +riding about twenty miles, and fording the Big Thompson about as many +times. Evans flatters me by saying that I am "as much use as another +man"; more than one of our party, I hope, who always avoided the "ugly" +cows. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[16] In justice to Evans, I must mention here that every cent of the +money was ultimately paid, that the horse was perfection, and that the +arrangement turned out a most advantageous one for me. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +October 12. +</P> + +<P> +I am still here, helping in the kitchen, driving cattle, and riding +four or five times a day. Evans detains me each morning by saying, +"Here's lots of horses for you to try," and after trying five or six a +day, I do not find one to my liking. Today, as I was cantering a tall +well-bred one round the lake, he threw the bridle off by a toss of his +head, leaving me with the reins in my hands; one bucked, and two have +tender feet, and tumbled down. Such are some of our little varieties. +Still I hope to get off on my tour in a day or two, so at least as to +be able to compare Estes Park with some of the better-known parts of +Colorado. +</P> + +<P> +You would be amused if you could see our cabin just now. There are +nine men in the room and three women. For want of seats most of the +men are lying on the floor; all are smoking, and the blithe young +French Canadian who plays so beautifully, and catches about fifty +speckled trout for each meal, is playing the harmonium with a pipe in +his mouth. Three men who have camped in Black Canyon for a week are +lying like dogs on the floor. They are all over six feet high, +immovably solemn, neither smiling at the general hilarity, nor at the +absurd changes which are being rung on the harmonium. They may be +described as clothed only in boots, for their clothes are torn to rags. +They stare vacantly. They have neither seen a woman nor slept under a +roof for six months. Negro songs are being sung, and before that +"Yankee Doodle" was played immediately after "Rule Britannia," and it +made every one but the strangers laugh, it sounded so foolish and mean. +The colder weather is bringing the beasts down from the heights. I +heard both wolves and the mountain lion as I crossed to my cabin last +night. +</P> + +<P> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 16.5em">I. L. B.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3> +Letter IX +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +"Please Ma'ams"—A desperado—A cattle hunt—The muster—A mad cow—A +snowstorm—Snowed up—Birdie—The Plains—A prairie schooner—Denver—A +find—Plum Creek—"Being agreeable"—Snowbound—The grey mare. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +ESTES PARK, COLORADO. +</P> + +<P> +This afternoon, as I was reading in my cabin, little Sam Edwards ran +in, saying, "Mountain Jim wants to speak to you." This brought to my +mind images of infinite worry, gauche servants, "please Ma'am," +contretemps, and the habit growing out of our elaborate and uselessly +conventional life of magnifying the importance of similar trifles. +Then "things" came up, with the tyranny they exercise. I REALLY need +nothing more than this log cabin offers. But elsewhere one must have a +house and servants, and burdens and worries—not that one may be +hospitable and comfortable, but for the "thick clay" in the shape of +"things" which one has accumulated. My log house takes me about five +minutes to "do," and you could eat off the floor, and it needs no lock, +as it contains nothing worth stealing. +</P> + +<P> +But "Mountain Jim" was waiting while I made these reflections to ask us +to take a ride; and he, Mr. and Mrs. Dewy, and I, had a delightful +stroll through colored foliage, and then, when they were fatigued, I +changed my horse for his beautiful mare, and we galloped and raced in +the beautiful twilight, in the intoxicating frosty air. Mrs. Dewy +wishes you could have seen us as we galloped down the pass, the +fearful-looking ruffian on my heavy wagon horse, and I on his bare +wooden saddle, from which beaver, mink, and marten tails, and pieces of +skin, were hanging raggedly, with one spur, and feet not in the +stirrups, the mare looking so aristocratic and I so beggarly! Mr. +Nugent is what is called "splendid company." With a sort of breezy +mountain recklessness in everything, he passes remarkably acute +judgments on men and events; on women also. He has pathos, poetry, and +humor, an intense love of nature, strong vanity in certain directions, +an obvious desire to act and speak in character, and sustain his +reputation as a desperado, a considerable acquaintance with literature, +a wonderful verbal memory, opinions on every person and subject, a +chivalrous respect for women in his manner, which makes it all the more +amusing when he suddenly turns round upon one with some graceful +raillery, a great power of fascination, and a singular love of +children. The children of this house run to him, and when he sits down +they climb on his broad shoulders and play with his curls. They say in +the house that "no one who has been here thinks any one worth speaking +to after Jim," but I think that this is probably an opinion which time +would alter. Somehow, he is kept always before the public of Colorado, +for one can hardly take up a newspaper without finding a paragraph +about him, a contribution by him, or a fragment of his biography. +Ruffian as he looks, the first word he speaks—to a lady, at +least—places him on a level with educated gentlemen, and his +conversation is brilliant, and full of the light and fitfulness of +genius. Yet, on the whole, he is a most painful spectacle. His +magnificent head shows so plainly the better possibilities which might +have been his. His life, in spite of a certain dazzle which belongs to +it, is a ruined and wasted one, and one asks what of good can the +future have in store for one who has for so long chosen evil?[17] +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[17] September of the next year answered the question by laying him +down in a dishonored grave, with a rifle bullet in his brain. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Shall I ever get away? We were to have had a grand cattle hunt +yesterday, beginning at 6:30, but the horses were all lost. Often out +of fifty horses all that are worth anything are marauding, and a day is +lost in hunting for them in the canyons. However, before daylight this +morning Evans called through my door, "Miss Bird, I say we've got to +drive cattle fifteen miles, I wish you'd lend a hand; there's not +enough of us; I'll give you a good horse." +</P> + +<P> +The scene of the drive is at a height of 7,500 feet, watered by two +rapid rivers. On all sides mountains rise to an altitude of from +11,000 to 15,000 feet, their skirts shaggy with pitch-pine forests, and +scarred by deep canyons, wooded and boulder strewn, opening upon the +mountain pasture previously mentioned. Two thousand head of half-wild +Texan cattle are scattered in herds throughout the canyons, living on +more or less suspicious terms with grizzly and brown bears, mountain +lions, elk, mountain sheep, spotted deer, wolves, lynxes, wild cats, +beavers, minks, skunks, chipmunks, eagles, rattlesnakes, and all the +other two-legged, four-legged, vertebrate, and invertebrate inhabitants +of this lonely and romantic region. On the whole, they show a tendency +rather to the habits of wild than of domestic cattle. They march to +water in Indian file, with the bulls leading, and when threatened, take +strategic advantage of ridgy ground, slinking warily along in the +hollows, the bulls acting as sentinels, and bringing up the rear in +case of an attack from dogs. Cows have to be regularly broken in for +milking, being as wild as buffaloes in their unbroken state; but, owing +to the comparative dryness of the grasses, and the system of allowing +the calf to have the milk during the daytime, a dairy of 200 cows does +not produce as much butter as a Devonshire dairy of fifty. Some +"necessary" cruelty is involved in the stockman's business, however +humane he may be. The system is one of terrorism, and from the time +that the calf is bullied into the branding pen, and the hot iron burns +into his shrinking flesh, to the day when the fatted ox is driven down +from his boundless pastures to be slaughtered in Chicago, "the fear and +dread of man" are upon him. +</P> + +<P> +The herds are apt to penetrate the savage canyons which come down from +the Snowy Range, when they incur a risk of being snowed up and starved, +and it is necessary now and then to hunt them out and drive them down +to the "park." On this occasion, the whole were driven down for a +muster, and for the purpose of branding the calves. +</P> + +<P> +After a 6:30 breakfast this morning, we started, the party being +composed of my host, a hunter from the Snowy Range, two stockmen from +the Plains, one of whom rode a violent buck-jumper, and was said by his +comrade to be the "best rider in North Americay," and myself. We were +all mounted on Mexican saddles, rode, as the custom is, with light +snaffle bridles, leather guards over our feet, and broad wooden +stirrups, and each carried his lunch in a pouch slung on the lassoing +horn of his saddle. Four big, badly-trained dogs accompanied us. It +was a ride of nearly thirty miles, and of many hours, one of the most +splendid I ever took. We never got off our horses except to tighten +the girths, we ate our lunch with our bridles knotted over saddle +horns, started over the level at full gallops, leapt over trunks of +trees, dashed madly down hillsides rugged with rocks or strewn with +great stones, forded deep, rapid streams, saw lovely lakes and views of +surpassing magnificence, startled a herd of elk with uncouth heads and +in the chase, which for some time was unsuccessful, rode to the very +base of Long's Peak, over 14,000 feet high, where the bright waters of +one of the affluents of the Platte burst from the eternal snows through +a canyon of indescribable majesty. The sun was hot, but at a height of +over 8,000 feet the air was crisp and frosty, and the enjoyment of +riding a good horse under such exhilarating circumstances was extreme. +In one wild part of the ride we had to come down a steep hill, thickly +wooded with pitch pines, to leap over the fallen timber, and steer +between the dead and living trees to avoid being "snagged," or bringing +down a heavy dead branch by an unwary touch. +</P> + +<P> +Emerging from this, we caught sight of a thousand Texan cattle feeding +in a valley below. The leaders scented us, and, taking fright, began +to move off in the direction of the open "park," while we were about a +mile from and above them. "Head them off, boys!" our leader shouted; +"all aboard; hark away!" and with something of the "High, tally-ho in +the morning!" away we all went at a hard gallop down-hill. I could not +hold my excited animal; down-hill, up-hill, leaping over rocks and +timber, faster every moment the pace grew, and still the leader +shouted, "Go it, boys!" and the horses dashed on at racing speed, +passing and repassing each other, till my small but beautiful bay was +keeping pace with the immense strides of the great buck-jumper ridden +by "the finest rider in North Americay," and I was dizzied and +breathless by the pace at which we were going. A shorter time than it +takes to tell it brought us close to and abreast of the surge of +cattle. The bovine waves were a grand sight: huge bulls, shaped like +buffaloes, bellowed and roared, and with great oxen and cows with +yearling calves, galloped like racers, and we galloped alongside of +them, and shortly headed them and in no time were placed as sentinels +across the mouth of the valley. It seemed like infantry awaiting the +shock of cavalry as we stood as still as our excited horses would +allow. I almost quailed as the surge came on, but when it got close to +us my comrades hooted fearfully, and we dashed forward with the dogs, +and, with bellowing, roaring, and thunder of hoofs, the wave receded as +it came. I rode up to our leader, who received me with much laughter. +He said I was "a good cattleman," and that he had forgotten that a lady +was of the party till he saw me "come leaping over the timber, and +driving with the others." +</P> + +<P> +It was not for two hours after this that the real business of driving +began, and I was obliged to change my thoroughbred for a well-trained +cattle horse—a bronco, which could double like a hare, and go over any +ground. I had not expected to work like a vachero, but so it was, and +my Hawaiian experience was very useful. We hunted the various canyons +and known "camps," driving the herds out of them; and, until we had +secured 850 head in the corral some hours afterwards, we scarcely saw +each other to speak to. Our first difficulty was with a herd which got +into some swampy ground, when a cow, which afterwards gave me an +infinity of trouble, remained at bay for nearly an hour, tossing the +dog three times, and resisting all efforts to dislodge her. She had a +large yearling calf with her, and Evans told me that the attachment of +a cow to her first calf is sometimes so great that she will kill her +second that the first may have the milk. I got a herd of over a +hundred out of a canyon by myself, and drove them down to the river +with the aid of one badly-broken dog, which gave me more trouble than +the cattle. The getting over was most troublesome; a few took to the +water readily and went across, but others smelt it, and then, doubling +back, ran in various directions; while some attacked the dog as he was +swimming, and others, after crossing, headed back in search of some +favorite companions which had been left behind, and one specially +vicious cow attacked my horse over and over again. It took an hour and +a half of time and much patience to gather them all on the other side. +</P> + +<P> +It was getting late in the day, and a snowstorm was impending, before I +was joined by the other drivers and herds, and as the former had +diminished to three, with only three dogs, it was very difficult to +keep the cattle together. You drive them as gently as possible, so as +not to frighten or excite them,[18] riding first on one side, then on +the other, to guide them; and if they deliberately go in a wrong +direction, you gallop in front and head them off. The great excitement +is when one breaks away from the herd and gallops madly up and +down-hill, and you gallop after him anywhere, over and among rocks and +trees, doubling when he doubles, and heading him till you get him back +again. The bulls were quite easily managed, but the cows with calves, +old or young, were most troublesome. By accident I rode between one +cow and her calf in a narrow place, and the cow rushed at me and was +just getting her big horns under the horse, when he reared, and spun +dexterously aside. This kind of thing happened continually. There was +one very handsome red cow which became quite mad. She had a calf with +her nearly her own size, and thought every one its enemy, and though +its horns were well developed, and it was quite able to take care of +itself, she insisted on protecting it from all fancied dangers. One of +the dogs, a young, foolish thing, seeing that the cow was excited, took +a foolish pleasure in barking at her, and she was eventually quite +infuriated. She turned to bay forty times at least; tore up the ground +with her horns, tossed and killed the calves of two other cows, and +finally became so dangerous to the rest of the herd that, just as the +drive was ending, Evans drew his revolver and shot her, and the calf +for which she had fought so blindly lamented her piteously. She rushed +at me several times mad with rage, but these trained cattle horses keep +perfectly cool, and, nearly without will on my part, mine jumped aside +at the right moment, and foiled the assailant. Just at dusk we reached +the corral—an acre of grass enclosed by stout post-and-rail fences +seven feet high—and by much patience and some subtlety lodged the +whole herd within its shelter, without a blow, a shout, or even a crack +of a whip, wild as the cattle were. It was fearfully cold. We +galloped the last mile and a half in four and a half minutes, reached +the cabin just as the snow began to fall, and found strong, hot tea +ready. +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[18] In several visits to America I have observed that the Americans +are far in advance of us and our colonial kinsmen in their treatment of +horses and other animals. This was very apparent with regard to this +Texan herd. There were no stock whips, no needless worrying of the +animals in the excitement of sport. Any dog seizing a bullock by his +tail or heels would have been called off and punished, and quietness +and gentleness were the rule. The horses were ridden without whips, +and with spurs so blunt that they could not hurt even a human skin, and +were ruled by the voice and a slight pressure on the light snaffle +bridle. This is the usual plan, even where, as in Colorado, the horses +are bronchos, and inherit ineradicable vice. I never yet saw a horse +BULLIED into submission in the United States. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +October 18. +</P> + +<P> +Snow-bound for three days! I could not write yesterday, it was so +awful. People gave up all occupation, and talked of nothing but the +storm. The hunters all kept by the great fire in the living room, only +going out to bring in logs and clear the snow from the door and +windows. I never spent a more fearful night than two nights ago, alone +in my cabin in the storm, with the roof lifting, the mud cracking and +coming off, and the fine snow hissing through the chinks between the +logs, while splittings and breaking of dead branches, wind wrung and +snow laden, went on incessantly, with screechings, howlings, thunder +and lightning, and many unfamiliar sounds besides. After snowing +fiercely all day, another foot of it fell in the early night, and, +after drifting against my door, blocked me effectually in. About +midnight the mercury fell to zero, and soon after a gale rose, which +lasted for ten hours. My window frame is swelled, and shuts, +apparently, hermetically; and my bed is six feet from it. I had gone +to sleep with six blankets on, and a heavy sheet over my face. Between +two and three I was awoke by the cabin being shifted from underneath by +the wind, and the sheet was frozen to my lips. I put out my hands, and +the bed was thickly covered with fine snow. Getting up to investigate +matters, I found the floor some inches deep in parts in fine snow, and +a gust of fine, needle-like snow stung my face. The bucket of water +was solid ice. I lay in bed freezing till sunrise, when some of the +men came to see if I "was alive," and to dig me out. They brought a +can of hot water, which turned to ice before I could use it. I dressed +standing in snow, and my brushes, boots, and etceteras were covered +with snow. When I ran to the house, not a mountain or anything else +could be seen, and the snow on one side was drifted higher than the +roof. The air, as high as one could see, was one white, stinging smoke +of snowdrift—a terrific sight. In the living room, the snow was +driving through the chinks, and Mrs. Dewy was shoveling it from the +floor. Mr. D.'s beard was hoary with frost in a room with a fire all +night. Evans was lying ill, with his bed covered with snow. Returning +from my cabin after breakfast, loaded with occupations for the day, I +was lifted off my feet, and deposited in a drift, and all my things, +writing book and letter included, were carried in different directions. +Some, including a valuable photograph, were irrecoverable. The writing +book was found, some hours afterwards, under three feet of snow. +</P> + +<P> +There are tracks of bears and deer close to the house, but no one can +hunt in this gale, and the drift is blinding. We have been slightly +overcrowded in our one room. Chess, music, and whist have been +resorted to. One hunter, for very ennui, has devoted himself to +keeping my ink from freezing. We all sat in great cloaks and coats, +and kept up an enormous fire, with the pitch running out of the logs. +The isolation is extreme, for we are literally snowed up, and the other +settler in the Park and "Mountain Jim" are both at Denver. Late in the +evening the storm ceased. In some places the ground is bare of snow, +while in others all irregularities are leveled, and the drifts are +forty feet deep. Nature is grand under this new aspect. The cold is +awful; the high wind with the mercury at zero would skin any part +exposed to it. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +October 19. +</P> + +<P> +Evans offers me six dollars a week if I will stay into the winter and +do the cooking after Mrs. Edwards leaves! I think I should like +playing at being a "hired girl" if it were not for the bread-making! +But it would suit me better to ride after cattle. The men don't like +"baching," as it is called in the wilds—i.e. "doing for themselves." +They washed and ironed their clothes yesterday, and there was an +incongruity about the last performance. I really think (though for the +fifteenth time) that I shall leave to-morrow. The cold has moderated, +the sky is bluer than ever, the snow is evaporating, and a hunter who +has joined us to-day says that there are no drifts on the trail which +one cannot get through. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +LONGMOUNT, COLORADO, October 20. +</P> + +<P> +"The Island Valley of Avillon" is left, but how shall I finally tear +myself from its freedom and enchantments? I see Long's snowy peak +rising into the night sky, and know and long after the magnificence of +the blue hollow at its base. We were to have left at 8 but the horses +were lost, so it was 9:30 before we started, the WE being the musical +young French Canadian and myself. I have a bay Indian pony, "Birdie," +a little beauty, with legs of iron, fast, enduring, gentle, and wise; +and with luggage for some weeks, including a black silk dress, behind +my saddle, I am tolerably independent. It was a most glorious ride. +We passed through the gates of rock, through gorges where the unsunned +snow lay deep under the lemon-colored aspens; caught glimpses of +far-off, snow-clad giants rising into a sky of deep sad blue; lunched +above the Foot Hills at a cabin where two brothers and a "hired man" +were "keeping bach," where everything was so trim, clean, and +ornamental that one did not miss a woman; crossed a deep backwater on a +narrow beaver dam, because the log bridge was broken down, and emerged +from the brilliantly-colored canyon of the St. Vrain just at dusk upon +the featureless prairies, when we had some trouble in finding Longmount +in the dark. A hospitable welcome awaited me at this inn, and an +English friend came in and spent the evening with me. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +GREAT PLATTE CANYON, October 23. +</P> + +<P> +My letters on this tour will, I fear, be very dull, for after riding +all day, looking after my pony, getting supper, hearing about various +routes, and the pastoral, agricultural, mining, and hunting gossip of +the neighborhood, I am so sleepy and wholesomely tired that I can +hardly write. I left Longmount pretty early on Tuesday morning, the +day being sad, with the blink of an impending snow-storm in the air. +The evening before I was introduced to a man who had been a colonel in +the rebel army, who made a most unfavorable impression upon me, and it +was a great annoyance to me when he presented himself on horse-back to +guide me "over the most intricate part of the journey." Solitude is +infinitely preferable to uncongeniality, and is bliss when compared +with repulsiveness, so I was thoroughly glad when I got rid of my +escort and set out upon the prairie alone. It is a dreary ride of +thirty miles over the low brown plains to Denver, very little settled, +and with trails going in all directions. My sailing orders were "steer +south, and keep to the best beaten track," and it seemed like embarking +on the ocean without a compass. The rolling brown waves on which you +see a horse a mile and a half off impress one strangely, and at noon +the sky darkened up for another storm, the mountains swept down in +blackness to the Plains, and the higher peaks took on a ghastly +grimness horrid to behold. It was first very cold, then very hot, and +finally settled down to a fierce east-windy cold, difficult to endure. +It was free and breezy, however, and my horse was companionable. +Sometimes herds of cattle were browsing on the sun-cured grass, then +herds of horses. Occasionally I met a horseman with a rifle lying +across his saddle, or a wagon of the ordinary sort, but oftener I saw a +wagon with a white tilt, of the kind known as a "Prairie Schooner," +laboring across the grass, or a train of them, accompanied by herds, +mules, and horsemen, bearing emigrants and their household goods in +dreary exodus from the Western States to the much-vaunted prairies of +Colorado. +</P> + +<P> +The host and hostess of one of these wagons invited me to join their +mid-day meal, I providing tea (which they had not tasted for four +weeks) and they hominy. They had been three months on the journey from +Illinois, and their oxen were so lean and weak that they expected to be +another month in reaching Wet Mountain Valley. They had buried a child +en route, had lost several oxen, and were rather out of heart. Owing +to their long isolation and the monotony of the march they had lost +count of events, and seemed like people of another planet. They wanted +me to join them, but their rate of travel was too slow, so we parted +with mutual expressions of good will, and as their white tilt went +"hull down" in the distance on the lonely prairie sea, I felt sadder +than I often feel on taking leave of old acquaintances. That night +they must have been nearly frozen, camping out in the deep snow in the +fierce wind. I met afterwards 2,000 lean Texan cattle, herded by three +wild-looking men on horseback, followed by two wagons containing women, +children, and rifles. They had traveled 1,000 miles. Then I saw two +prairie wolves, like jackals, with gray fur, cowardly creatures, which +fled from me with long leaps. +</P> + +<P> +The windy cold became intense, and for the next eleven miles I rode a +race with the coming storm. At the top of every prairie roll I +expected to see Denver, but it was not till nearly five that from a +considerable height I looked down upon the great "City of the Plains," +the metropolis of the Territories. There the great braggart city lay +spread out, brown and treeless, upon the brown and treeless plain, +which seemed to nourish nothing but wormwood and the Spanish bayonet. +The shallow Platte, shriveled into a narrow stream with a shingly bed +six times too large for it, and fringed by shriveled cotton-wood, wound +along by Denver, and two miles up its course I saw a great sandstorm, +which in a few minutes covered the city, blotting it out with a dense +brown cloud. Then with gusts of wind the snowstorm began, and I had to +trust entirely to Birdie's sagacity for finding Evans's shanty. She +had been there once before only, but carried me direct to it over rough +ground and trenches. Gleefully Mrs. Evans and the children ran out to +welcome the pet pony, and I was received most hospitably, and made warm +and comfortable, though the house consists only of a kitchen and two +bed closets. My budget of news from "the park" had to be brought out +constantly, and I wondered how much I had to tell. It was past eleven +when we breakfasted the next morning. It was cloudless with an intense +frost, and six inches of snow on the ground, and everybody thought it +too cold to get up and light the fire. I had intended to leave Birdie +at Denver, but Governor Hunt and Mr. Byers of the Rocky Mountain News +both advised me to travel on horseback rather than by train and stage +telling me that I should be quite safe, and Governor Hunt drew out a +route for me and gave me a circular letter to the settlers along it. +</P> + +<P> +Denver is no longer the Denver of Hepworth Dixon. A shooting affray in +the street is as rare as in Liverpool, and one no longer sees men +dangling to the lamp-posts when one looks out in the morning! It is a +busy place, the entrepot and distributing point for an immense +district, with good shops, some factories, fair hotels, and the usual +deformities and refinements of civilization. Peltry shops abound, and +sportsman, hunter, miner, teamster, emigrant, can be completely rigged +out at fifty different stores. At Denver, people who come from the +East to try the "camp cure" now so fashionable, get their outfit of +wagon, driver, horses, tent, bedding, and stove, and start for the +mountains. Asthmatic people are there in such numbers as to warrant +the holding of an "asthmatic convention" of patients cured and +benefited. Numbers of invalids who cannot bear the rough life of the +mountains fill its hotels and boarding-houses, and others who have been +partially restored by a summer of camping out, go into the city in the +winter to complete the cure. It stands at a height of 5,000 feet, on +an enormous plain, and has a most glorious view of the Rocky Range. I +should hate even to spend a week there. The sight of those glories so +near and yet out of reach would make me nearly crazy. Denver is at +present the terminus of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. It has a line +connecting it with the Union Pacific Railroad at Cheyenne, and by means +of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, open for about 200 miles, it is +expecting to reach into Mexico. It has also had the enterprise, by +means of another narrow-gauge railroad, to push its way right up into +the mining districts near Gray's Peak. The number of "saloons" in the +streets impresses one, and everywhere one meets the characteristic +loafers of a frontier town, who find it hard even for a few days or +hours to submit to the restraints of civilization, as hard as I did to +ride sidewise to Governor Hunt's office. To Denver men go to spend the +savings of months of hard work in the maddest dissipation, and there +such characters as "Comanche Bill," "Buffalo Bill," "Wild Bill," and +"Mountain Jim," go on the spree, and find the kind of notoriety they +seek. +</P> + +<P> +A large number of Indians added to the harlequin appearance of the +Denver streets the day I was there. They belonged to the Ute tribe, +through which I had to pass, and Governor Hunt introduced me to a +fine-looking young chief, very well dressed in beaded hide, and bespoke +his courtesy for me if I needed it. The Indian stores and fur stores +and fur depots interested me most. The crowds in the streets, perhaps +owing to the snow on the ground, were almost solely masculine. I only +saw five women the whole day. There were men in every rig: hunters and +trappers in buckskin clothing; men of the Plains with belts and +revolvers, in great blue cloaks, relics of the war; teamsters in +leathern suits; horsemen in fur coats and caps and buffalo-hide boots +with the hair outside, and camping blankets behind their huge Mexican +saddles; Broadway dandies in light kid gloves; rich English sporting +tourists, clean, comely, and supercilious looking; and hundreds of +Indians on their small ponies, the men wearing buckskin suits sewn with +beads, and red blankets, with faces painted vermilion and hair hanging +lank and straight, and squaws much bundled up, riding astride with furs +over their saddles. +</P> + +<P> +Town tired and confused me, and in spite of Mrs. Evans's kind +hospitality, I was glad when a man brought Birdie at nine yesterday +morning. He said she was a little demon, she had done nothing but +buck, and had bucked him off on the bridge! I found that he had put a +curb on her, and whenever she dislikes anything she resents it by +bucking. I rode sidewise till I was well through the town, long enough +to produce a severe pain in my spine, which was not relieved for some +time even after I had changed my position. It was a lovely Indian +summer day, so warm that the snow on the ground looked an incongruity. +I rode over the Plains for some time, then gradually reached the +rolling country along the base of the mountains, and a stream with +cottonwoods along it, and settlers' houses about every halfmile. I +passed and met wagons frequently, and picked up a muff containing a +purse with 500 dollars in it, which I afterwards had the great pleasure +of restoring to the owner. Several times I crossed the narrow track of +the quaint little Rio Grande Railroad, so that it was a very cheerful +ride. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +RANCH, PLUM CREEK, October 24. +</P> + +<P> +You must understand that in Colorado travel, unless on the main road +and in the larger settlements, there are neither hotels nor taverns, +and that it is the custom for the settlers to receive travelers, +charging them at the usual hotel rate for accommodation. It is a very +satisfactory arrangement. However, at Ranch, my first halting place, +the host was unwilling to receive people in this way, I afterwards +found, or I certainly should not have presented my credentials at the +door of a large frame house, with large barns and a generally +prosperous look. The host, who opened the door, looked repellent, but +his wife, a very agreeable, lady-like-looking woman, said they could +give me a bed on a sofa. The house was the most pretentious I have yet +seen, being papered and carpeted, and there were two "hired girls." +There was a lady there from Laramie, who kindly offered to receive me +into her room, a very tall, elegant person, remarkable as being the +first woman who had settled in the Rocky Mountains. She had been +trying the "camp cure" for three months, and was then on her way home. +She had a wagon with beds, tent, tent floor, cooking-stove, and every +camp luxury, a light buggy, a man to manage everything, and a most +superior "hired girl." She was consumptive and frail in strength, but a +very attractive person, and her stories of the perils and limitation of +her early life at Fort Laramie were very interesting. Still I +"wearied," as I had arrived early in the afternoon, and could not out +of politeness retire and write to you. At meals the three "hired men" +and two "hired girls" eat with the family. I soon found that there was +a screw loose in the house, and was glad to leave early the next +morning, although it was obvious that a storm was coming on. +</P> + +<P> +I saw the toy car of the Rio Grande Railroad whirl past, all cushioned +and warm, and rather wished I were in it, and not out among the snow on +the bleak hill side. I only got on four miles when the storm came on +so badly that I got into a kitchen where eleven wretched travelers were +taking shelter, with the snow melting on them and dripping on the +floor. I had learned the art of "being agreeable" so well at the +Chalmers's, and practiced it so successfully during the two hours I was +there, by paring potatoes and making scones, that when I left, though +the hosts kept "an accommodation house for travelers," they would take +nothing for my entertainment, because they said I was such "good +company"! The storm moderated a little, and at one I saddled Birdie, +and rode four more miles, crossing a frozen creek, the ice of which +broke and let the pony through, to her great alarm. I cannot describe +my feelings on this ride, produced by the utter loneliness, the silence +and dumbness of all things, the snow falling quietly without wind, the +obliterated mountains, the darkness, the intense cold, and the unusual +and appalling aspect of nature. All life was in a shroud, all work and +travel suspended. There was not a foot-mark or wheel-mark. There was +nothing to be afraid of; and though I can't exactly say that I enjoyed +the ride, yet there was the pleasant feeling of gaining health every +hour. +</P> + +<P> +When the snow darkness began to deepen towards evening, the track +became quite illegible, and when I found myself at this romantically +situated cabin, I was thankful to find that they could give me shelter. +The scene was a solemn one, and reminded me of a description in +Whittier's Snow-Bound. All the stock came round the cabin with mute +appeals for shelter. Sheep dogs got in, and would not be kicked out. +Men went out muffled up, and came back shivering and shaking the snow +from their feet. The churn was put by the stove. Later on, a most +pleasant settler, on his way to Denver, came in his wagon having been +snow blocked two miles off, where he had been obliged to leave it and +bring his horses on here. The "Grey Mare" had a stentorian voice, +smoked a clay pipe which she passed to her children, raged at English +people, derided the courtesy of English manners, and considered that +"Please," "Thank you," and the like, were "all bosh" when life was so +short and busy. And still the snow fell softly, and the air and earth +were silent. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3> +Letter X +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +A white world—Bad traveling—A millionaire's home—Pleasant +Park—Perry's Park—Stock-raising—A cattle king—The Arkansas +Divide—Birdie's sagacity—Luxury—Monument Park—Deference to +prejudice—A death scene—The Manitou—A loose shoe—The Ute +Pass—Bergens Park—A settler's home—Hayden's Divide—Sharp +criticism—Speaking the truth. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +COLORADO SPRINGS, October 28. +</P> + +<P> +It is difficult to make this anything of a letter. I have been riding +for a whole week, seeing wonders and greatly enjoying the singular +adventurousness and novelty of my tour, but ten hours or more daily +spent in the saddle in this rarefied, intoxicating air, disposes one to +sleep rather than to write in the evening, and is far from conducive to +mental brilliancy. The observing faculties are developed, and the +reflective lie dormant. +</P> + +<P> +That night on which I last wrote was the coldest I have yet felt. I +pulled the rag carpet from the floor and covered myself with it, but +could not get warm. The sun rose gloriously on a shrouded earth. +Barns, road, shrubs, fences, river, lake, all lay under the glittering +snow. It was light and powdery, and sparkled like diamonds. Not a +breath of wind stirred, there was not a sound. I had to wait till a +passing horseman had broken the track, but soon after I set off into +the new, shining world. I soon lost the horseman's foot-marks, but +kept on near the road by means of the innumerable foot-prints of birds +and ground squirrels, which all went in one direction. After riding +for an hour I was obliged to get off and walk for another, for the snow +balled in Birdie's feet to such an extent that she could hardly keep up +even without my weight on her, and my pick was not strong enough to +remove it. Turning off the road to ask for a chisel, I came upon the +cabin of the people whose muff I had picked up a few days before, and +they received me very warmly, gave me a tumbler of cream, and made some +strong coffee. They were "old Country folk," and I stayed too long +with them. After leaving them I rode twelve miles, but it was "bad +traveling," from the balling of the snow and the difficulty of finding +the track. There was a fearful loneliness about it. The track was +untrodden, and I saw neither man nor beast. The sky became densely +clouded, and the outlook was awful. The great Divide of the Arkansas +was in front, looming vaguely through a heavy snow cloud, and snow +began to fall, not in powder, but in heavy flakes. Finding that there +would be risk in trying to ride till nightfall, in the early afternoon +I left the road and went two miles into the hills by an untrodden path, +where there were gates to open, and a rapid steep-sided creek to cross; +and at the entrance to a most fantastic gorge I came upon an elegant +frame house belonging to Mr. Perry, a millionaire, to whom I had an +introduction which I did not hesitate to present, as it was weather in +which a traveler might almost ask for shelter without one. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Perry was away, but his daughter, a very bright-looking, +elegantly-dressed girl, invited me to dine and remain. They had stewed +venison and various luxuries on the table, which was tasteful and +refined, and an adroit, colored table-maid waited, one of five attached +Negro servants who had been their slaves before the war. After dinner, +though snow was slowly falling, a gentleman cousin took me a ride to +show me the beauties of Pleasant Park, which takes rank among the +finest scenery of Colorado, and in good weather is very easy of access. +It did look very grand as we entered it by a narrow pass guarded by two +buttes, or isolated upright masses of rock, bright red, and about 300 +feet in height. The pines were very large, and the narrow canyons +which came down on the park gloomily magnificent. It is remarkable +also from a quantity of "monumental" rocks, from 50 to 300 feet in +height, bright vermilion, green, buff, orange, and sometimes all +combined, their gay tinting a contrast to the disastrous-looking snow +and the somber pines. Bear Canyon, a gorge of singular majesty, comes +down on the park, and we crossed the Bear Creek at the foot of this on +the ice, which gave way, and both our horses broke through into pretty +deep and very cold water, and shortly afterwards Birdie put her foot +into a prairie dog's hole which was concealed by the snow, and on +recovering herself fell three times on her nose. I thought of Bishop +Wilberforce's fatal accident from a smaller stumble, and felt sure that +he would have kept his seat had he been mounted, as I was, on a Mexican +saddle. It was too threatening for a long ride, and on returning I +passed into a region of vivacious descriptions of Egypt, Palestine, +Asia Minor, Turkey, Russia, and other countries, in which Miss Perry +had traveled with her family for three years. +</P> + +<P> +Perry's Park is one of the great cattle-raising ranches in Colorado. +This, the youngest State in the Union, a Territory until quite +recently, has an area of about 68,000,000 acres, a great portion of +which, though rich in mineral wealth, is worthless either for stock or +arable farming, and the other or eastern part is so dry that crops can +only be grown profitably where irrigation is possible. This region is +watered by the South Fork of the Platte and its affluents, and, though +subject to the grasshopper pest, it produces wheat of the finest +quality, the yield varying according to the mode of cultivation from +eighteen to thirty bushels per acre. The necessity for irrigation, +however, will always bar the way to an indefinite extension of the area +of arable farms. The prospects of cattle-raising seem at present +practically unlimited. In 1876 Colorado had 390,728, valued at L2:13s. +per head, about half of which were imported as young beasts from Texas. +The climate is so fine and the pasturage so ample that shelter and +hand-feeding are never resorted to except in the case of imported +breeding stock from the Eastern States, which sometimes in severe +winters need to be fed in sheds for a short time. Mr. Perry devotes +himself mainly to the breeding of graded shorthorn bulls, which he +sells when young for L6 per head. +</P> + +<P> +The cattle run at large upon the prairies; each animal being branded, +they need no herding, and are usually only mustered, counted, and the +increase branded in the summer. In the fall, when three or four years +old, they are sold lean or in tolerable condition to dealers who take +them by rail to Chicago, or elsewhere, where the fattest lots are +slaughtered for tinning or for consumption in the Eastern cities, while +the leaner are sold to farmers for feeding up during the winter. Some +of the wealthier stockmen take their best lots to Chicago themselves. +The Colorado cattle are either pure Texan or Spanish, or crosses +between the Texan and graded shorthorns. They are nearly all very +inferior animals, being bony and ragged. The herds mix on the vast +plains at will; along the Arkansas valley 80,000 roam about with the +freedom of buffaloes, and of this number about 16,000 are exported +every fall. Where cattle are killed for use in the mining districts +their average price is three cents per lb. In the summer thousands of +yearlings are driven up from Texas, branded, and turned loose on the +prairies, and are not molested again till they are sent east at three +or four years old. These pure Texans, the old Spanish breed, weigh +from 900 to 1,000 pounds, and the crossed Colorado cattle from 1,000 to +1,200 pounds. +</P> + +<P> +The "Cattle King" of the State is Mr. Iliff, of South Platte, who owns +nine ranches, with runs of 15,000 acres, and 35,000 cattle. He is +improving his stock; and, indeed, the opening of the dead-meat trade +with this country is giving a great impetus to the improvement of the +breed of cattle among all the larger and richer stock-owners. For this +enormous herd 40 men are employed in summer, about 12 in winter, and +200 horses. In the rare case of a severe and protracted snowstorm the +cattle get a little hay. Owners of 6,000, 8,000 and 10,000 head of +cattle are quite common in Colorado. Sheep are now raised in the State +to the extent of half a million, and a chronic feud prevails between +the "sheep men" and the "cattle men." Sheep-raising is said to be a +very profitable business, but its risks and losses are greater, owing +to storms, while the outlay for labor, dipping materials, etc., is +considerably larger, and owing to the comparative inability of sheep to +scratch away the snow from the grass, hay has to be provided to meet +the emergency of very severe snow-storms. The flocks are made up +mostly of pure and graded Mexicans; but though some flocks which have +been graded carefully for some years show considerable merit, the +average sheep is a leggy, ragged beast. Wether mutton, four and five +years old, is sold when there is any demand for it; but except at +Charpiot's, in Denver, I never saw mutton on any table, public or +private, and wool is the great source of profit, the old ewes being +allowed to die off. The best flocks yield an average of seven pounds. +The shearing season, which begins in early June, lasts about six weeks. +Shearers get six and a half cents a head for inferior sheep, and seven +and a half cents for the better quality, and a good hand shears from +sixty to eighty in a day. It is not likely that sheep-raising will +attain anything of the prominence which cattle-raising is likely to +assume. The potato beetle "scare" is not of much account in the +country of the potato beetle. The farmers seem much depressed by the +magnitude and persistency of the grasshopper pest which finds their +fields in the morning "as the garden of Eden," and leaves them at night +"a desolate wilderness." +</P> + +<P> +It was so odd and novel to have a beautiful bed room, hot water, and +other luxuries. The snow began to fall in good earnest at six in the +evening, and fell all night, accompanied by intense frost, so that in +the morning there were eight inches of it glittering in the sun. Miss +P. gave me a pair of men's socks to draw on over my boots, and I set +out tolerably early, and broke my own way for two miles. Then a single +wagon had passed, making a legible track for thirty miles, otherwise +the snow was pathless. The sky was absolutely cloudless, and as I made +the long ascent of the Arkansas Divide, the mountains, gashed by deep +canyons, came sweeping down to the valley on my right, and on my left +the Foot Hills were crowned with colored fantastic rocks like castles. +Everything was buried under a glittering shroud of snow. The babble of +the streams was bound by fetters of ice. No branches creaked in the +still air. No birds sang. No one passed or met me. There were no +cabins near or far. The only sound was the crunch of the snow under +Birdie's feet. We came to a river over which some logs were laid with +some young trees across them. Birdie put one foot on this, then drew +it back and put another on, then smelt the bridge noisily. Persuasions +were useless; she only smelt, snorted, held back, and turned her +cunning head and looked at me. It was useless to argue the point with +so sagacious a beast. To the right of the bridge the ice was much +broken, and we forded the river there; but as it was deep enough to +come up to her body, and was icy cold to my feet, I wondered at her +preference. Afterwards I heard that the bridge was dangerous. She is +the queen of ponies, and is very gentle, though she has not only wild +horse blood, but is herself the wild horse. She is always cheerful and +hungry, never tired, looks intelligently at everything, and her legs +are like rocks. Her one trick is that when the saddle is put on she +swells herself to a very large size, so that if any one not accustomed +to her saddles her I soon find the girth three or four inches too +large. When I saddle her a gentle slap on her side, or any slight +start which makes her cease to hold her breath, puts it all right. She +is quite a companion, and bathing her back, sponging her nostrils, and +seeing her fed after my day's ride, is always my first care. +</P> + +<P> +At last I reached a log cabin where I got a feed for us both and +further directions. The rest of the day's ride was awful enough. The +snow was thirteen inches deep, and grew deeper as I ascended in silence +and loneliness, but just as the sun sank behind a snowy peak I reached +the top of the Divide, 7,975 feet above the sea level. There, in +unspeakable solitude, lay a frozen lake. Owls hooted among the pines, +the trail was obscure, the country was not settled, the mercury was 9 +degrees below zero, my feet had lost all sensation, and one of them was +frozen to the wooden stirrup. I found that owing to the depth of the +snow I had only ridden fifteen miles in eight and a half hours, and +must look about for a place to sleep in. The eastern sky was unlike +anything I ever saw before. It had been chrysoprase, then it turned to +aquamarine, and that to the bright full green of an emerald. Unless I +am color-blind, this is true. Then suddenly the whole changed, and +flushed with the pure, bright, rose color of the afterglow. Birdie was +sliding at every step, and I was nearly paralyzed with the cold when I +reached a cabin which had been mentioned to me, but they said that +seventeen snow-bound men were lying on the floor, and they advised me +to ride half a mile farther, which I did, and reached the house of a +German from Eisenau, with a sweet young wife and a venerable +mother-in-law. Though the house was very poor, it was made attractive +by ornaments, and the simple, loving, German ways gave it a sweet home +atmosphere. My room was reached by a ladder, but I had it to myself +and had the luxury of a basin to wash in. Under the kindly treatment +of the two women my feet came to themselves, but with an amount of pain +that almost deserved the name of torture. +</P> + +<P> +The next morning was gray and sour, but brightened and warmed as the +day went on. After riding twelve miles I got bread and milk for myself +and a feed for Birdie at a large house where there were eight boarders, +each one looking nearer the grave than the other, and on remounting was +directed to leave the main road and diverge through Monument Park, a +ride of twelve miles among fantastic rocks, but I lost my way, and came +to an end of all tracks in a wild canyon. Returning about six miles, I +took another track, and rode about eight miles without seeing a +creature. I then came to strange gorges with wonderful upright rocks +of all shapes and colors, and turning through a gate of rock, came upon +what I knew must be Glen Eyrie, as wild and romantic a glen as +imagination ever pictured. The track then passed down a valley close +under some ghastly peaks, wild, cold, awe-inspiring scenery. After +fording a creek several times, I came upon a decayed-looking cluster of +houses bearing the arrogant name of Colorado City, and two miles +farther on, from the top of one of the Foot Hill ridges, I saw the +bleak-looking scattered houses of the ambitious watering place of +Colorado Springs, the goal of my journey of 150 miles. I got off, put +on a long skirt, and rode sidewise, though the settlement scarcely +looked like a place where any deference to prejudices was necessary. A +queer embryo-looking place it is, out on the bare Plains, yet it is +rising and likely to rise, and has some big hotels much resorted to. +It has a fine view of the mountains, specially of Pike's Peak, but the +celebrated springs are at Manitou, three miles off, in really fine +scenery. To me no place could be more unattractive than Colorado +Springs, from its utter treelessness. +</P> + +<P> +I found the ——-s living in a small room which served for parlor, +bedroom, and kitchen, and combined the comforts of all. It is +inhabited also by two prairie dogs, a kitten, and a deerhound. It was +truly homelike. Mrs. ——- walked with me to the boarding-house where +I slept, and we sat some time in the parlor talking with the landlady. +Opposite to me there was a door wide open into a bed room, and on a bed +opposite to the door a very sick-looking young man was half-lying, +half-sitting, fully dressed, supported by another, and a very +sick-looking young man much resembling him passed in and out +occasionally, or leaned on the chimney piece in an attitude of extreme +dejection. Soon the door was half-closed, and some one came to it, +saying rapidly, "Shields, quick, a candle!" and then there were movings +about in the room. All this time the seven or eight people in the room +in which I was were talking, laughing, and playing backgammon, and none +laughed louder than the landlady, who was sitting where she saw that +mysterious door as plainly as I did. All this time, and during the +movings in the room, I saw two large white feet sticking up at the end +of the bed. I watched and watched, hoping those feet would move, but +they did not; and somehow, to my thinking, they grew stiffer and +whiter, and then my horrible suspicion deepened, and while we were +sitting there a human spirit untended and desolate had passed forth +into the night. Then a man came out with a bundle of clothes, and then +the sick young man, groaning and sobbing, and then a third, who said to +me, with some feeling, that the man who had just died was the sick +young man's only brother. And still the landlady laughed and talked, +and afterwards said to me, "It turns the house upside down when they +just come here and die; we shall be half the night laying him out." I +could not sleep for the bitter cold and the sound of the sobs and +groans of the bereaved brother. The next day the landlady, in a +fashionably-made black dress, was bustling about, proud of the +prospective arrival of a handsome coffin. I went into the parlor to +get a needle, and the door of THAT room was open, and children were +running in and out, and the landlady, who was sweeping there, called +cheerily to me to come in for the needle, and there, to my horror, not +even covered with a face cloth, and with the sun blazing in through the +unblinded window, lay that thing of terror, a corpse, on some chairs +which were not even placed straight. It was buried in the afternoon, +and from the looks of the brother, who continued to sob and moan, his +end cannot be far off. +</P> + +<P> +The ——-s say that many go to the Springs in the last stage of +consumption, thinking that the Colorado climate will cure them, without +money enough to pay for even the coarsest board. We talked most of +that day, and I equipped myself with arctics and warm gloves for the +mountain tour which has been planned for me, and I gave Birdie the +Sabbath she was entitled to on Tuesday, for I found, on arriving at the +Springs, that the day I crossed the Arkansas Divide was Sunday, though +I did not know it. Several friends of Miss Kingsley called on me; she +is much remembered and beloved. This is not an expensive tour; we cost +about ten shillings a day, and the five days which I have spent en +route from Denver have cost something less than the fare for the few +hours' journey by the cars. There are no real difficulties. It is a +splendid life for health and enjoyment. All my luggage being in a +pack, and my conveyance being a horse, we can go anywhere where we can +get food and shelter. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +GREAT GORGE OF THE MANITOU, October 29. +</P> + +<P> +This is a highly picturesque place, with several springs, still and +effervescing, the virtues of which were well known to the Indians. +Near it are places, the names of which are familiar to every one—the +Garden of the Gods, Glen Eyrie, Pike's Peak, Monument Park, and the Ute +Pass. It has two or three immense hotels, and a few houses +picturesquely situated. It is thronged by thousands of people in the +summer who come to drink the waters, try the camp cure, and make +mountain excursions; but it is all quiet now, and there are only a few +lingerers in this immense hotel. There is a rushing torrent in a +valley, with mountains, covered with snow and rising to a height of +nearly 15,000 feet, overhanging it. It is grand and awful, and has a +strange, solemn beauty like death. And the Snowy Mountains are pierced +by the torrent which has excavated the Ute Pass, by which, to-morrow, I +hope to go into the higher regions. But all may be "lost for want of a +horseshoe nail." One of Birdie's shoes is loose, and not a nail is to +be got here, or can be got till I have ridden for ten miles up the +Pass. Birdie amuses every one with her funny ways. She always follows +me closely, and to-day got quite into a house and pushed the parlor +door open. She walks after me with her head laid on my shoulder, +licking my face and teasing me for sugar, and sometimes, when any one +else takes hold of her, she rears and kicks, and the vicious bronco +soul comes into her eyes. Her face is cunning and pretty, and she +makes a funny, blarneying noise when I go up to her. The men at all +the stables make a fuss with her, and call her "Pet." She gallops up +and down hill, and never stumbles even on the roughest ground, or +requires even a touch with a whip. +</P> + +<P> +The weather is again perfect, with a cloudless sky and a hot sun, and +the snow is all off the plains and lower valleys. After lunch, the +——-s in a buggy, and I on Birdie, left Colorado Springs, crossing the +Mesa, a high hill with a table top, with a view of extraordinary +laminated rocks, LEAVES of rock a bright vermilion color, against a +background of snowy mountains, surmounted by Pike's Peak. Then we +plunged into cavernous Glen Eyrie, with its fantastic needles of +colored rock, and were entertained at General Palmer's "baronial +mansion," a perfect eyrie, the fine hall filled with buffalo, elk, and +deer heads, skins of wild animals, stuffed birds, bear robes, and +numerous Indian and other weapons and trophies. Then through a gate of +huge red rocks, we passed into the valley, called fantastically, Garden +of the Gods, in which, were I a divinity, I certainly would not choose +to dwell. Many places in this neighborhood are also vulgarized by +grotesque names. From this we passed into a ravine, down which the +Fountain River rushed, and there I left my friends with regret, and +rode into this chill and solemn gorge, from which the mountains, +reddening in the sunset, are only seen afar off. I put Birdie up at a +stable, and as there was no place to put myself up but this huge hotel, +I came here to have a last taste of luxury. They charge six dollars a +day in the season, but it is now half-price; and instead of four +hundred fashionable guests there are only fifteen, most of whom are +speaking in the weak, rapid accents of consumption, and are coughing +their hearts out. There are seven medicinal springs. It is strange to +have the luxuries of life in my room. It will be only the fourth night +in Colorado that I have slept on anything better than hay or straw. I +am glad that there are so few inns. As it is, I get a good deal of +insight into the homes and modes of living of the settlers. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +BERGENS PARK, October 31. +</P> + +<P> +This cabin was so dark, and I so sleepy last night, that I could not +write; but the frost during the night has been very severe, and I am +detained until the bright, hot sun melts the ice and renders traveling +safe. I left the great Manitou at ten yesterday. Birdie, who was +loose in the stable, came trotting down the middle of it when she saw +me for her sugar and biscuits. No nails could be got, and her shoe was +hanging by two, which doomed me to a foot's pace and the dismal clink +of a loose shoe for three hours. There was not a cloud on the bright +blue sky the whole day, and though it froze hard in the shade, it was +summer heat in the sun. The mineral fountains were sparkling in their +basins and sending up their full perennial jets but the snow-clad, +pine-skirted mountains frowned and darkened over the Ute Pass as I +entered it to ascend it for twenty miles. A narrow pass it is, with +barely room for the torrent and the wagon road which has been blasted +out of its steep sides. All the time I was in sight of the Fountain +River, brighter than any stream, because it tumbles over rose-red +granite, rocky or disintegrated, a truly fair stream, cutting and +forcing its way through hard rocks, under arches of alabaster ice, +through fringes of crystalline ice, thumping with a hollow sound in +cavernous recesses cold and dark, or leaping in foam from heights with +rush and swish; always bright and riotous, never pausing in still pools +to rest, dashing through gates of rock, pine hung, pine bridged, pine +buried; twinkling and laughing in the sunshine, or frowning in "dowie +dens" in the blue pine gloom. And there, for a mile or two in a +sheltered spot, owing to the more southern latitude, the everlasting +northern pine met the trees of other climates. There were dwarf oaks, +willows, hazel, and spruce; the white cedar and the trailing juniper +jostled each other for a precarious foothold; the majestic redwood tree +of the Pacific met the exquisite balsam pine of the Atlantic slopes, +and among them all the pale gold foliage of the large aspen trembled +(as the legend goes) in endless remorse. And above them towered the +toothy peaks of the glittering mountains, rising in pure white against +the sunny blue. Grand! glorious! sublime! but not lovable. I would +give all for the luxurious redundance of one Hilo gulch, or for one day +of those soft dreamy "skies whose very tears are balm." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Bergens Park +</P> + +<P> +Up ever! the road being blasted out of the red rock which often +overhung it, the canyon only from fifteen to twenty feet wide, the +thunder of the Fountain, which is crossed eight times, nearly +deafening. Sometimes the sun struck the road, and then it was +absolutely hot; then one entered unsunned gorges where the snow lay +deep, and the crowded pines made dark twilight, and the river roared +under ice bridges fringed by icicles. At last the Pass opened out upon +a sunlit upland park, where there was a forge, and with Birdie's shoe +put on, and some shoe nails in my purse, I rode on cheerfully, getting +food for us both at a ranch belonging to some very pleasant people, +who, like all Western folk, when they are not taciturn, asked a legion +of questions. There I met a Colonel Kittridge, who said that he +believed his valley, twelve miles off the track, to be the loveliest +valley in Colorado, and invited me to his house. Leaving the road, I +went up a long ascent deep in snow, but as it did not seem to be the +way, I tied up the pony, and walked on to a cabin at some distance, +which I had hardly reached when I found her trotting like a dog by my +side, pulling my sleeve and laying her soft gray nose on my shoulder. +Does it all mean sugar? We had eight miles farther to go—most of the +way through a forest, which I always dislike when alone, from the fear +of being frightened by something which may appear from behind a tree. +I saw a beautiful white fox, several skunks, some chipmunks and gray +squirrels, owls, crows, and crested blue-jays. As the sun was getting +low I reached Bergens Park, which was to put me out of conceit with +Estes Park. Never! It is long and featureless, and its immediate +surroundings are mean. It reminded me in itself of some dismal +Highland strath—Glenshee, possibly. I looked at it with special +interest, as it was the place at which Miss Kingsley had suggested that +I might remain. The evening was glorious, and the distant views were +very fine. A stream fringed with cotton-wood runs through the park; +low ranges come down upon it. The south end is completely closed up, +but at a considerable distance, by the great mass of Pike's Peak, while +far beyond the other end are peaks and towers, wonderful in blue and +violet in the lovely evening, and beyond these, sharply defined against +the clear green sky, was the serrated ridge of the Snowy Range, said to +be 200 miles away. Bergens Park had been bought by Dr. Bell, of +London, but its present occupant is Mr. Thornton, an English gentleman, +who has a worthy married Englishman as his manager. Mr. Thornton is +building a good house, and purposes to build other cabins, with the +intention of making the park a resort for strangers. I thought of the +blue hollow lying solitary at the foot of Long's Peak, and rejoiced +that I had "happened into it." +</P> + +<P> +The cabin is long, low, mud roofed, and very dark. The middle place is +full of raw meat, fowls, and gear. One end, almost dark, contains the +cooking-stove, milk, crockery, a long deal table, two benches, and some +wooden stools; the other end houses the English manager or partner, his +wife, and three children, another cooking-stove, gear of all kinds, and +sacks of beans and flour. They put up a sheet for a partition, and +made me a shake-down on the gravel floor of this room. Ten hired men +sat down to meals with us. It was all very rough, dark, and +comfortless, but Mr. T., who is not only a gentleman by birth, but an +M.A. of Cambridge, seems to like it. Much in this way (a little +smoother if a lady is in the case) every man must begin life here. +Seven large dogs—three of them with cats upon their backs—are usually +warming themselves at the fire. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +TWIN ROCK, SOUTH FORK OF THE PLATTE, November 1. +</P> + +<P> +I did not leave Mr. Thornton's till ten, because of the slipperiness. +I rode four miles along a back trail, and then was so tired that I +stayed for two hours at a ranch, where I heard, to my dismay, that I +must ride twenty-four miles farther before I could find any place to +sleep at. I did not enjoy yesterday's ride. I was both tired and +rheumatic, and Birdie was not so sprightly as usual. After starting +again I came on a hideous place, of which I had not heard before, +Hayden's Divide, one of the great back-bones of the region, a weary +expanse of deep snow eleven miles across, and fearfully lonely. I saw +nothing the whole way but a mule lately dead lying by the road. I was +very nervous somehow, and towards evening believed that I had lost the +road, for I came upon wild pine forests, with huge masses of rock from +100 to 700 feet high, cast here and there among them; beyond these +pine-sprinkled grass hills; these, in their turn, were bounded by +interminable ranges, ghastly in the lurid evening, with the Spanish +Peaks quite clear, and the colossal summit of Mount Lincoln, the King +of the Rocky Mountains, distinctly visible, though seventy miles away. +It seemed awful to be alone on that ghastly ridge, surrounded by +interminable mountains, in the deep snow, knowing that a party of +thirty had been lost here a month ago. Just at nightfall the descent +of a steep hill took me out of the forest and upon a clean log cabin, +where, finding that the proper halting place was two miles farther on, +I remained. A truly pleasing, superior-looking woman placed me in a +rocking chair; would not let me help her otherwise than by rocking the +cradle, and made me "feel at home." The room, though it serves them +and their two children for kitchen, parlor, and bed room, is the +pattern of brightness, cleanliness, and comfort. At supper there were +canned raspberries, rolls, butter, tea, venison, and fried rabbit, and +at seven I went to bed in a carpeted log room, with a thick feather bed +on a mattress, sheets, ruffled pillow slips, and a pile of warm white +blankets! I slept for eleven hours. They discourage me much about the +route which Governor Hunt has projected for me. They think that it is +impassable, owing to snow, and that another storm is brewing. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +HALL'S GULCH, November 6. +</P> + +<P> +I have ridden 150 miles since I wrote last. On leaving Twin Rock on +Saturday I had a short day's ride to Colonel Kittridge's cabin at Oil +Creek, where I spent a quiet Sunday with agreeable people. The ride +was all through parks and gorges, and among pine-clothed hills, about +9,000 feet high, with Pike's Peak always in sight. I have developed +much sagacity in finding a trail, or I should not be able to make use +of such directions as these: "Keep along a gulch four or five miles +till you get Pike's Peak on your left, then follow some wheel-marks +till you get to some timber, and keep to the north till you come to a +creek, where you'll find a great many elk tracks; then go to your right +and cross the creek three times, then you'll see a red rock to your +left," etc., etc. The K's cabin was very small and lonely, and the +life seemed a hard grind for an educated and refined woman. There were +snow flurries after I arrived, but the first Sunday of November was as +bright and warm as June, and the atmosphere had resumed its exquisite +purity. Three peaks of Pike's Peak are seen from Oil Creek, above the +nearer hills, and by them they tell the time. We had been in the +evening shadows for half an hour before those peaks ceased to be +transparent gold. +</P> + +<P> +On leaving Colonel Kittridge's hospitable cabin I dismounted, as I had +often done before, to lower a bar, and, on looking round, Birdie was +gone! I spent an hour in trying to catch her, but she had taken an +"ugly fit," and would not let me go near her; and I was getting tired +and vexed, when two passing trappers, on mules, circumvented and caught +her. I rode the twelve miles back to Twin Rock, and then went on, a +kindly teamster, who was going in the same direction, taking my pack. +I must explain that every mile I have traveled since leaving Colorado +Springs has taken me farther and higher into the mountains. That +afternoon I rode through lawnlike upland parks, with the great snow +mass of Pike's Peak behind, and in front mountains bathed in rich +atmospheric coloring of blue and violet, all very fine, but threatening +to become monotonous, when the wagon road turned abruptly to the left, +and crossed a broad, swift, mountain river, the head-waters of the +Platte. There I found the ranch to which I had been recommended, the +quarters of a great hunter named Link, which much resembled a good +country inn. There was a pleasant, friendly woman, but the men were +all away, a thing I always regret, as it gives me half an hour's work +at the horse before I can write to you. I had hardly come in when a +very pleasant German lady, whom I met at Manitou, with three gentlemen, +arrived, and we were as sociable as people could be. We had a splendid +though rude supper. While Mrs. Link was serving us, and urging her +good things upon us, she was orating on the greediness of English +people, saying that "you would think they traveled through the country +only to gratify their palates"; and addressed me, asking me if I had +not observed it! I am nearly always taken for a Dane or a Swede, never +for an Englishwoman, so I often hear a good deal of outspoken criticism. +</P> + +<P> +In the evening Mr. Link returned, and there was a most vehement +discussion between him, an old hunter, a miner, and the teamster who +brought my pack, as to the route by which I should ride through the +mountains for the next three or four days—because at that point I was +to leave the wagon road—and it was renewed with increased violence the +next morning, so that if my nerves had not been of steel I should have +been appalled. The old hunter acrimoniously said he "must speak the +truth," the miner was directing me over a track where for twenty-five +miles there was not a house, and where, if snow came on, I should never +be heard of again. The miner said he "must speak the truth," the +hunter was directing me over a pass where there were five feet of snow, +and no trail. The teamster said that the only road possible for a +horse was so-and-so, and advised me to take the wagon road into South +Park, which I was determined not to do. Mr. Link said he was the +oldest hunter and settler in the district, and he could not cross any +of the trails in snow. And so they went on. At last they partially +agreed on a route—"the worst road in the Rocky Mountains," the old +hunter said, with two feet of snow upon it, but a hunter had hauled an +elk over part of it, at any rate. The upshot of the whole you shall +have in my next letter. +</P> + +<P> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 16.5em">I. L. B.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H3> +Letter XI +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Tarryall Creek—The Red Range—Excelsior—Importunate pedlars—Snow and +heat—A bison calf—Deep drifts—South Park—The Great Divide—Comanche +Bill—Difficulties—Hall's Gulch—A Lord Dundreary—Ridiculous fears. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +HALL'S GULCH, COLORADO, November 6. +</P> + +<P> +It was another cloudless morning, one of the many here on which one +awakes early, refreshed, and ready to enjoy the fatigues of another +day. In our sunless, misty climate you do not know the influence which +persistent fine weather exercises on the spirits. I have been ten +months in almost perpetual sunshine, and now a single cloudy day makes +me feel quite depressed. I did not leave till 9:30, because of the +slipperiness, and shortly after starting turned off into the wilderness +on a very dim trail. Soon seeing a man riding a mile ahead, I rode on +and overtook him, and we rode eight miles together, which was +convenient to me, as without him I should several times have lost the +trail altogether. Then his fine American horse, on which he had only +ridden two days, broke down, while my "mad, bad bronco," on which I had +been traveling for a fortnight, cantered lightly over the snow. He was +the only traveler I saw in a day of nearly twelve hours. I thoroughly +enjoyed every minute of that ride. I concentrated all my faculties of +admiration and of locality, for truly the track was a difficult one. I +sometimes thought it deserved the bad name given to it at Link's. For +the most part it keeps in sight of Tarryall Creek, one of the large +affluents of the Platte, and is walled in on both sides by mountains, +which are sometimes so close together as to leave only the narrowest +canyon between them, at others breaking wide apart, till, after winding +and climbing up and down for twenty-five miles, it lands one on a +barren rock-girdled park, watered by a rapid fordable stream as broad +as the Ouse at Huntingdon, snow fed and ice fringed, the park bordered +by fantastic rocky hills, snow covered and brightened only by a dwarf +growth of the beautiful silver spruce. I have not seen anything +hitherto so thoroughly wild and unlike the rest of these parts. +</P> + +<P> +I rode up one great ascent where hills were tumbled about confusedly; +and suddenly across the broad ravine, rising above the sunny grass and +the deep green pines, rose in glowing and shaded red against the +glittering blue heaven a magnificent and unearthly range of mountains, +as shapely as could be seen, rising into colossal points, cleft by deep +blue ravines, broken up into sharks' teeth, with gigantic knobs and +pinnacles rising from their inaccessible sides, very fair to look +upon—a glowing, heavenly, unforgettable sight, and only four miles +off. Mountains they looked not of this earth, but such as one sees in +dreams alone, the blessed ranges of "the land which is very far off." +They were more brilliant than those incredible colors in which painters +array the fiery hills of Moab and the Desert, and one could not believe +them for ever uninhabited, for on them rose, as in the East, the +similitude of stately fortresses, not the gray castellated towers of +feudal Europe, but gay, massive, Saracenic architecture, the outgrowth +of the solid rock. They were vast ranges, apparently of enormous +height, their color indescribable, deepest and reddest near the +pine-draped bases, then gradually softening into wonderful tenderness, +till the highest summits rose all flushed, and with an illusion of +transparency, so that one might believe that they were taking on the +hue of sunset. Below them lay broken ravines of fantastic rocks, cleft +and canyoned by the river, with a tender unearthly light over all, the +apparent warmth of a glowing clime, while I on the north side was in +the shadow among the pure unsullied snow. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +With us the damp, the chill, the gloom;<BR> +With them the sunset's rosy bloom.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +The dimness of earth with me, the light of heaven with them. Here, +again, worship seemed the only attitude for a human spirit, and the +question was ever present, "Lord, what is man, that Thou art mindful of +him; or the son of man, that Thou visitest him?" I rode up and down +hills laboriously in snow-drifts, getting off often to ease my faithful +Birdie by walking down ice-clad slopes, stopping constantly to feast my +eyes upon that changeless glory, always seeing some new ravine, with +its depths of color or miraculous brilliancy of red, or phantasy of +form. Then below, where the trail was locked into a deep canyon where +there was scarcely room for it and the river, there was a beauty of +another kind in solemn gloom. There the stream curved and twisted +marvellously, widening into shallows, narrowing into deep boiling +eddies, with pyramidal firs and the beautiful silver spruce fringing +its banks, and often falling across it in artistic grace, the gloom +chill and deep, with only now and then a light trickling through the +pines upon the cold snow, when suddenly turning round I saw behind, as +if in the glory of an eternal sunset, those flaming and fantastic +peaks. The effect of the combination of winter and summer was +singular. The trail ran on the north side the whole time, and the snow +lay deep and pure white, while not a wreath of it lay on the south +side, where abundant lawns basked in the warm sun. +</P> + +<P> +The pitch pine, with its monotonous and somewhat rigid form, had +disappeared; the white pine became scarce, both being displayed by the +slim spires and silvery green of the miniature silver spruce. Valley +and canyon were passed, the flaming ranges were left behind, the upper +altitudes became grim and mysterious. I crossed a lake on the ice, and +then came on a park surrounded by barren contorted hills, overtopped by +snow mountains. There, in some brushwood, we crossed a deepish stream +on the ice, which gave way, and the fearful cold of the water stiffened +my limbs for the rest of the ride. All these streams become bigger as +you draw nearer to their source, and shortly the trail disappeared in a +broad rapid river, which we forded twice. The trail was very difficult +to recover. It ascended ever in frost and snow, amidst scanty timber +dwarfed by cold and twisted by storms, amidst solitudes such as one +reads of in the High Alps; there were no sounds to be heard but the +crackle of ice and snow, the pitiful howling of wolves, and the hoot of +owls. The sun to me had long set; the peaks which had blushed were +pale and sad; the twilight deepened into green; but still "Excelsior!" +There were no happy homes with light of household fires; above, the +spectral mountains lifted their cold summits. As darkness came on I +began to fear that I had confused the cabin to which I had been +directed with the rocks. To confess the truth, I was cold, for my +boots and stockings had frozen on my feet, and I was hungry too, having +eaten nothing but raisins for fourteen hours. After riding thirty +miles I saw a light a little way from the track, and found it to be the +cabin of the daughter of the pleasant people with whom I had spent the +previous night. Her husband had gone to the Plains, yet she, with two +infant children, was living there in perfect security. Two pedlars, +who were peddling their way down from the mines, came in for a night's +shelter soon after I arrived—ill-looking fellows enough. They admired +Birdie in a suspicious fashion, and offered to "swop" their pack horse +for her. I went out the last thing at night and the first thing in the +morning to see that "the powny" was safe, for they were very +importunate on the subject of the "swop." I had before been offered +150 dollars for her. I was obliged to sleep with the mother and +children, and the pedlars occupied a room within ours. It was hot and +airless. The cabin was papered with the Phrenological Journal, and in +the morning I opened my eyes on the very best portrait of Dr. Candlish +I ever saw, and grieved truly that I should never see that massive brow +and fantastic face again. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Link was an educated and very intelligent young woman. The +pedlars were Irish Yankees, and the way in which they "traded" was as +amusing as "Sam Slick." They not only wanted to "swop" my pony, but to +"trade" my watch. They trade their souls, I know. They displayed +their wares for an hour with much dexterous flattery and +persuasiveness, but Mrs. Link was untemptable, and I was only tempted +into buying a handkerchief to keep the sun off. There was another +dispute about my route. It was the most critical day of my journey. +If a snowstorm came on, I might be detained in the mountains for many +weeks; but if I got through the snow and reached the Denver wagon road, +no detention would signify much. The pedlars insisted that I could not +get through, for the road was not broken. Mrs. L. thought I could, and +advised me to try, so I saddled Birdie and rode away. +</P> + +<P> +More than half of the day was far from enjoyable. The morning was +magnificent, but the light too dazzling, the sun too fierce. As soon +as I got out I felt as if I should drop off the horse. My large +handkerchief kept the sun from my neck, but the fierce heat caused soul +and sense, brain and eye, to reel. I never saw or felt the like of it. +I was at a height of 12,000 feet, where, of course, the air was highly +rarefied, and the snow was so pure and dazzling that I was obliged to +keep my eyes shut as much as possible to avoid snow blindness. The sky +was a different and terribly fierce color; and when I caught a glimpse +of the sun, he was white and unwinking like a lime-ball light, yet +threw off wicked scintillations. I suffered so from nausea, +exhaustion, and pains from head to foot, that I felt as if I must lie +down in the snow. It may have been partly the early stage of soroche, +or mountain sickness. We plodded on for four hours, snow all round, +and nothing else to be seen but an ocean of glistening peaks against +that sky of infuriated blue. How I found my way I shall never know, +for the only marks on the snow were occasional footprints of a man, and +I had no means of knowing whether they led in the direction I ought to +take. Earlier, before the snow became so deep, I passed the last great +haunt of the magnificent mountain bison, but, unfortunately, saw +nothing but horns and bones. Two months ago Mr. Link succeeded in +separating a calf from the herd, and has partially domesticated it. It +is a very ugly thing at seven months old, with a thick beard, and a +short, thick, dark mane on its heavy shoulders. It makes a loud grunt +like a pig. It can outrun their fastest horse, and it sometimes leaps +over the high fence of the corral, and takes all the milk of five cows. +</P> + +<P> +The snow grew seriously deep. Birdie fell thirty times, I am sure. +She seemed unable to keep up at all, so I was obliged to get off and +stumble along in her footmarks. By that time my spirit for overcoming +difficulties had somewhat returned, for I saw a lie of country which I +knew must contain South Park, and we had got under cover of a hill +which kept off the sun. The trail had ceased; it was only one of those +hunter's tracks which continually mislead one. The getting through the +snow was awful work. I think we accomplished a mile in something over +two hours. The snow was two feet eight inches deep, and once we went +down in a drift the surface of which was rippled like sea sand, Birdie +up to her back, and I up to my shoulders! +</P> + +<P> +At last we got through, and I beheld, with some sadness, the goal of my +journey, "The Great Divide," the Snowy Range, and between me and it +South Park, a rolling prairie seventy-five miles long and over 10,000 +feet high, treeless, bounded by mountains, and so rich in sun-cured hay +that one might fancy that all the herds of Colorado could find pasture +there. Its chief center is the rough mining town of Fairplay, but +there are rumors of great mineral wealth in various quarters. The +region has been "rushed," and mining camps have risen at Alma and +elsewhere, so lawless and brutal that vigilance committees are forming +as a matter of necessity. South Park is closed, or nearly so, by snow +during an ordinary winter; and just now the great freight wagons are +carrying up the last supplies of the season, and taking down women and +other temporary inhabitants. A great many people come up here in the +summer. The rarefied air produces great oppression on the lungs, +accompanied with bleeding. It is said that you can tell a new arrival +by seeing him go about holding a blood-stained handkerchief to his +mouth. But I came down upon it from regions of ice and snow; and as +the snow which had fallen on it had all disappeared by evaporation and +drifting, it looked to me quite lowland and livable, though lonely and +indescribably mournful, "a silent sea," suggestive of "the muffled +oar." I cantered across the narrow end of it, delighted to have got +through the snow; and when I struck the "Denver stage road" I supposed +that all the difficulties of mountain travel were at an end, but this +has not turned out to be exactly the case. +</P> + +<P> +A horseman shortly joined me and rode with me, got me a fresh horse, +and accompanied me for ten miles. He was a picturesque figure and rode +a very good horse. He wore a big slouch hat, from under which a number +of fair curls hung nearly to his waist. His beard was fair, his eyes +blue, and his complexion ruddy. There was nothing sinister in his +expression, and his manner was respectful and frank. He was dressed in +a hunter's buckskin suit ornamented with beads, and wore a pair of +exceptionally big brass spurs. His saddle was very highly ornamented. +What was unusual was the number of weapons he carried. Besides a rifle +laid across his saddle and a pair of pistols in the holsters, he +carried two revolvers and a knife in his belt, and a carbine slung +behind him. I found him what is termed "good company." He told me a +great deal about the country and its wild animals, with some hunting +adventures, and a great deal about Indians and their cruelty and +treachery. All this time, having crossed South Park, we were ascending +the Continental Divide by what I think is termed the Breckenridge Pass, +on a fairly good wagon road. We stopped at a cabin, where the woman +seemed to know my companion, and, in addition to bread and milk, +produced some venison steaks. We rode on again, and reached the crest +of the Divide (see engraving), and saw snow-born streams starting +within a quarter of a mile from each other, one for the Colorado and +the Pacific, the other for the Platte and the Atlantic. Here I wished +the hunter good-bye, and reluctantly turned north-east. It was not +wise to go up the Divide at all, and it was necessary to do it in +haste. On my way down I spoke to the woman at whose cabin I had dined, +and she said, "I am sure you found Comanche Bill a real gentleman"; and +I then knew that, if she gave me correct information, my intelligent, +courteous companion was one of the most notorious desperadoes of the +Rocky Mountains, and the greatest Indian exterminator on the +frontier—a man whose father and family fell in a massacre at Spirit +Lake by the hands of Indians, who carried away his sister, then a child +of eleven. His life has since been mainly devoted to a search for this +child, and to killing Indians wherever he can find them. +</P> + +<P> +After riding twenty miles, which made the distance for that day fifty, +I remounted Birdie to ride six miles farther, to a house which had been +mentioned to me as a stopping place. The road ascended to a height of +11,000 feet, and from thence I looked my last at the lonely, uplifted +prairie sea. "Denver stage road!" The worst, rudest, dismallest, +darkest road I have yet traveled on, nothing but a winding ravine, the +Platte canyon, pine crowded and pine darkened, walled in on both sides +for six miles by pine-skirted mountains 12,000 feet high! Along this +abyss for fifty miles there are said to be only five houses, and were +it not for miners going down, and freight wagons going up, the solitude +would be awful. As it was, I did not see a creature. It was four when +I left South Park, and between those mountain walls and under the pines +it soon became quite dark, a darkness which could be felt. The snow +which had melted in the sun had re-frozen, and was one sheet of smooth +ice. Birdie slipped so alarmingly that I got off and walked, but then +neither of us could keep our feet, and in the darkness she seemed so +likely to fall upon me, that I took out of my pack the man's socks +which had been given me at Perry's Park, and drew them on over her +fore-feet—an expedient which for a time succeeded admirably, and which +I commend to all travelers similarly circumstanced. It was unutterably +dark, and all these operations had to be performed by the sense of +touch only. I remounted, allowed her to take her own way, as I could +not see even her ears, and though her hind legs slipped badly, we +contrived to get along through the narrowest part of the canyon, with a +tumbling river close to the road. The pines were very dense, and +sighed and creaked mournfully in the severe frost, and there were other +EERIE noises not easy to explain. At last, when the socks were nearly +worn out, I saw the blaze of a camp-fire, with two hunters sitting by +it, on the hill side, and at the mouth of a gulch something which +looked like buildings. We got across the river partly on ice and +partly by fording, and I found that this was the place where, in spite +of its somewhat dubious reputation, I had been told that I could put up. +</P> + +<P> +A man came out in the sapient and good-natured stage of intoxication, +and, the door being opened, I was confronted by a rough bar and a +smoking, blazing kerosene lamp without a chimney. This is the worst +place I have put up at as to food, lodging, and general character; an +old and very dirty log cabin, not chinked, with one dingy room used for +cooking and feeding, in which a miner was lying very ill of fever; then +a large roofless shed with a canvas side, which is to be an addition, +and then the bar. They accounted for the disorder by the building +operations. They asked me if I were the English lady written of in the +Denver News, and for once I was glad that my fame had preceded me, as +it seemed to secure me against being quietly "put out of the way." A +horrible meal was served—dirty, greasy, disgusting. A celebrated +hunter, Bob Craik, came in to supper with a young man in tow, whom, in +spite of his rough hunter's or miner's dress, I at once recognized as +an English gentleman. It was their camp-fire which I had seen on the +hill side. This gentleman was lording it in true caricature fashion, +with a Lord Dundreary drawl and a general execration of everything; +while I sat in the chimney corner, speculating on the reason why many +of the upper class of my countrymen—"High Toners," as they are called +out here—make themselves so ludicrously absurd. They neither know how +to hold their tongues or to carry their personal pretensions. An +American is nationally assumptive, an Englishman personally so. He +took no notice of me till something passed which showed him I was +English, when his manner at once changed into courtesy, and his drawl +was shortened by a half. He took pains to let me know that he was an +officer in the Guards, of good family, on four months' leave, which he +was spending in slaying buffalo and elk, and also that he had a +profound contempt for everything American. I cannot think why +Englishmen put on these broad, mouthing tones, and give so many +personal details. They retired to their camp, and the landlord having +passed into the sodden, sleepy stage of drunkenness, his wife asked if +I should be afraid to sleep in the large canvas-sided, unceiled, +doorless shed, as they could not move the sick miner. So, I slept +there on a shake-down, with the stars winking overhead through the +roof, and the mercury showing 30 degrees of frost. +</P> + +<P> +I never told you that I once gave an unwary promise that I would not +travel alone in Colorado unarmed, and that in consequence I left Estes +Park with a Sharp's revolver loaded with ball cartridge in my pocket, +which has been the plague of my life. Its bright ominous barrel peeped +out in quiet Denver shops, children pulled it out to play with, or when +my riding dress hung up with it in the pocket, pulled the whole from +the peg to the floor; and I cannot conceive of any circumstances in +which I could feel it right to make any use of it, or in which it could +do me any possible good. Last night, however, I took it out, cleaned +and oiled it, and laid it under my pillow, resolving to keep awake all +night. I slept as soon as I lay down, and never woke till the bright +morning sun shone through the roof, making me ridicule my own fears and +abjure pistols for ever. +</P> + +<P> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 22em">I. L. B.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H3> +Letter XII +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Deer Valley—Lynch law—Vigilance committees—The silver spruce—Taste +and abstinence—The whisky fiend—Smartness—Turkey creek Canyon—The +Indian problem—Public rascality—Friendly meetings—The way to the +Golden City—A rising settlement—Clear Creek +Canyon—Staging—Swearing—A mountain town. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +DEER VALLEY, November. +</P> + +<P> +To-night I am in a beautiful place like a Dutch farm—large, warm, +bright, clean, with abundance of clean food, and a clean, cold little +bedroom to myself. But it is very hard to write, for two free-tongued, +noisy Irish women, who keep a miners' boarding-house in South Park, and +are going to winter quarters in a freight wagon, are telling the most +fearful stories of violence, vigilance committees, Lynch law, and +"stringing," that I ever heard. It turns one's blood cold only to +think that where I travel in perfect security, only a short time ago +men were being shot like skunks. At the mining towns up above this +nobody is thought anything of who has not killed a man—i.e. in a +certain set. These women had a boarder, only fifteen, who thought he +could not be anything till he had shot somebody, and they gave an +absurd account of the lad dodging about with a revolver, and not +getting up courage enough to insult any one, till at last he hid +himself in the stable and shot the first Chinaman who entered. Things +up there are just in that initial state which desperadoes love. A man +accidentally shoves another in a saloon, or says a rough word at meals, +and the challenge, "first finger on the trigger," warrants either in +shooting the other at any subsequent time without the formality of a +duel. Nearly all the shooting affrays arise from the most trivial +causes in saloons and bar-rooms. The deeper quarrels, arising from +jealousy or revenge, are few, and are usually about some woman not +worth fighting for. At Alma and Fairplay vigilance committees have +been lately formed, and when men act outrageously and make themselves +generally obnoxious they receive a letter with a drawing of a tree, a +man hanging from it, and a coffin below, on which is written +"Forewarned." They "git" in a few hours. +</P> + +<P> +When I said I spent last night at Hall's Gulch there was quite a chorus +of exclamations. My host there, they all said, would be "strung" +before long. Did I know that a man was "strung" there yesterday? Had +I not seen him hanging? He was on the big tree by the house, they +said. Certainly, had I known what a ghastly burden that tree bore, I +would have encountered the ice and gloom of the gulch rather than have +slept there. They then told me a horrid tale of crime and violence. +This man had even shocked the morals of the Alma crowd, and had a +notice served on him by the vigilants, which had the desired effect, +and he migrated to Hall's Gulch. As the tale runs, the Hall's Gulch +miners were resolved either not to have a groggery or to limit the +number of such places, and when this ruffian set one up he was +"forewarned." It seems, however, to have been merely a pretext for +getting rid of him, for it was hardly a crime of which even Lynch law +could take cognizance. He was overpowered by numbers, and, with +circumstances of great horror, was tried and strung on that tree within +an hour.[19] +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[19] Public opinion approved this execution, regarding it as a fitting +retribution for a series of crimes. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +I left the place this morning at ten, and have had a very pleasant day, +for the hills shut out the hot sun. I only rode twenty-two miles, for +the difficulty of riding on ice was great, and there is no blacksmith +within thirty-five miles of Hall's Gulch. I met two freighters just +after I left, who gave me the unwelcome news that there were +thirty-miles of ice between that and Denver. "You'll have a tough +trip," they said. The road runs up and down hill, walled in along with +a rushing river by high mountains. The scenery is very grand, but I +hate being shut into these deep gorges, and always expect to see some +startling object moving among the trees. I met no one the whole day +after passing the teams except two men with a "pack-jack," Birdie hates +jacks, and rears and shies as soon as she sees one. It was a bad road, +one shelving sheet of ice, and awfully lonely, and between the peril of +the mare breaking her leg on the ice and that of being crushed by +windfalls of timber, I had to look out all day. Towards sunset I came +to a cabin where they "keep travelers," but the woman looked so vinegar +faced that I preferred to ride four miles farther, up a beautiful road +winding along a sunny gulch filled with silver spruce, bluer and more +silvery than any I have yet seen, and then crossed a divide, from which +the view in all the ecstasy of sunset color was perfectly glorious. It +was enjoyment also in itself to get out of the deep chasm in which I +had been immured all day. There is a train of twelve freight wagons +here, each wagon with six horses, but the teamsters carry their own +camping blankets and sleep either in their wagons or on the floor, so +the house is not crowded. +</P> + +<P> +It is a pleasant two-story log house, not only chinked but lined with +planed timber. Each room has a great open chimney with logs burning in +it; there are pretty engravings on the walls, and baskets full of +creepers hanging from the ceiling. This is the first settler's house I +have been in in which the ornamental has had any place. There is a +door to each room, the oak chairs are bright with rubbing, and the +floor, though unplaned, is so clean that one might eat off it. The +table is clean and abundant, and the mother and daughter, though they +do all the work, look as trim as if they did none, and actually laugh +heartily. The ranchman neither allows drink to be brought into the +house nor to be drunk outside, and on this condition only he "keeps +travelers." The freighters come in to supper quite well washed, and +though twelve of them slept in the kitchen, by nine o'clock there was +not a sound. This freighting business is most profitable. I think +that the charge is three cents per pound from Denver to South Park, and +there much of the freight is transferred to "pack-jacks" and carried up +to the mines. A railroad, however, is contemplated. I breakfasted +with the family after the freight train left, and instead of sitting +down to gobble up the remains of a meal, they had a fresh table-cloth +and hot food. The buckets are all polished oak, with polished brass +bands; the kitchen utensils are bright as rubbing can make them; and, +more wonderful still, the girls black their boots. Blacking usually is +an unused luxury, and frequently is not kept in houses. My boots have +only been blacked once during the last two months. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +DENVER, November 9. +</P> + +<P> +I could not make out whether the superiority of the Deer Valley +settlers extended beyond material things, but a teamster I met in the +evening said it "made him more of a man to spend a night in such a +house." In Colorado whisky is significant of all evil and violence and +is the cause of most of the shooting affrays in the mining camps. +There are few moderate drinkers; it is seldom taken except to excess. +The great local question in the Territory, and just now the great +electoral issue, is drink or no drink, and some of the papers are +openly advocating a prohibitive liquor law. Some of the districts, +such as Greeley, in which liquor is prohibited, are without crime, and +in several of the stock-raising and agricultural regions through which +I have traveled where it is practically excluded the doors are never +locked, and the miners leave their silver bricks in their wagons +unprotected at night. People say that on coming from the Eastern +States they hardly realize at first the security in which they live. +There is no danger and no fear. But the truth of the proverbial +saying, "There is no God west of the Missouri" is everywhere manifest. +The "almighty dollar" is the true divinity, and its worship is +universal. "Smartness" is the quality thought most of. The boy who +"gets on" by cheating at his lessons is praised for being a "smart +boy," and his satisfied parents foretell that he will make a "smart +man." A man who overreaches his neighbor, but who does it so cleverly +that the law cannot take hold of him, wins an envied reputation as a +"smart man," and stories of this species of smartness are told +admiringly round every stove. Smartness is but the initial stage of +swindling, and the clever swindler who evades or defines the weak and +often corruptly administered laws of the States excites unmeasured +admiration among the masses.[20] +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[20] May, 1878.—I am copying this letter in the city of San Francisco, +and regretfully add a strong emphasis to what I have written above. +The best and most thoughtful among Americans would endorse these +remarks with shame and pain.—I. L. B. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +I left Deer Valley at ten the next morning on a glorious day, with rich +atmospheric coloring, had to spend three hours sitting on a barrel in a +forge after I had ridden twelve miles, waiting while twenty-four oxen +were shod, and then rode on twenty-three miles through streams and +canyons of great beauty till I reached a grocery store, where I had to +share a room with a large family and three teamsters; and being almost +suffocated by the curtain partition, got up at four, before any one was +stirring, saddled Birdie, and rode away in the darkness, leaving my +money on the table! It was a short eighteen miles' ride to Denver down +the Turkey Creek Canyon, which contains some magnificent scenery, and +then the road ascends and hangs on the ledge of a precipice 600 feet in +depth, such a narrow road that on meeting a wagon I had to dismount for +fear of hurting my feet with the wheels. From thence there was a +wonderful view through the rolling Foot Hills and over the gray-brown +plains to Denver. Not a tree or shrub was to be seen, everything was +rioting in summer heat and drought, while behind lay the last grand +canyon of the mountains, dark with pines and cool with snow. I left +the track and took a short cut over the prairie to Denver, passing +through an encampment of the Ute Indians about 500 strong, a disorderly +and dirty huddle of lodges, ponies, men, squaws, children, skins, +bones, and raw meat. +</P> + +<P> +The Americans will never solve the Indian problem till the Indian is +extinct. They have treated them after a fashion which has intensified +their treachery and "devilry" as enemies, and as friends reduces them +to a degraded pauperism, devoid of the very first elements of +civilization. The only difference between the savage and the civilized +Indian is that the latter carries firearms and gets drunk on whisky. +The Indian Agency has been a sink of fraud and corruption; it is said +that barely thirty per cent of the allowance ever reaches those for +whom it is voted; and the complaints of shoddy blankets, damaged flour, +and worthless firearms are universal. "To get rid of the Injuns" is +the phrase used everywhere. Even their "reservations" do not escape +seizure practically; for if gold "breaks out" on them they are +"rushed," and their possessors are either compelled to accept land +farther west or are shot off and driven off. One of the surest agents +in their destruction is vitriolized whisky. An attempt has recently +been made to cleanse the Augean stable of the Indian Department, but it +has met with signal failure, the usual result in America of every +effort to purify the official atmosphere. Americans specially love +superlatives. The phrases "biggest in the world," "finest in the +world," are on all lips. Unless President Hayes is a strong man they +will soon come to boast that their government is composed of the +"biggest scoundrels" in the world. +</P> + +<P> +As I rode into Denver and away from the mountains the view became +glorious, as range above range crowned with snow came into sight. I +was sure that three glistening peaks seventy miles north were the +peerless shapeliness of Long's Peak, the king of the Rocky Mountains, +and the "mountain fever" returned so severely that I grudged every hour +spent on the dry, hot plains. The Range looked lovelier and sublimer +than when I first saw it from Greeley, all spiritualized in the +wonderful atmosphere. I went direct to Evans's house, where I found a +hearty welcome, as they had been anxious about my safety, and Evans +almost at once arrived from Estes Park with three elk, one grizzly, and +one bighorn in his wagon. Regarding a place and life one likes (in +spite of all lessons) one is sure to think, "To-morrow shall be as this +day, and much more abundant"; and all through my tour I had thought of +returning to Estes Park and finding everything just as it was. Evans +brought the unwelcome news that the goodly fellowship was broken up. +The Dewys and Mr. Waller were in Denver, and the house was dismantled, +Mr. and Mrs. Edwards alone remaining, who were, however, expecting me +back. Saturday, though like a blazing summer day, was wonderful in its +beauty, and after sunset the afterglow was richer and redder than I +have ever seen it, but the heavy crimson betokened severe heat, which +came on yesterday, and was hardly bearable. +</P> + +<P> +I attended service twice at the Episcopal church, where the service was +beautifully read and sung; but in a city in which men preponderate the +congregation was mainly composed of women, who fluttered their fans in +a truly distracting way. Except for the church-going there were few +perceptible signs of Sunday in Denver, which was full of rowdies from +the mountain mining camps. You can hardly imagine the delight of +joining in those grand old prayers after so long a deprivation. The +"Te Deum" sounded heavenly in its magnificence; but the heat was so +tremendous that it was hard to "warstle" through the day. They say +that they have similar outbreaks of solar fury all through the winter. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +GOLDEN CITY, November 13. +</P> + +<P> +Pleasant as Denver was, with the Dewys and so many kind friends there, +it was too much of the "wearying world" either for my health or taste, +and I left for my sixteen miles' ride to this place at four on Monday +afternoon with the sun still hot. Passing by a bare, desolate-looking +cemetery, I asked a sad-looking woman who was leaning on the gate if +she could direct me to Golden City. I repeated the question twice +before I got an answer, and then, though easily to be accounted for, it +was wide of the mark. In most doleful tones she said, "Oh, go to the +minister; I might tell you, may be, but it's too great a +responsibility; go to the ministers, they can tell you!" And she +returned to her tears for some one whose spirit she was doubtless +thinking of as in the Golden City of our hopes. That sixteen miles +seemed like one mile, after sunset, in the rapturous freshness of the +Colorado air, and Birdie, after her two days' rest and with a lightened +load, galloped across the prairie as if she enjoyed it. I did not +reach this gorge till late, and it was an hour after dark before I +groped my way into this dark, unlighted mining town, where, however, we +were most fortunate both as to stable and accommodation for myself. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +BOULDER, November 16. +</P> + +<P> +I fear you will grow tired of the details of these journal letters. To +a person sitting quietly at home, Rocky Mountain traveling, like Rocky +Mountain scenery, must seem very monotonous; but not so to me, to whom +the pure, dry mountain air is the elixir of life. At Golden City I +parted for a time from my faithful pony, as Clear Creek Canyon, which +leads from it to Idaho, is entirely monopolized by a narrow-gauge +railroad, and is inaccessible for horses or mules. To be without a +horse in these mountains is to be reduced to complete helplessness. My +great wish was to see Green Lake, situated near the timber line above +Georgetown (said to be the highest town in the United States), at a +height of 9,000 feet. A single day took me from the heat of summer +into the intense cold of winter. +</P> + +<P> +Golden City by daylight showed its meanness and belied its name. It is +ungraded, with here and there a piece of wooden sidewalk, supported on +posts, up to which you ascend by planks. Brick, pine, and log houses +are huddled together, every other house is a saloon, and hardly a woman +is to be seen. My landlady apologized for the very exquisite little +bedroom which she gave me by saying "it was not quite as she would like +it, but she had never had a lady in her house before." The young +"lady" who waited at breakfast said, "I've been thinking about you, and +I'm certain sure you're an authoress." The day, as usual, was +glorious. Think of November half through and scarcely even a cloud in +the sky, except the vermilion cloudlets which accompany the sun at his +rising and setting! They say that winter never "sets in" there in the +Foot Hills, but that there are spells of cold, alternating with bright, +hot weather, and that the snow never lies on the ground so as to +interfere with the feed of cattle. Golden City rang with oaths and +curses, especially at the depot. Americans are given over to the most +atrocious swearing, and the blasphemous use of our Savior's name is +peculiarly revolting. +</P> + +<P> +Golden City stands at the mouth of Toughcuss, otherwise Clear Creek +Canyon, which many people think the grandest scenery in the mountains, +as it twists and turns marvellously, and its stupendous sides are +nearly perpendicular, while farther progress is to all appearance +continually blocked by great masses of rock and piles of snow-covered +mountains. Unfortunately, its sides have been almost entirely denuded +of timber, mining operations consuming any quantity of it. The +narrow-gauge, steel-grade railroad, which runs up the canyon for the +convenience of the rich mining districts of Georgetown, Black Hawk, and +Central City, is a curiosity of engineering. The track has partly been +blasted out of the sides of the canyon, and has partly been "built" by +making a bed of stones in the creek itself, and laying the track across +them. I have never seen such churlishness and incivility as in the +officials of that railroad and the state lines which connect with it, +or met with such preposterous charges. They have handsome little cars +on the route, but though the passengers paid full fare, they put us +into a baggage car because the season was over, and in order to see +anything I was obliged to sit on the floor at the door. The singular +grandeur cannot be described. It is a mere gash cut by the torrent, +twisted, walled, chasmed, weather stained with the most brilliant +coloring, generally dark with shadow, but its utter desolation +occasionally revealed by a beam of intense sunshine. A few stunted +pines and cedars, spared because of their inaccessiblity, hung here and +there out of the rifts. Sometimes the walls of the abyss seemed to +meet overhead, and then widening out, the rocks assumed fantastic +forms, all grandeur, sublimity, and almost terror. After two hours of +this, the track came to an end, and the canyon widened sufficiently for +a road, all stones, holes, and sidings. There a great "Concord coach" +waited for us, intended for twenty passengers, and a mountain of +luggage in addition, and the four passengers without any luggage sat on +the seat behind the driver, so that the huge thing bounced and swung +upon the straps on which it was hung so as to recall the worst horrors +of New Zealand staging. The driver never spoke without an oath, and +though two ladies were passengers, cursed his splendid horses the whole +time. Formerly, even the most profane men intermitted their profanity +in the presence of women, but they "have changed all that." Every one +I saw up there seemed in a bad temper. I suspect that all their "smart +tricks" in mining shares had gone wrong. +</P> + +<P> +The road pursued the canyon to Idaho Springs, a fashionable mountain +resort in the summer, but deserted now, where we took a superb team of +six horses, with which we attained a height of 10,000 feet, and then a +descent of 1,000 took us into Georgetown, crowded into as remarkable a +gorge as was ever selected for the site of a town, the canyon beyond +APPARENTLY terminating in precipitous and inaccessible mountains, +sprinkled with pines up to the timber line, and thinly covered with +snow. The area on which it is possible to build is so circumcised and +steep, and the unpainted gable-ended houses are so perched here and +there, and the water rushes so impetuously among them, that it reminded +me slightly of a Swiss town. All the smaller houses are shored up with +young pines on one side, to prevent them from being blown away by the +fierce gusts which sweep the canyon. It is the only town I have seen +in America to which the epithet picturesque could be applied. But +truly, seated in that deep hollow in the cold and darkness, it is in a +terrible situation, with the alpine heights towering round it. I +arrived at three, but its sun had set, and it lay in deep shadow. In +fact, twilight seemed coming on, and as I had been unable to get my +circular notes cashed at Denver, I had no money to stay over the next +day, and much feared that I should lose Green Lake, the goal of my +journey. We drove through the narrow, piled-up, irregular street, +crowded with miners standing in groups, or drinking and gaming under +the verandas, to a good hotel declivitously situated, where I at once +inquired if I could get to Green Lake. The landlord said he thought +not; the snow was very deep, and no one had been up for five weeks, but +for my satisfaction he would send to a stable and inquire. The amusing +answer came back, "If it's the English lady traveling in the mountains, +she can have a horse, but not any one else." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +<H3> +Letter XIII +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +The blight of mining—Green Lake—Golden +City—Benighted—Vertigo—Boulder Canyon—Financial straits—A hard +ride—The last cent—A bachelor's home—"Mountain Jim"—A surprise—A +night arrival—Making the best of it—Scanty fare. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +BOULDER, November. +</P> + +<P> +The answer regarding a horse (at the end of my former letter) was given +to the landlord outside the hotel, and presently he came in and asked +my name and if I were the lady who had crossed from Link's to South +Park by Tarryall Creek; so news travels fast. In five minutes the +horse was at the door, with a clumsy two-horned side-saddle, and I +started at once for the upper regions. It was an exciting ride, much +spiced with apprehension. The evening shadows had darkened over +Georgetown, and I had 2,000 feet to climb, or give up Green Lake. I +shall forget many things, but never the awfulness and hugeness of the +scenery. I went up a steep track by Clear Creek, then a succession of +frozen waterfalls in a widened and then narrowed valley, whose frozen +sides looked 5,000 feet high. That is the region of enormous mineral +wealth in silver. There are the "Terrible" and other mines whose +shares you can see quoted daily in the share lists in the Times, +sometimes at cent per cent premium, and then down to 25 discount. +</P> + +<P> +These mines, with their prolonged subterranean workings, their stamping +and crushing mills, and the smelting works which have been established +near them, fill the district with noise, hubbub, and smoke by night and +day; but I had turned altogether aside from them into a still region, +where each miner in solitude was grubbing for himself, and confiding to +none his finds or disappointments. Agriculture restores and +beautifies, mining destroys and devastates, turning the earth inside +out, making it hideous, and blighting every green thing, as it usually +blights man's heart and soul. There was mining everywhere along that +grand road, with all its destruction and devastation, its digging, +burrowing, gulching, and sluicing; and up all along the seemingly +inaccessible heights were holes with their roofs log supported, in +which solitary and patient men were selling their lives for treasure. +Down by the stream, all among the icicles, men were sluicing and +washing, and everywhere along the heights were the scars of +hardly-passable trails, too steep even for pack-jacks, leading to the +holes, and down which the miner packs the ore on his back. Many a +heart has been broken for the few finds which have been made along +those hill sides. All the ledges are covered with charred stumps, a +picture of desolation, where nature had made everything grand and fair. +But even from all this I turned. The last miner I saw gave me explicit +directions, and I left the track and struck upwards into the icy +solitudes—sheets of ice at first, then snow, over a foot deep, pure +and powdery, then a very difficult ascent through a pine forest, where +it was nearly dark, the horse tumbling about in deep snowdrifts. But +the goal was reached, and none too soon. +</P> + +<P> +At a height of nearly 12,000 feet I halted on a steep declivity, and +below me, completely girdled by dense forests of pines, with mountains +red and glorified in the sunset rising above them, was Green Lake, +looking like water, but in reality a sheet of ice two feet thick. From +the gloom and chill below I had come up into the pure air and sunset +light, and the glory of the unprofaned works of God. It brought to my +mind the verse, "The darkness is past, and the true light now shineth"; +and, as if in commentary upon it, were the hundreds and thousands of +men delving in dark holes in the gloom of the twilight below. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +O earth, so full of dreary noises!<BR> +O men, with wailing in your voices,<BR> +O delved gold, the wailer's heap,<BR> +God strikes a silence through you all,<BR> +He giveth His beloved sleep.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +It was something to reach that height and see the far off glory of the +sunset, and by it to be reminded that neither God nor His sun had yet +deserted the world. But the sun was fast going down, and even as I +gazed upon the wonderful vision the glory vanished, and the peaks +became sad and grey. It was strange to be the only human being at that +glacial altitude, and to descend again through a foot of untrodden snow +and over sloping sheets of ice into the darkness, and to see the hill +sides like a firmament of stars, each showing the place where a +solitary man in his hole was delving for silver. The view, as long as +I could see it, was quite awful. It looked as if one could not reach +Georgetown without tumbling down a precipice. Precipices there were in +plenty along the road, skirted with ice to their verge. It was the +only ride which required nerve that I have taken in Colorado, and it +was long after dark when I returned from my exploit. +</P> + +<P> +I left Georgetown at eight the next morning on the Idaho stage, in +glorious cold. In this dry air it is quite warm if there are only a +few degrees of frost. The sun does not rise in Georgetown till eleven +now; I doubt if it rises there at all in the winter! After four hours' +fearful bouncing, the baggage car again received us, but this time the +conductor, remarking that he supposed I was just traveling to see the +country, gave me his chair and put it on the platform, so that I had an +excellent view of that truly sublime canyon. For economy I dined in a +restaurant in Golden City, and at three remounted my trusty Birdie, +intending to arrive here that night. The adventure I met with is +almost too silly to tell. +</P> + +<P> +When I left Golden City it was a brilliant summer afternoon, and not +too hot. They could not give any directions at the stable, and told me +to go out on the Denver track till I met some one who could direct me, +which started me off wrong from the first. After riding about two +miles I met a man who told me I was all wrong, and directed me across +the prairie till I met another, who gave me so many directions that I +forgot them, and was irretrievably lost. The afterglow, seen to +perfection on the open plain, was wonderful. Just as it grew dark I +rode after a teamster who said I was then four miles farther from +Boulder than when I left Golden, and directed me to a house seven miles +off. I suppose he thought I should know, for he told me to cross the +prairie till I came to a place where three tracks are seen, and there +to take the best-traveled one, steering all the time by the north star. +His directions did bring me to tracks, but it was then so dark that I +could see nothing, and soon became so dark that I could not even see +Birdie's ears, and was lost and benighted. I rode on, hour after hour, +in the darkness and solitude, the prairie all round and a firmament of +frosty stars overhead. The prairie wolf howled now and then, and +occasionally the lowing of cattle gave me hope of human proximity. But +there was nothing but the lone wild plain. You can hardly imagine the +longing to see a light, to hear a voice, the intensely eerie feeling of +being alone in that vast solitude. It was freezing very sharply and +was very cold, and I was making up my mind to steer all night for the +pole-star, much fearing that I should be brought up by one of the +affluents of the Platte, or that Birdie would tire, when I heard the +undertoned bellowing of a bull, which, from the snorting rooting up of +earth, seemed to be disputing the right of way, and the pony was afraid +to pass. While she was scuffling about, I heard a dog bark and a man +swear; then I saw a light, and in another minute found myself at a +large house, where I knew the people, only eleven miles from Denver! +It was nearly midnight, and light, warmth, and a good bed were truly +welcome. +</P> + +<P> +You can form no idea of what the glory on the Plains is just before +sunrise. Like the afterglow, for a great height above the horizon +there is a shaded band of the most intense and glowing orange, while +the mountains which reflect the yet unrisen sun have the purple light +of amethysts. I left early, but soon lost the track and was lost; but +knowing that a sublime gash in the mountains was Bear Canyon, quite +near Boulder, I struck across the prairie for it, and then found the +Boulder track. "The best-laid schemes of men and mice gang aft agley," +and my exploits came to an untimely end to-day. On arriving here, +instead of going into the mountains, I was obliged to go to bed in +consequence of vertigo, headache, and faintness, produced by the +intense heat of the sun. In all that weary land there was no "shadow +of a great rock" under which to rest. The gravelly, baked soil +reflected the fiery sun, and it was nearly maddening to look up at the +cool blue of the mountains, with their stretches of pines and their +deep indigo shadows. Boulder is a hideous collection of frame houses +on the burning plain, but it aspires to be a "city" in virtue of being +a "distributing point" for the settlements up the Boulder Canyon, and +of the discovery of a coal seam. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +LONGMOUNT, November. +</P> + +<P> +I got up very early this morning, and on a hired horse went nine miles +up the Boulder Canyon, which is much extolled, but I was greatly +disappointed with everything except its superb wagon road, and much +disgusted with the laziness of the horse. A ride of fifteen miles +across the prairie brought me here early in the afternoon, but of the +budget of letters which I expected there is not one. Birdie looks in +such capital condition that my host here can hardly believe that she +has traveled over 500 miles. I am feeling "the pinch of poverty" +rather severely. When I have paid my bill here I shall have exactly +twenty-six cents left. Evans was quite unable to pay the hundred +dollars which he owed me, and, to save themselves, the Denver banks, +though they remain open, have suspended payment, and would not cash my +circular notes. The financial straits are very serious, and the +unreasoning panic which has set in makes them worse. The present state +of matters is—nobody has any money, so nothing is worth anything. The +result to me is that, nolens volens, I must go up to Estes Park, where +I can live without ready money, and remain there till things change for +the better. It does not seem a very hard fate! Long's Peak rises in +purple gloom, and I long for the cool air and unfettered life of the +solitary blue hollow at its base. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +ESTES PARK, November 20. +</P> + +<P> +Would that three notes of admiration were all I need give to my grand, +solitary, uplifted, sublime, remote, beast-haunted lair, which seems +more indescribable than ever; but you will wish to know how I have +sped, and I wish you to know my present singular circumstances. I left +Longmount at eight on Saturday morning, rather heavily loaded, for in +addition to my own luggage I was asked to carry the mail-bag, which was +heavy with newspapers. Edwards, with his wife and family, were still +believed to be here. A heavy snow-storm was expected, and all the +sky—that vast dome which spans the Plains—was overcast; but over the +mountains it was a deep, still, sad blue, into which snowy peaks rose +sunlighted. It was a lonely, mournful-looking morning, but when I +reached the beautiful canyon of the St. Vrain, the sad blue became +brilliant, and the sun warm and scintillating. Ah, how beautiful and +incomparable the ride up here is, infinitely more beautiful than the +much-vaunted parts I have seen elsewhere. +</P> + +<P> +There is, first, this beautiful hill-girdled valley of fair savannas, +through which the bright St. Vrain curves in and out amidst a tangle of +cotton-wood and withered clematis and Virginia creeper, which two +months ago made the valley gay with their scarlet and gold. Then the +canyon, with its fantastically-stained walls; then the long ascent +through sweeping foot hills to the gates of rock at a height of 9,000 +feet; then the wildest and most wonderful scenery for twenty miles, in +which you cross thirteen ranges from 9,000 to 11,000 feet high, pass +through countless canyons and gulches, cross thirteen dark fords, and +finally descend, through M'Ginn's Gulch, upon this, the gem of the +Rocky Mountains. It was a weird ride. I got on very slowly. The road +is a hard one for any horse, specially for a heavily-loaded one, and at +the end of several weeks of severe travel. When I had ridden fifteen +miles I stopped at the ranch where people usually get food, but it was +empty, and the next was also deserted. So I was compelled to go to the +last house, where two young men are "baching." +</P> + +<P> +There I had to decide between getting a meal for myself or a feed for +the pony; but the young man, on hearing of my sore poverty, trusted me +"till next time." His house, for order and neatness, and a sort of +sprightliness of cleanliness—the comfort of cleanliness without its +severity—is a pattern to all women, while the clear eyes and manly +self-respect which the habit of total abstinence gives in this country +are a pattern to all men. He cooked me a splendid dinner, with good +tea. After dinner I opened the mail-bag, and was delighted to find an +accumulation of letters from you; but I sat much too long there, +forgetting that I had twenty miles to ride, which could hardly be done +in less than six hours. It was then brilliant. I had not realized the +magnificence of that ride when I took it before, but the pony was +tired, and I could not hurry her, and the distance seemed interminable, +as after every range I crossed another range. Then came a region of +deep, dark, densely-wooded gulches, only a few feet wide, and many +fords, and from their cold depths I saw the last sunlight fade from the +brows of precipices 4,000 feet high. It was eerie, as darkness came +on, to wind in and out in the pine-shadowed gloom, sometimes on ice, +sometimes in snow, at the bottom of these tremendous chasms. Wolves +howled in all directions. This is said to denote the approach of a +storm. During this twenty-mile ride I met a hunter with an elk packed +on his horse, and he told me not only that the Edwardses were at the +cabin yesterday, but that they were going to remain for two weeks +longer, no matter how uncongenial. The ride did seem endless after +darkness came on. Finally the last huge range was conquered, the last +deep chasm passed, and with an eeriness which craved for human +companionship, I rode up to "Mountain Jim's" den, but no light shone +through the chinks, and all was silent. So I rode tediously down +M'Ginn's Gulch, which was full of crackings and other strange mountain +noises, and was pitch dark, though the stars were bright overhead. +</P> + +<P> +Soon I heard the welcome sound of a barking dog. I supposed it to +denote strange hunters, but calling "Ring" at a venture, the noble +dog's large paws and grand head were in a moment on my saddle, and he +greeted me with all those inarticulate but perfectly comprehensible +noises with which dogs welcome their human friends. Of the two men on +horses who accompanied him, one was his master, as I knew by the +musical voice and grace of manner, but it was too dark to see anyone, +though he struck a light to show me the valuable furs with which one of +the horses was loaded. The desperado was heartily glad to see me, and +sending the man and fur-laden horse on to his cabin, he turned with me +to Evans's; and as the cold was very severe, and Birdie was very tired, +we dismounted and walked the remaining three miles. All my visions of +a comfortable reception and good meal after my long ride vanished with +his first words. The Edwardses had left for the winter on the previous +morning, but had not passed through Longmount; the cabin was +dismantled, the stores were low, and two young men, Mr. Kavan, a miner, +and Mr. Buchan, whom I was slightly acquainted with before, were +"baching" there to look after the stock until Evans, who was daily +expected, returned. The other settler and his wife had left the park, +so there was not a woman within twenty-five miles. A fierce wind had +arisen, and the cold was awful, which seemed to make matters darker. I +did not care in the least about myself. I could rough it, and enjoy +doing so, but I was very sorry for the young men, who, I knew, would be +much embarrassed by the sudden appearance of a lady for an indefinite +time. But the difficulty had to be faced, and I walked in and took +them by surprise as they were sitting smoking by the fire in the living +room, which was dismantled, unswept, and wretched looking. +</P> + +<P> +The young men did not show any annoyance, but exerted themselves to +prepare a meal, and courteously made Jim share it. After he had gone, +I boldly confessed my impecunious circumstances, and told them that I +must stay there till things changed, that I hoped not to inconvenience +them in any way, and that by dividing the work among us they would be +free to be out hunting. So we agreed to make the best of it. (Our +arrangements, which we supposed would last only two or three days, +extended over nearly a month. Nothing could exceed the courtesy and +good feeling which these young men showed. It was a very pleasant time +on the whole and when we separated they told me that though they were +much "taken aback" at first, they felt at last that we could get on in +the same way for a year, in which I cordially agreed.) Sundry practical +difficulties had to be faced and overcome. There was one of the common +spring mattresses of the country in the little room which opened from +the living room, but nothing upon it. This was remedied by making a +large bag and filling it with hay. Then there were neither sheets, +towels, nor table-clothes. This was irremediable, and I never missed +the first or last. Candles were another loss, and we had only one +paraffin lamp. I slept all night in spite of a gale which blew all +Sunday and into Monday afternoon, threatening to lift the cabin from +the ground, and actually removing part of the roof from the little room +between the kitchen and living room, in which we used to dine. Sunday +was brilliant, but nearly a hurricane, and I dared not stir outside the +cabin. The parlor was two inches deep in the mud from the roof. We +nominally divide the cooking. Mr. Kavan makes the best bread I ever +ate; they bring in wood and water, and wash the supper things, and I +"do" my room and the parlor, wash the breakfast things, and number of +etceteras. My room is easily "done," but the parlor is a never-ending +business. I have swept shovelfuls of mud out of it three times to-day. +There is nothing to dust it with but a buffalo's tail, and every now +and then a gust descends the open chimney and drives the wood ashes all +over the room. However, I have found an old shawl which answers for a +table-cloth, and have made our "parlor" look a little more habitable. +Jim came in yesterday in a silent mood, and sat looking vacantly into +the fire. The young men said that this mood was the usual precursor of +an "ugly fit." +</P> + +<P> +Food is a great difficulty. Of thirty milch cows only one is left, and +she does not give milk enough for us to drink. The only meat is some +pickled pork, very salt and hard, which I cannot eat, and the hens lay +less than one egg a day. Yesterday morning I made some rolls, and made +the last bread into a bread-and-butter pudding, which we all enjoyed. +To-day I found part of a leg of beef hanging in the wagon shed, and we +were elated with the prospect of fresh meat, but on cutting into it we +found it green and uneatable. Had it not been for some tea which was +bestowed upon me at the inn at Longmount we should have had none. In +this superb air and physically active life I can eat everything but +pickled pork. We breakfast about nine, dine at two, and have supper at +seven, but our MENU never varies. +</P> + +<P> +To-day I have been all alone in the park, as the men left to hunt elk +after breakfast, after bringing in wood and water. The sky is +brilliant and the light intense, or else the solitude would be +oppressive. I keep two horses in the corral so as to be able to +explore, but except Birdie, who is turned out, none of the animals are +worth much now from want of shoes, and tender feet. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> +<H3> +Letter XIV +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +A dismal ride—A desperado's tale—"Lost! Lost! Lost!"—Winter +glories—Solitude—Hard times—Intense cold—A pack of wolves—The +beaver dams—Ghastly scenes—Venison steaks—Our evenings. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +ESTES PARK. +</P> + +<P> +I must attempt to put down the trifling events of each day just as they +occur. The second time that I was left alone Mr. Nugent came in +looking very black, and asked me to ride with him to see the beaver +dams on the Black Canyon. No more whistling or singing, or talking to +his beautiful mare, or sparkling repartee. +</P> + +<P> +His mood was as dark as the sky overhead, which was black with an +impending snowstorm. He was quite silent, struck his horse often, +started off on a furious gallop, and then throwing his mare on her +haunches close to me, said, "You're the first man or woman who's +treated me like a human being for many a year." So he said in this +dark mood, but Mr. and Mrs. Dewy, who took a very deep interest in his +welfare, always treated him as a rational, intelligent gentleman, and +in his better moments he spoke of them with the warmest appreciation. +"If you want to know," he continued, "how nearly a man can become a +devil, I'll tell you now." There was no choice, and we rode up the +canyon, and I listened to one of the darkest tales of ruin I have ever +heard or read. +</P> + +<P> +Its early features were very simple. His father was a British officer +quartered at Montreal, of a good old Irish family. From his account he +was an ungovernable boy, imperfectly educated, and tyrannizing over a +loving but weak mother. When seventeen years old he saw a young girl +at church whose appearance he described as being of angelic beauty, and +fell in love with her with all the intensity of an uncontrolled nature. +He saw her three times, but scarcely spoke to her. On his mother +opposing his wish and treating it as a boyish folly, he took to drink +"to spite her," and almost as soon as he was eighteen, maddened by the +girl's death, he ran away from home, entered the service of the +Hudson's Bay Company, and remained in it for several years, only +leaving it because he found even that lawless life too strict for him. +Then, being as I suppose about twenty-seven, he entered the service of +the United States Government, and became one of the famous Indian +scouts of the Plains, distinguishing himself by some of the most daring +deeds on record, and some of the bloodiest crimes. Some of these tales +I have heard before, but never so terribly told. Years must have +passed in that service, till he became a character known through all +the West, and much dreaded for his readiness to take offence, and his +equal readiness with his revolver. Vain, even in his dark mood, he +told me that he was idolized by women, and that in his worst hours he +was always chivalrous to good women. He described himself as riding +through camps in his scout's dress with a red scarf round his waist, +and sixteen golden curls, eighteen inches long, hanging over his +shoulders. The handsome, even superbly handsome, side of his face was +towards me as he spoke. As a scout and as an armed escort of emigrant +parties he was evidently implicated in all the blood and broil of a +lawless region and period, and went from bad to worse, varying his life +by drunken sprees, which brought nothing but violence and loss. +</P> + +<P> +The narrative seemed to lack some link, for I next found him on a +homestead in Missouri, from whence he came to Colorado a few years ago. +There, again, something was dropped out, but I suspect, and not without +reason, that he joined one or more of those gangs of "border ruffians" +which for so long raided through Kansas, perpetrating such massacres +and outrages as that of the Marais du Cygne. His fame for violence and +ruffianism preceded him into Colorado, where his knowledge of and love +of the mountains have earned him the sobriquet he now bears. He has a +squatter's claim and forty head of cattle, and is a successful trapper +besides, but envy and vindictiveness are raging within him. He gets +money, goes to Denver, and spends large sums in the maddest +dissipation, making himself a terror, and going beyond even such +desperadoes as "Texas Jack" and "Wild Bill"; and when the money is done +returns to his mountain den, full of hatred and self-scorn, till the +next time. Of course I cannot give details. +</P> + +<P> +The story took three hours to tell, and was crowded with terrific +illustrations of a desperado's career, told with a rush of wild +eloquence that was truly thrilling. +</P> + +<P> +When the snow, which for some time had been falling, compelled him to +break off and guide me to a sheltered place from which I could make my +own way back again, he stopped his horse and said, "Now you see a man +who has made a devil of himself! Lost! Lost! Lost! I believe in +God. I've given Him no choice but to put me with 'the devil and his +angel.' I'm afraid to die. You've stirred the better nature in me too +late. I can't change. If ever a man were a slave, I am. Don't speak +to me of repentance and reformation. I can't reform. Your voice +reminded me of ——-." Then in feverish tones, "How dare you ride with +me? You won't speak to me again, will you?" He made me promise to +keep one or two things secret whether he were living or dead, and I +promised, for I had no choice; but they come between me and the +sunshine sometimes, and I wake at night to think of them. I wish I had +been spared the regret and excitement of that afternoon. A less +ungovernable nature would never have spoken as he did, nor told me what +he did; but his proud, fierce soul all poured itself out then, with +hatred and self-loathing, blood on his hands and murder in his heart, +though even then he could not be altogether other than a gentleman, or +altogether divest himself of fascination, even when so tempestuously +revealing the darkest points of his character. My soul dissolved in +pity for his dark, lost, self-ruined life, as he left me and turned +away in the blinding storm to the Snowy Range, where he said he was +going to camp out for a fortnight; a man of great abilities, real +genius, singular gifts, and with all the chances in life which other +men have had. How far more terrible than the "Actum est: periisti" of +Cowper is his exclamation, "Lost! Lost! Lost!" +</P> + +<P> +The storm was very severe, and the landmarks being blotted out, I lost +my way in the snow, and when I reached the cabin after dark I found it +still empty, for the two hunters, on returning, finding that I had gone +out, had gone in search of me. The snow cleared off late, and intense +frost set in. My room is nearly the open air, being built of unchinked +logs, and, as in the open air, one requires to sleep with the head +buried in blankets, or the eyelids and breath freeze. The sunshine has +been brilliant to-day. I took a most beautiful ride to Black Canyon to +look for the horses. Every day some new beauty, or effect of snow and +light, is to be seen. Nothing that I have seen in Colorado compares +with Estes Park; and now that the weather is magnificent, and the +mountain tops above the pine woods are pure white, there is nothing of +beauty or grandeur for which the heart can wish that is not here; and +it is health giving, with pure air, pure water, and absolute dryness. +But there is something very solemn, at times almost overwhelming, in +the winter solitude. I have never experienced anything like it even +when I lived on the slopes of Hualalai. When the men are out hunting I +know not where, or at night, when storms sweep down from Long's Peak, +and the air is full of stinging, tempest-driven snow, and there is +barely a probability of any one coming, or of my communication with the +world at all, then the stupendous mountain ranges which lie between us +and the Plains grow in height till they become impassable barriers, and +the bridgeless rivers grow in depth, and I wonder if all my life is to +be spent here in washing and sweeping and baking. +</P> + +<P> +To-day has been one of manual labor. We did not breakfast till 9:30, +then the men went out, and I never sat down till two. I cleaned the +living room and the kitchen, swept a path through the rubbish in the +passage room, washed up, made and baked a batch of rolls and four +pounds of sweet biscuits, cleaned some tins and pans, washed some +clothes, and gave things generally a "redding up." There is a little +thick buttermilk, fully six weeks old, at the bottom of a churn, which +I use for raising the rolls; but Mr. Kavan, who makes "lovely" bread, +puts some flour and water to turn sour near the stove, and this +succeeds admirably. +</P> + +<P> +I also made a most unsatisfactory investigation into the state of my +apparel. I came to Colorado now nearly three months ago, with a small +carpet-bag containing clothes, none of them new; and these, by +legitimate wear, the depredations of calves, and the necessity of +tearing some of them up for dish-cloths, are reduced to a single +change! I have a solitary pocket handkerchief and one pair of +stockings, such a mass of darns that hardly a trace of the original +wool remains. Owing to my inability to get money in Denver I am almost +without shoes, have nothing but a pair of slippers and some "arctics." +For outer garments—well, I have a trained black silk dress, with a +black silk polonaise! and nothing else but my old flannel riding suit, +which is quite threadbare, and requires such frequent mending that I am +sometimes obliged to "dress" for supper, and patch and darn it during +the evening. You will laugh, but it is singular that one can face the +bitter winds with the mercury at zero and below it, in exactly the same +clothing which I wore in the tropics! It is only the extreme dryness +of the air which renders it possible to live in such clothing. We have +arranged the work better. Mr. Buchan was doing too much, and it was +hard for him, as he is very delicate. You will wonder how three people +here in the wilderness can have much to do. There are the horses which +we keep in the corral to feed on sheaf oats and take to water twice a +day, the fowls and dogs to feed, the cow to milk, the bread to make, +and to keep a general knowledge of the whereabouts of the stock in the +event of a severe snow-storm coming on. Then there is all the wood to +cut, as there is no wood pile, and we burn a great deal, and besides +the cooking, washing, and mending, which each one does, the men must +hunt and fish for their living. Then two sick cows have had to be +attended to. +</P> + +<P> +We were with one when it died yesterday. It suffered terribly, and +looked at us with the pathetically pleading eyes of a creature "made +subject to vanity." The disposal of its carcass was a difficulty. The +wagon horses were in Denver, and when we tried to get the others to +pull the dead beast away, they only kicked and plunged, so we managed +to get it outside the shed, and according to Mr. Kavan's prediction, a +pack of wolves came down, and before daylight nothing was left but the +bones. They were so close to the cabin that their noise was most +disturbing, and on looking out several times I could see them all in a +heap wrangling and tumbling over each other. They are much larger than +the prairie wolf, but equally cowardly, I believe. This morning was +black with clouds, and a snowstorm was threatened, and about 700 cattle +and a number of horses came in long files from the valleys and canyons +where they maraud, their instinct teaching them to seek the open and +the protection of man. +</P> + +<P> +I was alone in the cabin this afternoon when Mr. Nugent, whom we +believed to be on the Snowy Range, walked in very pale and haggard +looking, and coughing severely. He offered to show me the trail up one +of the grandest of the canyons, and I could not refuse to go. The Fall +River has had its source completely altered by the operations of the +beavers. Their engineering skill is wonderful. In one place they have +made a lake by damming up the stream; in another their works have +created an island, and they have made several falls. Their +storehouses, of course, are carefully concealed. By this time they are +about full for the winter. We saw quantities of young cotton-wood and +aspen trees, with stems about as thick as my arm, lying where these +industrious creatures have felled them ready for their use. They +always work at night and in concert. Their long, sharp teeth are used +for gnawing down the trees, but their mason-work is done entirely with +their flat, trowel-like tails. In its natural state the fur is very +durable, and is as full of long black hairs as that of the sable, but +as sold, all these hairs have been plucked out of it. +</P> + +<P> +The canyon was glorious, ah! glorious beyond any other, but it was a +dismal and depressing ride. The dead past buried its dead. +</P> + +<P> +Not an allusion was made to the conversation previously. "Jim's" +manner was courteous, but freezing, and when I left home on my return +he said he hardly thought he should be back from the Snowy Range before +I left. Essentially an actor, was he, I wonder, posing on the previous +day in the attitude of desperate remorse, to impose on my credulity or +frighten me; or was it a genuine and unpremeditated outburst of +passionate regret for the life which he had thrown away? I cannot +tell, but I think it was the last. As I cautiously rode back, the +sunset glories were reddening the mountain tops, and the park lay in +violet gloom. It was wonderfully magnificent, but oh, so solemn, so +lonely! I rode a very large, well-bred mare, with three shoes loose +and one off, and she fell with me twice and was very clumsy in crossing +the Thompson, which was partly ice and partly a deep ford, but when we +reached comparatively level grassy ground I had a gallop of nearly two +miles which I enjoyed thoroughly, her great swinging stride being so +easy and exhilarating after Birdie's short action. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Friday. +</P> + +<P> +This is a piteous day, quite black, freezing hard, and with a fierce +north-east wind. The absence of sunshine here, where it is nearly +perpetual, has a very depressing effect, and all the scenery appears in +its grimness of black and gray. We have lost three horses, including +Birdie, and have nothing to entice them with, and not an animal to go +and drive them in with. I put my great mare in the corral myself, and +Mr. Kavan put his in afterwards and secured the bars, but the wolves +were holding a carnival again last night, and we think that the horses +were scared and stampeded, as otherwise they would not have leaped the +fence. The men are losing their whole day in looking for them. On +their return they said that they had seen Mr. Nugent returning to his +cabin by the other side and the lower ford of the Thompson, and that he +had "an awfully ugly fit on him," so that they were glad that he did +not come near us. The evening is setting in sublime in its blackness. +Late in the afternoon I caught a horse which was snuffing at the sheaf +oats, and had a splendid gallop on the Longmount trail with the two +great hunting dogs. In returning, in the grimness of the coming storm, +I had that view of the park which I saw first in the glories of an +autumn sunset. Life was all dead; the dragon-flies no longer darted in +the sunshine, the cotton-woods had shed their last amber leaves, the +crimson trailers of the wild vines were bare, the stream itself had +ceased its tinkle and was numb in fetters of ice, a few withered flower +stalks only told of the brief bright glory of the summer. The park +never had looked so utterly walled in; it was fearful in its +loneliness, the ghastliest of white peaks lay sharply outlined against +the black snow clouds, the bright river was ice bound, the pines were +all black, the world was absolutely shut out. How can you expect me to +write letters from such a place, from a life "in which nothing +happens"? It really is strange that neither Evans nor Edwards come +back. The young men are grumbling, for they were asked to stay here +for five days, and they have been here five weeks, and they are anxious +to be away camping out for the hunting, on which they depend. There +are two calves dying, and we don't know what to do for them; and if a +very severe snow-storm comes on, we can't bring in and feed eight +hundred head of cattle. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Saturday. +</P> + +<P> +The snow began to fall early this morning, and as it is unaccompanied +by wind we have the novel spectacle of a smooth white world; still it +does not look like anything serious. We have been gradually growing +later at night and later in the morning. To-day we did not breakfast +till ten. We have been becoming so disgusted with the pickled pork, +that we were glad to find it just at an end yesterday, even though we +were left without meat for which in this climate the system craves. +You can fancy my surprise, on going into the kitchen, to find a dish of +smoking steaks of venison on the table. We ate like famished people, +and enjoyed our meal thoroughly. Just before I came the young men had +shot an elk, which they intended to sell in Denver, and the grand +carcass, with great branching antlers, hung outside the shed. Often +while vainly trying to swallow some pickled pork I had looked across to +the tantalizing animal, but it was not to be thought of. However, this +morning, as the young men felt the pinch of hunger even more than I +did, and the prospects of packing it to Denver became worse, they +decided on cutting into one side, so we shall luxuriate in venison +while it lasts. We think that Edwards will surely be up to-night, but +unless he brings supplies our case is looking serious. The flour is +running low, there is only coffee for one week, and I have only a +scanty three ounces of tea left. The baking powder is nearly at an +end. We have agreed to economize by breakfasting very late, and having +two meals a day instead of three. The young men went out hunting as +usual, and I went out and found Birdie, and on her brought in four +other horses, but the snow balled so badly that I went out and walked +across the river on a very passable ice bridge, and got some new views +of the unique grandeur of this place. +</P> + +<P> +Our evenings are social and pleasant. We finish supper about eight, +and make up a huge fire. The men smoke while I write to you. Then we +draw near the fire and I take my endless mending, and we talk or read +aloud. Both are very intelligent, and Mr. Buchan has very extended +information and a good deal of insight into character. Of course our +circumstances, the likelihood of release, the prospects of snow +blocking us in and of our supplies holding out, the sick calves, +"Jim's" mood, the possible intentions of a man whose footprints we have +found and traced for three miles, are all topics that often recur, and +few of which can be worn threadbare. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> +<H3> +Letter XV +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +A whisky slave—The pleasures of monotony—The mountain lion—"Another +mouth to feed"—A tiresome boy—An outcast—Thanksgiving Day—The +newcomer—A literary humbug—Milking a dry cow—Trout-fishing—A +snow-storm—A desperado's den. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +ESTES PARK, Sunday. +</P> + +<P> +A trapper passing last night brought us the news that Mr. Nugent is +ill; so, after washing up the things after our late breakfast, I rode +to his cabin, but I met him in the gulch coming down to see us. He +said he had caught cold on the Range, and was suffering from an old +arrow wound in the lung. We had a long conversation without adverting +to the former one, and he told me some of the present circumstances of +his ruined life. It is piteous that a man like him, in the prime of +life, should be destitute of home and love, and live a life of darkness +in a den with no companions but guilty memories, and a dog which many +people think is the nobler animal of the two. I urged him to give up +the whisky which at present is his ruin, and his answer had the ring of +a sad truth in it: "I cannot, it binds me hand and foot—I cannot give +up the only pleasure I have." His ideas of right are the queerest +possible. He says that he believes in God, but what he knows or +believes of God's law I know not. To resent insult with your revolver, +to revenge yourself on those who have injured you, to be true to a +comrade and share your last crust with him, to be chivalrous to good +women, to be generous and hospitable, and at the last to die +game—these are the articles of his creed, and I suppose they are +received by men of his stamp. He hates Evans with a bitter hatred, and +Evans returns it, having undergone much provocation from Jim in his +moods of lawlessness and violence, and being not a little envious of +the fascination which his manners and conversation have for the +strangers who come up here. +</P> + +<P> +On returning down the gulch the view was grander than I have ever seen +it, the gulch in dark shadow, the park below lying in intense sunlight, +with all the majestic canyons which sweep down upon it in depths of +infinite blue gloom, and above, the pearly peaks, dazzling in purity +and glorious in form, cleft the turquoise blue of the sky. How shall I +ever leave this "land which is very far off"? How CAN I ever leave it? +is the real question. We are going on the principle, "Let us eat and +drink, for to-morrow we die," and the stores are melting away. The two +meals are not an economical plan, for we are so much more hungry that +we eat more than when we had three. We had a good deal of sacred music +to-day, to make it as like Sunday as possible. The "faint melancholy" +of this winter loneliness is very fascinating. +</P> + +<P> +How glorious the amber fires of the winter dawns are, and how +gloriously to-night the crimson clouds descended just to the mountain +tops and were reflected on the pure surface of the snow! +</P> + +<P> +The door of this room looks due north, and as I write the Pole Star +blazes, and a cold crescent moon hangs over the ghastliness of Long's +Peak. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +ESTES PARK, COLORADO, November. +</P> + +<P> +We have lost count of time, and can only agree on the fact that the +date is somewhere near the end of November. Our life has settled down +into serenity, and our singular and enforced partnership is very +pleasant. We might be three men living together, but for the unvarying +courtesy and consideration which they show to me. Our work goes on +like clockwork; the only difficulty which ever arises is that the men +do not like me to do anything that they think hard or unsuitable, such +as saddling a horse or bringing in water. The days go very fast; it +was 3:30 today before I knew that it was 1. It is a calm life without +worries. The men are so easy to live with; they never fuss, or +grumble, or sigh, or make a trouble of anything. It would amuse you to +come into our wretched little kitchen before our disgracefully late +breakfast, and find Mr. Kavan busy at the stove frying venison, myself +washing the supper dishes, and Mr. Buchan drying them, or both the men +busy at the stove while I sweep the floor. Our food is a great object +of interest to us, and we are ravenously hungry now that we have only +two meals a day. About sundown each goes forth to his "chores"—Mr. K. +to chop wood, Mr. B. to haul water, I to wash the milk pans and water +the horses. On Saturday the men shot a deer, and on going for it +to-day they found nothing but the hind legs, and following a track +which they expected would lead them to a beast's hole, they came quite +carelessly upon a large mountain lion, which, however, took itself out +of their reach before they were sufficiently recovered from their +surprise to fire at it. These lions, which are really a species of +puma, are bloodthirsty as well as cowardly. Lately one got into a +sheepfold in the canyon of the St. Vrain, and killed thirty sheep, +sucking the blood from their throats. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +November ? +</P> + +<P> +This has been a day of minor events, as well as a busy one. I was so +busy that I never sat down from 10:30 till 1:30. I had washed my one +change of raiment, and though I never iron my clothes, I like to bleach +them till they are as white as snow, and they were whitening on the +line when some furious gusts came down from Long's Peak, against which +I could not stand, and when I did get out all my clothes were blown +into strips from an inch to four inches in width, literally destroyed! +One learns how very little is necessary either for comfort or +happiness. I made a four-pound spiced ginger cake, baked some bread, +mended my riding dress, cleaned up generally, wrote some letters with +the hope that some day they might be posted and took a magnificent +walk, reaching the cabin again in the melancholy glory which now +immediately precedes the darkness. +</P> + +<P> +We were all busy getting our supper ready when the dogs began to bark +furiously, and we heard the noise of horses. "Evans at last!" we +exclaimed, but we were wrong. Mr. Kavan went out, and returned saying +that it was a young man who had come up with Evans's wagon and team, +and that the wagon had gone over into a gulch seven miles from here. +Mr. Kavan looked very grave. "It's another mouth to feed," he said. +They asked no questions, and brought the lad in, a slangy, assured +fellow of twenty, who, having fallen into delicate health at a +theological college, had been sent up here by Evans to work for his +board. The men were too courteous to ask him what he was doing up +here, but I boldly asked him where he lived, and to our dismay he +replied, "I've come to live here." We discussed the food question +gravely, as it presented a real difficulty. We put him into a +bed-closet opening from the kitchen, and decided to see what he was fit +for before giving him work. We were very much amazed, in truth, at his +coming here. He is evidently a shallow, arrogant youth. +</P> + +<P> +We have decided that to-day is November 26th; to-morrow is Thanksgiving +Day, and we are planning a feast, though Mr. K. said to me again this +morning, with a doleful face, "You see there's another mouth to feed." +This "mouth" has come up to try the panacea of manual labor, but he is +town bred, and I see that he will do nothing. He is writing poetry, +and while I was busy to-day began to read it aloud to me, asking for my +criticism. He is just at the age when everything literary has a +fascination, and every literary person is a hero, specially Dr. +Holland. Last night was fearful from the lifting of the cabin and the +breaking of the mud from the roof. We sat with fine gravel driving in +our faces, and this morning I carried four shovelfuls of mud out of my +room. After breakfast, Mr. Kavan, Mr. Lyman, and I, with the two wagon +horses, rode the seven miles to the scene of yesterday's disaster in a +perfect gale of wind. I felt like a servant going out for a day's +"pleasuring," hurrying "through my dishes," and leaving my room in +disorder. The wagon lay half-way down the side of a ravine, kept from +destruction by having caught on some trees. +</P> + +<P> +It was too cold to hang about while the men hauled it up and fixed it, +so I went slowly back, encountering Mr. Nugent in a most bitter +mood—almost in an "ugly fit"—hating everybody, and contrasting his +own generosity and reckless kindness with the selfishness and +carefully-weighed kindnesses of others. People do give him credit for +having "as kind a heart as ever beat." Lately a child in the other +cabin was taken ill, and though there were idle men and horses at hand, +it was only the "desperado" who rode sixty miles in "the shortest time +ever made" to bring the doctor. While we were talking he was sitting +on a stone outside his den mending a saddle, shins, bones, and skulls +lying about him, "Ring" watching him with jealous and idolatrous +affection, the wind lifting his thin curls from as grand a head as was +ever modeled—a ruin of a man. Yet the sun which shines "on the evil +and the good" was lighting up the gold of his hair. May our Father +which is in heaven yet show mercy to His outcast child! +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Kavan soon overtook me, and we had an exciting race of two miles, +getting home just before the wind fell and the snow began. +</P> + +<P> +Thanksgiving Day. The thing dreaded has come at last, a snow-storm, +with a north-east wind. It ceased about midnight, but not till it had +covered my bed. Then the mercury fell below zero, and everything +froze. I melted a tin of water for washing by the fire, but it was +hard frozen before I could use it. My hair, which was thoroughly wet +with the thawed snow of yesterday, is hard frozen in plaits. The milk +and treacle are like rock, the eggs have to be kept on the coolest part +of the stove to keep them fluid. Two calves in the shed were frozen to +death. Half our floor is deep in snow, and it is so cold that we +cannot open the door to shovel it out. The snow began again at eight +this morning, very fine and hard. It blows in through the chinks and +dusts this letter while I write. Mr. Kavan keeps my ink bottle close +to the fire, and hands it to me every time that I need to dip my pen. +We have a huge fire, but cannot raise the temperature above 20 degrees. +Ever since I returned the lake has been hard enough to bear a wagon, +but to-day it is difficult to keep the water hole open by the constant +use of the axe. The snow may either melt or block us in. Our only +anxiety is about the supplies. We have tea and coffee enough to last +over to-morrow, the sugar is just done, and the flour is getting low. +It is really serious that we have "another mouth to feed," and the +newcomer is a ravenous creature, eating more than the three of us. It +dismays me to see his hungry eyes gauging the supply at breakfast, and +to see the loaf disappear. He told me this morning that he could eat +the whole of what was on the table. He is mad after food, and I see +that Mr. K. is starving himself to make it hold out. Mr. Buchan is +very far from well, and dreads the prospect of "half rations." All +this sounds laughable, but we shall not laugh if we have to look hunger +in the face! Now in the evening the snow clouds, which have blotted +out all things, are lifting, and the winter scene is wonderful. The +mercury is 5 degrees below zero, and the aurora is glorious. In my +unchinked room the mercury is 1 degrees below zero. Mr. Buchan can +hardly get his breath; the dryness is intense. We spent the afternoon +cooking the Thanksgiving dinner. I made a wonderful pudding, for which +I had saved eggs and cream for days, and dried and stoned cherries +supplied the place of currants. I made a bowl of custard for sauce, +which the men said was "splendid"; also a rolled pudding, with +molasses; and we had venison steak and potatoes, but for tea we were +obliged to use the tea leaves of the morning again. I should think +that few people in America have enjoyed their Thanksgiving dinner more. +We had urged Mr. Nugent to join us, but he refused, almost savagely, +which we regretted. My four-pound cake made yesterday is all gone! +This wretched boy confesses that he was so hungry in the night that he +got up and ate nearly half of it. He is trying to cajole me into +making another. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +November 29. +</P> + +<P> +Before the boy came I had mistaken some faded cayenne pepper for +ginger, and had made a cake with it. Last evening I put half of it +into the cupboard and left the door open. During the night we heard a +commotion in the kitchen and much choking, coughing, and groaning, and +at breakfast the boy was unable to swallow food with his usual +ravenousness. After breakfast he came to me whimpering, and asking for +something soothing for his throat, admitting that he had seen the +"gingerbread," and "felt so starved" in the night that he got up to eat +it. +</P> + +<P> +I tried to make him feel that it was "real mean" to eat so much and be +so useless, and he said he would do anything to help me, but the men +were so "down on him." I never saw men so patient with a lad before. +He is a most vexing addition to our party, yet one cannot help laughing +at him. He is not honorable, though. I dare not leave this letter +lying on the table, as he would read it. He writes for two Western +periodicals (at least he says so), and he shows us long pieces of his +published poetry. +</P> + +<P> +In one there are twenty lines copied (as Mr. Kavan has shown me) +without alteration from Paradise Lost; in another there are two stanzas +from Resignation, with only the alteration of "stray" for "dead"; and +he has passed the whole of Bonar's Meeting-place off as his own. +Again, he lent me an essay by himself, called The Function of the +Novelist, which is nothing but a mosaic of unacknowledged quotations. +The men tell me that he has "bragged" to them that on his way here he +took shelter in Mr. Nugent's cabin, found out where he hides his key, +opened his box, and read his letters and MSS. He is a perfect plague +with his ignorance and SELF-sufficiency. The first day after he came +while I was washing up the breakfast things he told me that he intended +to do all the dirty work, so I left the knives and forks in the tub and +asked him to wipe and lay them aside. Two hours afterwards I found +them untouched. Again the men went out hunting, and he said he would +chop the wood for several days' use, and after a few strokes, which +were only successful in chipping off some shavings, he came in and +strummed on the harmonium, leaving me without any wood with which to +make the fire for supper. He talked about his skill with the lasso, +but could not even catch one of our quietest horses. Worse than all, +he does not know one cow from another. Two days ago he lost our milch +cow in driving her in to be milked, and Mr. Kavan lost hours of +valuable time in hunting for her without success. To-day he told us +triumphantly that he had found her, and he was sent out to milk her. +After two hours he returned with a rueful face and a few drops of +whitish fluid in the milk pail, saying that that was all he could get. +On Mr. K. going out, he found, instead of our "calico" cow, a brindled +one that had been dry since the spring! Our cow has gone off to the +wild cattle, and we are looking very grim at Lyman, who says that he +expected he should live on milk. I told him to fill up the four-gallon +kettle, and an hour afterwards found it red-hot on the stove. Nothing +can be kept from him unless it is hidden in my room. He has eaten two +pounds of dried cherries from the shelf, half of my second four-pound +spice loaf before it was cold, licked up my custard sauce in the night, +and privately devoured the pudding which was to be for supper. He +confesses to it all, and says, "I suppose you think me a cure." Mr. K. +says that the first thing he said to him this morning was, "Will Miss +B. make us a nice pudding to-day?" This is all harmless, but the +plagiarism and want of honor are disgusting, and quite out of keeping +with his profession of being a theological student. +</P> + +<P> +This life is in some respects like being on board ship—there are no +mails, and one knows nothing beyond one's little world, a very little +one in this case. We find each other true, and have learnt to esteem +and trust each other. I should, for instance, go out of this room +leaving this book open on the table, knowing that the men would not +read my letter. They are discreet, reticent, observant, and on many +subjects well informed, but they are of a type which has no antitype at +home. All women work in this region, so there is no fuss about my +working, or saying, "Oh, you mustn't do that," or "Oh, let me do that." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +November 30. +</P> + +<P> +We sat up till eleven last night, so confident were we that Edwards +would leave Denver the day after Thanksgiving and get up here. This +morning we came to the resolution that we must break up. Tea, coffee, +and sugar are done, the venison is turning sour, and the men have only +one month left for the hunting on which their winter living depends. I +cannot leave the Territory till I get money, but I can go to Longmount +for the mail and hear whether the panic is abating. Yesterday I was +alone all day, and after riding to the base of Long's Peak, made two +roly-poly puddings for supper, having nothing else. The men, however, +came back perfectly loaded with trout, and we had a feast. Epicures at +home would have envied us. Mr. Kavan kept the frying pan with boiling +butter on the stove, butter enough thoroughly to cover the trout, +rolled them in coarse corn meal, plunged them into the butter, turned +them once, and took them out, thoroughly done, fizzing, and lemon +colored. For once young Lyman was satisfied, for the dish was +replenished as often as it was emptied. They caught 40 lbs., and have +packed them in ice until they can be sent to Denver for sale. The +winter fishing is very rich. In the hardest frost, men who fish not +for sport, but gain, take their axes and camping blankets, and go up to +the hard-frozen waters which lie in fifty places round the park, and +choosing a likely spot, a little sheltered from the wind, hack a hole +in the ice, and fastening a foot-link to a cotton-wood tree, bait the +hook with maggots or bits of easily-gotten fresh meat. Often the trout +are caught as fast as the hook can be baited, and looking through the +ice hole in the track of a sunbeam, you see a mass of tails, silver +fins, bright eyes, and crimson spots, a perfect shoal of fish, and +truly beautiful the crimson-spotted creatures look, lying still and +dead on the blue ice under the sunshine. Sometimes two men bring home +60 lbs. of trout as the result of one day's winter fishing. It is a +cold and silent sport, however. +</P> + +<P> +How a cook at home would despise our scanty appliances, with which we +turn out luxuries. We have only a cooking-stove, which requires +incessant feeding with wood, a kettle, a frying pan, a six-gallon brass +pan, and a bottle for a rolling pin. The cold has been very severe, +but I do not suffer from it even in my insufficient clothing. I take a +piece of granite made very hot to bed, draw the blankets over my head +and sleep eight hours, though the snow often covers me. One day of +snow, mist, and darkness was rather depressing, and yesterday a +hurricane began about five in the morning, and the whole park was one +swirl of drifting snow, like stinging wood smoke. My bed and room were +white, and the frost was so intense that water brought in a kettle hot +from the fire froze as I poured it into the basin. Then the snow +ceased, and a fierce wind blew most of it out of the park, lifting it +from the mountains in such clouds as to make Long's Peak look like a +smoking volcano. To-day the sky has resumed its delicious blue, and +the park its unrivalled beauty. I have cleaned all the windows, which, +ever since I have been here, I supposed were of discolored glass, so +opaque and dirty they were; and when the men came home from fishing +they found a cheerful new world. We had a great deal of sacred music +and singing on Sunday. Mr. Buchan asked me if I knew a tune called +"America," and began the grand roll of our National Anthem to the words: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +My country, 'tis of thee,<BR> +Sweet land of liberty, etc.<BR> +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +December 1. +</P> + +<P> +I was to have started for Canyon to-day, but was awoke by snow as +stinging as pinpoints beating on my hand. We all got up early, but it +did not improve until nearly noon. In the afternoon Lyman and I rode +to Mr. Nugent's cabin. I wanted him to read and correct my letter to +you, giving the account of our ascent of Long's Peak, but he said he +could not, and insisted on our going in for which young Lyman was more +anxious than I was, as Mr. Kavan had seen "Jim" in the morning, and +departed from his usual reticence so far as to say, "There's something +wrong with that man; he'll either shoot himself or somebody else." +However, the "ugly fit" had passed off, and he was so very pleasant and +courteous that we remained the whole afternoon. Lyman's one thought +was that he could make capital out of the interview, and write an +account of the celebrated desperado for a Western paper. +</P> + +<P> +The interior of the den was frightful, yet among his black and hideous +surroundings the grace of his manner and the genius of his conversation +were only more apparent. I read my letter aloud—or rather "The Ascent +of Long's Peak," which I have written for Out West—and was sincerely +interested with the taste and acumen of his criticisms on the style. +He is a true child of nature; his eye brightened and his whole face +became radiant, and at last tears rolled down his cheek when I read the +account of the glory of the sunrise. Then he read us a very able paper +on Spiritualism which he was writing. The den was dense with smoke, +and very dark, littered with hay, old blankets, skins, bones, tins, +logs, powder flasks, magazines, old books, old moccasins, horseshoes, +and relics of all kinds. He had no better seat to offer me than a log, +but offered it with a graceful unconsciousness that it was anything +less luxurious than an easy chair. Two valuable rifles and a Sharp's +revolver hung on the wall, and the sash and badge of a scout. I could +not help looking at "Jim" as he stood talking to me. He goes mad with +drink at times, swears fearfully, has an ungovernable temper. He has +formerly led a desperate life, and is at times even now undoubtedly a +ruffian. There is hardly a fireside in Colorado where fearful stories +of him as an Indian fighter are not told; mothers frighten their +naughty children by telling them that "Mountain Jim" will get them, and +doubtless his faults are glaring, but he is undoubtedly fascinating, +and enjoys a popularity or notoriety which no other person has. He +offered to be my guide to the Plains when I go away. Lyman asked me if +I should not be afraid of being murdered, but one could not be safer +than with him I have often been told. +</P> + +<P> +The cold was truly awful. I had caught a chill in the morning from +putting on my clothes before they were dry, and the warmth of the smoky +den was most agreeable; but we had a fearful ride back in the dusk, a +gale nearly blowing us off our horses, drifting snow nearly blinding +us, and the mercury below zero. I felt as if I were going to be laid +up with a severe cold, but the men suggested a trapper's remedy—a +tumbler of hot water, with a pinch of cayenne pepper in it—which +proved a very rapid cure. They kindly say that if the snow detains me +here they also will remain. They tell me that they were horrified when +I arrived, as they thought that they could not make me comfortable, and +that I had never been used to do anything for myself, and then we +complimented each other all round. To-morrow, weather permitting, I +set off for a ride of 100 miles, and my next letter will be my last +from the Rocky Mountains. +</P> + +<P> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 19em">I. L. B.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> +<H3> +Letter XVI +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +A harmonious home—Intense cold—A purple sun—A grim jest—A perilous +ride—Frozen eyelids—Longmount—The pathless prairie—Hardships of +emigrant life—A trapper's advice—The Little Thompson—Evans and "Jim." +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +DR. HUGHES'S, LOWER CANYON, COLORADO, December 4. +</P> + +<P> +Once again here, in refined and cultured society, with harmonious +voices about me, and dear, sweet, loving children whose winning ways +make this cabin a true English home. "England, with all thy faults, I +love thee still!" I can truly say, +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> +Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see.<BR> +My heart, untraveled, fondly turns to thee.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +If it swerved a little in the Sandwich Islands, it is true to the Pole +now! Surely one advantage of traveling is that, while it removes much +prejudice against foreigners and their customs, it intensifies tenfold +one's appreciation of the good at home, and, above all, of the +quietness and purity of English domestic life. These reflections are +forced upon me by the sweet child-voices about me, and by the exquisite +consideration and tenderness which are the atmosphere (some would call +it the hothouse atmosphere) of this house. But with the bare, hard +life, and the bare, bleak mountains around, who could find fault with +even a hothouse atmosphere, if it can nourish such a flower of Paradise +as sacred human love? +</P> + +<P> +The mercury is eleven degrees below zero, and I have to keep my ink on +the stove to prevent it from freezing. The cold is intense—a clear, +brilliant, stimulating cold, so dry that even in my threadbare flannel +riding dress I do not suffer from it. I must now take up my narrative +of the nothings which have all the interest of SOMETHINGS to me. We +all got up before daybreak on Tuesday, and breakfasted at seven. I +have not seen the dawn for some time, with its amber fires deepening +into red, and the snow peaks flushing one by one, and it seemed a new +miracle. It was a west wind, and we all thought it promised well. I +took only two pounds of luggage, some raisins, the mailbag, and an +additional blanket under my saddle. I had not been up from the park at +sunrise before, and it was quite glorious, the purple depths of +M'Ginn's Gulch, from which at a height of 9,000 feet you look down on +the sunlit park 1,500 feet below, lying in a red haze, with its pearly +needle-shaped peaks, framed by mountain sides dark with pines—my +glorious, solitary, unique mountain home! The purple sun rose in +front. Had I known what made it purple I should certainly have gone no +farther. Then clouds, the morning mist as I supposed, lifted +themselves up rose lighted, showing the sun's disc as purple as one of +the jars in a chemist's window, and having permitted this glimpse of +their king, came down again as a dense mist, the wind chopped round, +and the mist began to freeze hard. Soon Birdie and myself were a mass +of acicular crystals; it was a true easterly fog. I galloped on, +hoping to get through it, unable to see a yard before me; but it +thickened, and I was obliged to subside into a jog-trot. +</P> + +<P> +As I rode on, about four miles from the cabin, a human figure, looking +gigantic like the spectre of the Brocken, with long hair white as snow, +appeared close to me, and at the same moment there was the flash of a +pistol close to my ear, and I recognized "Mountain Jim" frozen from +head to foot, looking a century old with his snowy hair. It was "ugly" +altogether certainly, a "desperado's" grim jest, and it was best to +accept it as such, though I had just cause for displeasure. He stormed +and scolded, dragged me off the pony—for my hands and feet were numb +with cold—took the bridle, and went off at a rapid stride, so that I +had to run to keep them in sight in the darkness, for we were off the +road in a thicket of scrub, looking like white branch coral, I knew not +where. Then we came suddenly on his cabin, and dear old "Ring," white +like all else; and the "ruffian" insisted on my going in, and he made a +good fire, and heated some coffee, raging all the time. He said +everything against my going forward, except that it was dangerous; all +he said came true, and here I am safe! Your letters, however, +outweighed everything but danger, and I decided on going on, when he +said, "I've seen many foolish people, but never one so foolish as +you—you haven't a grain of sense. Why, I, an old mountaineer, +wouldn't go down to the Plains to-day." I told him he could not, +though he would like it very much, for that he had turned his horses +loose; on which he laughed heartily, and more heartily still at the +stories I told him of young Lyman, so that I have still a doubt how +much of the dark moods I have lately seen was assumed. +</P> + +<P> +He took me back to the track; and the interview which began with a +pistol shot, ended quite pleasantly. It was an eerie ride, one not to +be forgotten, though there was no danger. I could not recognize any +localities. Every tree was silvered, and the fir-tree tufts of needles +looked like white chrysanthemums. The snow lay a foot deep in the +gulches, with its hard, smooth surface marked by the feet of +innumerable birds and beasts. Ice bridges had formed across all the +streams, and I crossed them without knowing when. Gulches looked +fathomless abysses, with clouds boiling up out of them, and shaggy +mountain summits, half seen for a moment through the eddies, as quickly +vanished. Everything looked vast and indefinite. Then a huge +creation, like one of Dore's phantom illustrations, with much breathing +of wings, came sailing towards me in a temporary opening in the mist. +As with a strange rustle it passed close over my head, I saw, for the +first time, the great mountain eagle, carrying a good-sized beast in +his talons. It was a noble vision. Then there were ten miles of +metamorphosed gulches—silent, awful—many ice bridges, then a frozen +drizzle, and then the winds changed from east to north-east. Birdie +was covered with exquisite crystals, and her long mane and the long +beard which covers her throat were pure white. I saw that I must give +up crossing the mountains to this place by an unknown trail; and I +struck the old trail to the St. Vrain, which I had never traveled +before, but which I knew to be more legible than the new one. The fog +grew darker and thicker, the day colder and windier, the drifts deeper; +but Birdie, whose four cunning feet had carried me 600 miles, and who +in all difficulties proves her value, never flinched or made a false +step, or gave me reason to be sorry that I had come on. +</P> + +<P> +I got down to the St. Vrain Canyon in good time, and stopped at a house +thirteen miles from Longmount to get oats. I was white from head to +foot, and my clothes were frozen stiff. The women gave me the usual +invitation, "Put your feet in the oven"; and I got my clothes thawed +and dried, and a delicious meal consisting of a basin of cream and +bread. They said it would be worse on the plains, for it was an +easterly storm; but as I was so used to riding, I could get on, so we +started at 2:30. Not far off I met Edwards going up at last to Estes +Park, and soon after the snow-storm began in earnest—or rather I +entered the storm, which had been going on there for several hours. By +that time I had reached the prairie, only eight miles from Longmount, +and pushed on. It was simply fearful. It was twilight from the thick +snow, and I faced a furious east wind loaded with fine, hard-frozen +crystals, which literally made my face bleed. I could only see a very +short distance anywhere; the drifts were often two feet deep, and only +now and then, through the blinding whirl, I caught a glimpse of snow +through which withered sunflowers did not protrude, and then I knew +that I was on the track. But reaching a wild place, I lost it, and +still cantered on, trusting to the pony's sagacity. It failed for +once, for she took me on a lake and we fell through the ice into the +water, 100 yards from land, and had a hard fight back again. It grew +worse and worse. I had wrapped up my face, but the sharp, hard snow +beat on my eyes—the only exposed part—bringing tears into them, which +froze and closed up my eye-lids at once. You cannot imagine what that +was. +</P> + +<P> +I had to take off one glove to pick one eye open, for as to the other, +the storm beat so savagely against it that I left it frozen, and drew +over it the double piece of flannel which protected my face. I could +hardly keep the other open by picking the ice from it constantly with +my numb fingers, in doing which I got the back of my hand slightly +frostbitten. It was truly awful at the time. I often thought, +"Suppose I am going south instead of east? Suppose Birdie should fail? +Suppose it should grow quite dark?" I was mountaineer enough to shake +these fears off and keep up my spirits, but I knew how many had +perished on the prairie in similar storms. I calculated that if I did +not reach Longmount in half an hour it would be quite dark, and that I +should be so frozen or paralyzed with cold that I should fall off. +</P> + +<P> +Not a quarter of an hour after I had wondered how long I could hold on +I saw, to my surprise, close to me, half-smothered in snow, the +scattered houses and blessed lights of Longmount, and welcome, indeed, +its wide, dreary, lifeless, soundless road looked! When I reached the +hotel I was so benumbed that I could not get off, and the worthy host +lifted me off and carried me in. +</P> + +<P> +Not expecting any travelers, they had no fire except in the bar-room, +so they took me to the stove in their own room, gave me a hot drink and +plenty of blankets and in half an hour I was all right and ready for a +ferocious meal. "If there's a traveler on the prairie to-night, God +help him!" the host had said to his wife just before I came in. +</P> + +<P> +I found Evans there, storm stayed, and that—to his great credit at the +time—my money matters were all right. After the sound and refreshing +sleep which one gets in this splendid climate, I was ready for an early +start, but, warned by yesterday's experience, waited till twelve to be +sure of the weather. The air was intensely clear, and the mercury +SEVENTEEN DEGREES BELOW ZERO! The snow sparkled and snapped under +one's feet. It was gloriously beautiful! In this climate, if you only +go out for a short time you do not feel cold even without a hat, or any +additional wrappings. I bought a cardigan for myself, however, and +some thick socks, got some stout snow-shoes for Birdie's hind feet, had +a pleasant talk with some English friends, did some commissions for the +men in the park, and hung about waiting for a freight train to break +the track, but eventually, inspirited by the good news from you, left +Longmount alone, and for the last time. I little thought that +miserable, broiling day on which I arrived at it with Dr. and Mrs. +Hughes, of the glories of which it was the gate, and of the "good +times" I should have. Now I am at home in it; every one in it and +along the St. Vrain Canyon addresses me in a friendly way by name; and +the newspapers, with their intolerable personality, have made me and my +riding exploits so notorious, that travelers speak courteously to me +when they meet me on the prairie, doubtless wishing to see what sort of +monster I am! I have met nothing but civility, both of manner and +speech, except that distraught pistol shot. It looked icily beautiful, +the snow so pure and the sky such a bright, sharp blue! The snow was +so deep and level that after a few miles I left the track, and steering +for Storm Peak, rode sixteen miles over the pathless prairie without +seeing man, bird, or beast—a solitude awful even in the bright +sunshine. The cold, always great, became piteous. I increased the +frostbite of yesterday by exposing my hand in mending the stirrup; and +when the sun sank in indescribable beauty behind the mountains, and +color rioted in the sky, I got off and walked the last four miles, and +stole in here in the colored twilight without any one seeing me. +</P> + +<P> +The life of which I wrote before is scarcely less severe, though +lightened by a hope of change, and this weather brings out some special +severities. The stove has to be in the living-room, the children +cannot go out, and, good and delightful as they are, it is hard for +them to be shut up all day with four adults. It is more of a trouble +than you would think for a lady in precarious health that before each +meal, eggs, butter, milk, preserves, and pickles have to be unfrozen. +Unless they are kept on the stove, there is no part of the room in +which they do not freeze. It is uninteresting down here in the Foot +Hills. I long for the rushing winds, the piled-up peaks, the great +pines, the wild night noises, the poetry and the prose of the free, +jolly life of my unrivalled eyrie. I can hardly realize that the river +which lies ice bound outside this house is the same which flashes +through Estes Park, and which I saw snow born on Long's Peak. +</P> + +<P> +Yesterday morning the mercury had disappeared, so it was 20 degrees +below zero at least. I lay awake from cold all night, but such is the +wonderful effect of the climate, that when I got up at half-past five +to waken the household for my early start, I felt quite refreshed. We +breakfasted on buffalo beef, and I left at eight to ride forty-five +miles before night, Dr. Hughes and a gentleman who was staying there +convoying me the first fifteen miles. I did like that ride, racing +with the other riders, careering through the intoxicating air in that +indescribable sunshine, the powdery snow spurned from the horses' feet +like dust! I was soon warm. We stopped at a trapper's ranch to feed, +and the old trapper amused me by seeming to think Estes Park almost +inaccessible in winter. The distance was greater than I had been told, +and he said that I could not get there before eleven at night, and not +at all if there was much drift. I wanted the gentlemen to go on with +me as far as the Devil's Gate, but they could not because their horses +were tired; and when the trapper heard that he exclaimed, indignantly, +"What! that woman going into the mountains alone? She'll lose the +track or be froze to death!" But when I told him I had ridden the +trail in the storm of Tuesday, and had ridden over 600 miles alone in +the mountains, he treated me with great respect as a fellow +mountaineer, and gave me some matches, saying, "You'll have to camp out +anyhow; you'd better make a fire than be froze to death." The idea of +my spending the night in the forest alone, by a fire, struck me as most +grotesque. +</P> + +<P> +We did not start again till one, and the two gentlemen rode the first +two miles with me. On that track, the Little Thompson, there a full +stream, has to be crossed eighteen times, and they had been hauling +wood across it, breaking it, and it had broken and refrozen several +times, making thick and thin places—indeed, there were crossings which +even I thought bad, where the ice let us through, and it was hard for +the horses to struggle upon it again; and one of the gentlemen who, +though a most accomplished man, was not a horseman, was once or twice +in the ludicrous position of hesitating on the bank with an anxious +face, not daring to spur his horse upon the ice. After they left me I +had eight more crossings, and then a ride of six miles, before I +reached the old trail; but though there were several drifts up to the +saddle, and no one had broken a track, Birdie showed such a pluck, that +instead of spending the night by a camp-fire, or not getting in till +midnight, I reached Mr. Nugent's cabin, four miles from Estes Park, +only an hour after dark, very cold, and with the pony so tired that she +could hardly put one foot before another. Indeed, I walked the last +three miles. I saw light through the chinks but, hearing an earnest +conversation within, was just about to withdraw, when "Ring" barked, +and on his master coming to the door I found that the solitary man was +talking to his dog. He was looking out for me, and had some coffee +ready, and a large fire, which were very pleasant; and I was very glad +to get the latest news from the park. He said that Evans told him that +it would be most difficult for any one of them to take me down to the +Plains, but that he would go, which is a great relief. According to +the Scotch proverb, "Better a finger off than aye wagging," and as I +cannot live here (for you would not like the life or climate), the +sooner I leave the better. +</P> + +<P> +The solitary ride to Evans's was very eerie. It was very dark, and the +noises were unintelligible. Young Lyman rushed out to take my horse, +and the light and warmth within were delightful, but there was a +stiffness about the new regime. Evans, though steeped in difficulties, +was as hearty and generous as ever; but Edwards, who had assumed the +management, is prudent, if not parsimonious, thinks we wasted the +supplies recklessly, and the limitations as to milk, etc., are +painfully apparent. A young ex-Guardsman has come up with Evans, of +whom the sanguine creature forms great expectations, to be disappointed +doubtless. In the afternoon of yesterday a gentleman came who I +thought was another stranger, strikingly handsome, well dressed, and +barely forty, with sixteen shining gold curls falling down his collar; +he walked in, and it was only after a careful second look that I +recognized in our visitor the redoubtable "desperado." Evans +courteously pressed him to stay and dine with us, and not only did he +show the most singular conversational dexterity in talking with the +stranger, who was a very well-informed man, and had seen a great deal +of the world, but, though he lives and eats like a savage, his manners +and way of eating were as refined as possible. I notice that Evans is +never quite himself or perfectly comfortable when he is there; and on +the part of the other there is a sort of stiffly-assumed cordiality, +significant, I fear of lurking hatred on both sides. I was in the +kitchen after dinner making rolled puddings, young Lyman was eating up +the relics as usual, "Jim" was singing one of Moore's melodies, the +others being in the living-room, when Mr. Kavan and Mr. Buchan came +from "up the creek" to wish me good-bye. They said it was not half so +much like home now, and recalled the "good time" we had had for three +weeks. Lyman having lost the ow, we have no milk. No one makes bread; +they dry the venison into chips, and getting the meals at all seems a +work of toil and difficulty, instead of the pleasure it used to be to +us. Evans, since tea, has told me all his troubles and worries. He is +a kind, generous, whole-hearted, unsuspicious man, a worse enemy to +himself, I believe, than to any other; but I feel sadly that the future +of a man who has not stronger principles than he has must be at the +best very insecure. +</P> + +<P> +<SPAN STYLE="margin-left: 16.5em">I. L. B.</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> +<H3> +Letter XVII +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +Woman's mission—The last morning—Crossing the St. Vrain—Miller—The +St. Vrain again—Crossing the prairie—"Jim's" dream—"Keeping +strangers"—The inn kitchen—A reputed child-eater—Notoriety—A quiet +dance—"Jim's" resolve—The frost-fall—An unfortunate introduction. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +CHEYENNE, WYOMING, December 12. +</P> + +<P> +The last evening came. I did not wish to realize it, as I looked at +the snow-peaks glistening in the moonlight. No woman will be seen in +the park till next May. Young Lyman talked in a "hifalutin" style, but +with some truth in it, of the influence of a woman's presence, how +"low, mean, vulgar talk" had died out on my return, how they had "all +pulled themselves up," and how Mr. Kavan and Mr. Buchan had said they +would like always to be as quiet and gentlemanly as when a lady was +with them. "By May," he said, "we shall be little better than brutes, +in our manners at least." I have seen a great deal of the roughest +class of men both on sea and land during the last two years, and the +more important I think the "mission" of every quiet, refined, +self-respecting woman—the more mistaken I think those who would +forfeit it by noisy self-assertion, masculinity, or fastness. In all +this wild West the influence of woman is second only in its benefits to +the influence of religion, and where the last unhappily does not exist +the first continually exerts its restraining power. The last morning +came. I cleaned up my room and sat at the window watching the red and +gold of one of the most glorious of winter sunrises, and the slow +lighting-up of one peak after another. I have written that this +scenery is not lovable, but I love it. +</P> + +<P> +I left on Birdie at 11 o'clock, Evans riding with me as far as Mr. +Nugent's. He was telling me so many things, that at the top of the +hill I forgot to turn round and take a last look at my colossal, +resplendent, lonely, sunlit den, but it was needless, for I carry it +away with me. I should not have been able to leave if Mr. Nugent had +not offered his services. His chivalry to women is so well known, that +Evans said I could be safer and better cared for with no one. He +added, "His heart is good and kind, as kind a heart as ever beat. He's +a great enemy of his own, but he's been living pretty quietly for the +last four years." At the door of his den I took leave of Birdie, who +had been my faithful companion for more than 700 miles of traveling, +and of Evans, who had been uniformly kind to me and just in all his +dealings, even to paying to me at that moment the very last dollar he +owed me. May God bless him and his! He was obliged to return before I +could get off, and as he commended me to Mr. Nugent's care, the two men +shook hands kindly.[21] +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[21]Some months later "Mountain Jim" fell by Evans's hand, shot from +Evans's doorstep while riding past his cabin. The story of the +previous weeks is dark, sad, and evil. Of the five differing versions +which have been written to me of the act itself and its immediate +causes, it is best to give none. The tragedy is too painful to dwell +upon. "Jim" lived long enough to give his own statement, and to appeal +to the judgment of God, but died in low delirium before the case +reached a human tribunal. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Rich spoils of beavers' skins were lying on the cabin floor, and the +trapper took the finest, a mouse-colored kitten beaver's skin, and +presented it to me. I hired his beautiful Arab mare, whose springy +step and long easy stride was a relief after Birdie's short sturdy +gait. We had a very pleasant ride, and I seldom had to walk. We took +neither of the trails, but cut right through the forest to a place +where, through an opening in the Foot Hills, the Plains stretched to +the horizon covered with snow, the surface of which, having melted and +frozen, reflected as water would the pure blue of the sky, presenting a +complete optical illusion. It required my knowledge of fact to assure +me that I was not looking at the ocean. "Jim" shortened the way by +repeating a great deal of poetry, and by earnest, reasonable +conversation, so that I was quite surprised when it grew dark. He told +me that he never lay down to sleep without prayer—prayer chiefly that +God would give him a happy death. He had previously promised that he +would not hurry or scold, but "fyking" had not been included in the +arrangement, and when in the early darkness we reached the steep hill, +at whose foot the rapid deep St. Vrain flows, he "fyked" unreasonably +about me, the mare, and the crossing generally, and seemed to think I +could not get through, for the ice had been cut with an axe, and we +could not see whether "glaze" had formed since or not. +</P> + +<P> +I was to have slept at the house of a woman farther down the canyon, +who never ceases talking, but Miller, the young man whose attractive +house and admirable habits I have mentioned before, came out and said +his house was "now fixed for ladies," so we stayed there, and I was +"made as comfortable" as could be. His house is a model. He cleans +everything as soon as it is used, so nothing is ever dirty, and his +stove and cooking gear in their bright parts look like polished silver. +It was amusing to hear the two men talk like two women about various +ways of making bread and biscuits, one even writing out a recipe for +the other. It was almost grievous that a solitary man should have the +power of making a house so comfortable! They heated a stone for my +feet, warmed a blanket for me to sleep in, and put logs enough on the +fire to burn all night, for the mercury was eleven below zero. The +stars were intensely bright, and a well-defined auroral arch, throwing +off fantastic coruscations, lighted the whole northern sky. Yet I was +only in the Foot Hills, and Long's glorious Peak was not to be seen. +Miller had all his things "washed up" and his "pots and pans" cleaned +in ten minutes after supper, and then had the whole evening in which to +smoke and enjoy himself—a poor woman would probably have been "fussing +round" till 10 o'clock about the same work. Besides Ring there was +another gigantic dog craving for notice, and two large cats, which, the +whole evening, were on their master's knee. Cold as the night was, the +house was chinked, and the rooms felt quite warm. I even missed the +free currents of air which I had been used to! This was my last +evening in what may be called a mountainous region. +</P> + +<P> +The next morning, as soon as the sun was well risen, we left for our +journey of 30 miles, which had to be done nearly at a foot's pace, +owing to one horse being encumbered with my luggage. I did not wish to +realize that it was my last ride, and my last association with any of +the men of the mountains whom I had learned to trust, and in some +respects to admire. No more hunters' tales told while the pine knots +crack and blaze; no more thrilling narratives of adventures with +Indians and bears; and never again shall I hear that strange talk of +Nature and her doings which is the speech of those who live with her +and her alone. Already the dismalness of a level land comes over me. +The canyon of the St. Vrain was in all its glory of color, but we had a +remarkably ugly crossing of that brilliant river, which was frozen all +over, except an unpleasant gap of about two feet in the middle. Mr. +Nugent had to drive the frightened horses through, while I, having +crossed on some logs lower down, had to catch them on the other side as +they plunged to shore trembling with fear. Then we emerged on the vast +expanse of the glittering Plains, and a sudden sweep of wind made the +cold so intolerable that I had to go into a house to get warm. This +was the last house we saw till we reached our destination that night. +I never saw the mountain range look so beautiful—uplifted in every +shade of transparent blue, till the sublimity of Long's Peak, and the +lofty crest of Storm Peak, bore only unsullied snow against the sky. +Peaks gleamed in living light; canyons lay in depths of purple shade; +100 miles away Pike's Peak rose a lump of blue, and over all, through +that glorious afternoon, a veil of blue spiritualized without dimming +the outlines of that most glorious range, making it look like the +dreamed-of mountains of "the land which is very far off," till at +sunset it stood out sharp in glories of violet and opal, and the whole +horizon up to a great height was suffused with the deep rose and pure +orange of the afterglow. It seemed all dream-like as we passed through +the sunlit solitude, on the right the prairie waves lessening towards +the far horizon, while on the left they broke in great snowy surges +against the Rocky Mountains. All that day we neither saw man, beast, +nor bird. "Jim" was silent mostly. Like all true children of the +mountains, he pined even when temporarily absent from them. +</P> + +<P> +At sunset we reached a cluster of houses called Namaqua, where, to my +dismay, I heard that there was to be a dance at the one little inn to +which we were going at St. Louis. I pictured to myself no privacy, no +peace, no sleep, drinking, low sounds, and worse than all, "Jim" +getting into a quarrel and using his pistols. He was uncomfortable +about it for another reason. He said he had dreamt the night before +that there was to be a dance, and that he had to shoot a man for making +"an unpleasant remark." +</P> + +<P> +For the last three miles which we accomplished after sunset the cold +was most severe, but nothing could exceed the beauty of the afterglow, +and the strange look of the rolling plains of snow beneath it. When we +got to the queer little place where they "keep strangers" at St. Louis, +they were very civil, and said that after supper we could have the +kitchen to ourselves. I found a large, prononcee, competent, bustling +widow, hugely stout, able to manage all men and everything else, and a +very florid sister like herself, top heavy with hair. There were +besides two naughty children in the kitchen, who cried incessantly, and +kept opening and shutting the door. There was no place to sit down but +a wooden chair by the side of the kitchen stove, at which supper was +being cooked for ten men. The bustle and clatter were indescribable, +and the landlady asked innumerable questions, and seemed to fill the +whole room. The only expedient for me for the night was to sleep on a +shake-down in a very small room occupied by the two women and the +children, and even this was not available till midnight, when the dance +terminated; and there was no place in which to wash except a bowl in +the kitchen. I sat by the stove till supper, wearying of the noise and +bustle after the quiet of Estes Park. +</P> + +<P> +The landlady asked, with great eagerness, who the gentleman was who was +with me, and said that the men outside were saying that they were sure +that it was "Rocky Mountain Jim," but she was sure it was not. When I +told her that the men were right, she exclaimed, "Do tell! I want to +know! that quiet, kind gentleman!" and she said she used to frighten +her children when they were naughty by telling them that "he would get +them, for he came down from the mountains every week, and took back a +child with him to eat!" She was as proud of having him in her house as +if he had been the President, and I gained a reflected importance! All +the men in the settlement assembled in the front room, hoping he would +go and smoke there, and when he remained in the kitchen they came round +the window and into the doorway to look at him. The children got on +his knee, and, to my great relief, he kept them good and quiet, and let +them play with his curls, to the great delight of the two women, who +never took their eyes off him. At last the bad-smelling supper was +served, and ten silent men came in and gobbled it up, staring steadily +at "Jim" as they gobbled. Afterwards, there seemed no hope of quiet, +so we went to the post-office, and while waiting for stamps were shown +into the prettiest and most ladylike-looking room I have seen in the +West, created by a pretty and refined-looking woman. She made an +opportunity for asking me if it were true that the gentleman with me +was "Mountain Jim," and added that so very gentlemanly a person could +not be guilty of the misdeeds attributed to him. +</P> + +<P> +When we returned, the kitchen was much quieter. It was cleared by +eight, as the landlady promised; we had it to ourselves till twelve, +and could scarcely hear the music. It was a most respectable dance, a +fortnightly gathering got up by the neighboring settlers, most of them +young married people, and there was no drinking at all. I wrote to you +for some time, while Mr. Nugent copied for himself the poems "In the +Glen" and the latter half of "The River without a Bridge," which he +recited with deep feeling. It was altogether very quiet and peaceful. +He repeated to me several poems of great merit which he had composed, +and told me much more about his life. I knew that no one else could or +would speak to him as I could, and for the last time I urged upon him +the necessity of a reformation in his life, beginning with the giving +up of whisky, going so far as to tell him that I despised a man of his +intellect for being a slave to such a vice. "Too late! too late!" he +always answered, "for such a change." Ay, TOO LATE. He shed tears +quietly. "It might have been once," he said. Ay, MIGHT have been. He +has excellent sense for every one but himself, and, as I have seen him +with a single exception, a gentleness, propriety, and considerateness +of manner surprising in any man, but especially so in a man associating +only with the rough men of the West. As I looked at him, I felt a pity +such as I never before felt for a human being. +</P> + +<P> +My thought at the moment was, Will not our Father in heaven, "who +spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all," be far more +pitiful? For the time a desire for self-respect, better aspirations, +and even hope itself, entered his dark life; and he said, suddenly, +that he had made up his mind to give up whisky and his reputation as a +desperado. But it is "too late." A little before twelve the dance was +over, and I got to the crowded little bedroom, which only allowed of +one person standing in it at a time, to sleep soundly and dream of +"ninety-and-nine just persons who need no repentance." The landlady +was quite taken up with her "distinguished guest." "That kind, quiet +gentleman, Mountain Jim! Well, I never! he must be a very good man!" +</P> + +<P> +Yesterday morning the mercury was 20 degrees below zero. I think I +never saw such a brilliant atmosphere. That curious phenomenon called +frost-fall was occurring, in which, whatever moisture may exist in the +air, somehow aggregates into feathers and fern leaves, the loveliest of +creations, only seen in rarefied air and intense cold. One breath and +they vanish. The air was filled with diamond sparks quite intangible. +They seemed just glitter and no more. It was still and cloudless, and +the shapes of violet mountains were softened by a veil of the tenderest +blue. When the Greeley stage wagon came up, Mr. Fodder, whom I met at +Lower Canyon, was on it. He had expressed a great wish to go to Estes +Park, and to hunt with "Mountain Jim," if it would be safe to do the +latter. He was now dressed in the extreme of English dandyism, and +when I introduced them, he put out a small hand cased in a +perfectly-fitting lemon-colored kid glove.[22] As the trapper stood +there in his grotesque rags and odds and ends of apparel, his +gentlemanliness of deportment brought into relief the innate vulgarity +of a rich parvenu. Mr. Fodder rattled so amusingly as we drove away +that I never realized that my Rocky Mountain life was at an end, not +even when I saw "Mountain Jim," with his golden hair yellow in the +sunshine, slowly leading the beautiful mare over the snowy Plains back +to Estes Park, equipped with the saddle on which I had ridden 800 miles! +</P> + +<P CLASS="footnote"> +[22] This was a truly unfortunate introduction. It was the first link +in the chain of circumstances which brought about Mr. Nugent's untimely +end, and it was at this person's instigation (when overcome by fear) +that Evans fired the shot which proved fatal. +</P> + +<P> +A drive of several hours over the Plains brought us to Greeley, and a +few hours later, in the far blue distance, the Rocky Mountains, and all +that they enclose, went down below the prairie sea. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +I. L. B. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, by +Isabella L. 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Bird + +Release Date: January 17, 2008 [EBook #755] +[Last updated: July 24, 2011] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LADY'S LIFE IN ROCKY MOUNTAINS *** + + + + + + + + + +A LADY'S LIFE + +IN THE + +ROCKY MOUNTAINS + + +Isabella L. Bird + + +Introduction by + +Ann Ronald + +University of Nevada, Reno + + + + + To My Sister, + to whom + these letters were originally written, + they are now + affectionately dedicated. + + + + +Contents + + +Introduction, by Ann Ronald + +LETTER I + +Lake Tahoe--Morning in San Francisco--Dust--A Pacific +mail-train--Digger Indians--Cape Horn--A mountain hotel--A pioneer--A +Truckee livery stable--A mountain stream--Finding a bear--Tahoe. + +LETTER II + +A lady's "get-up"--Grizzly bears--The "Gem of the Sierras"--A tragic +tale--A carnival of color. + +LETTER III + +A Temple of Morpheus--Utah--A "God-forgotten" town--A distressed +couple--Dog villages--A temperance colony--A Colorado inn--The bug +pest--Fort Collins. + +LETTER IV + +A plague of flies--A melancholy charioteer--The Foot Hills--A mountain +boarding-house--A dull life--"Being agreeable"--Climate of +Colorado--Soroche and snakes. + +LETTER V + +A dateless day--"Those hands of yours"--A Puritan--Persevering +shiftlessness--The house-mother--Family worship--A grim Sunday--A +"thick-skulled Englishman"--A morning call--Another atmosphere--The +Great Lone Land--"Ill found"--A log camp--Bad footing for +horses--Accidents--Disappointment. + +LETTER VI + +A bronco mare--An accident--Wonderland--A sad story--The children of +the Territories--Hard greed--Halcyon hours--Smartness--Old-fashioned +prejudices--The Chicago colony--Good luck--Three notes of admiration--A +good horse--The St. Vrain--The Rocky Mountains at last--"Mountain +Jim"--A death hug--Estes Park. + +LETTER VII + +Personality of Long's Peak--"Mountain Jim"--Lake of the Lilies--A +silent forest--The camping ground--"Ring"--A lady's bower--Dawn and +sunrise--A glorious view--Links of diamonds--The ascent of the +Peak--The "Dog's Lift"--Suffering from thirst--The descent--The bivouac. + +LETTER VIII + +Estes Park--Big game--"Parks" in Colorado--Magnificent scenery--Flowers +and pines--An awful road--Our log cabin--Griffith Evans--A miniature +world--Our topics--A night alarm--A skunk--Morning glories--Daily +routine--The panic--"Wait for the wagon"--A musical evening. + +LETTER IX + +"Please Ma'ams"--A desperado--A cattle hunt--The muster--A mad cow--A +snowstorm--Snowed up--Birdie--The Plains--A prairie schooner--Denver--A +find--Plum Creek--"Being agreeable"--Snowbound--The grey mare. + +LETTER X + +A white world--Bad traveling--A millionaire's home--Pleasant +Park--Perry's Park--Stock-raising--A cattle king--The Arkansas +Divide--Birdie's sagacity--Luxury--Monument Park--Deference to +prejudice--A death scene--The Manitou--A loose shoe--The Ute +Pass--Bergens Park--A settler's home--Hayden's Divide--Sharp +criticism--Speaking the truth. + +LETTER XI + +Tarryall Creek--The Red Range--Excelsior--Importunate pedlars--Snow and +heat--A bison calf--Deep drifts--South Park--The Great Divide--Comanche +Bill--Difficulties--Hall's Gulch--A Lord Dundreary--Ridiculous fears. + +LETTER XII + +Deer Valley--Lynch law--Vigilance committees--The silver spruce--Taste +and abstinence--The whisky fiend--Smartness--Turkey Creek Canyon--The +Indian problem--Public rascality--Friendly meetings--The way to the +Golden City--A rising settlement--Clear Creek +Canyon--Staging--Swearing--A mountain town. + +LETTER XIII + +The blight of mining--Green Lake--Golden +City--Benighted--Vertigo--Boulder Canyon--Financial straits--A hard +ride--The last cent--A bachelor's home--"Mountain Jim"--A surprise--A +night arrival--Making the best of it--Scanty fare. + +LETTER XIV + +A dismal ride--A desperado's tale--"Lost! Lost! Lost!"--Winter +glories--Solitude--Hard times--Intense cold--A pack of wolves--The +beaver dams--Ghastly scenes--Venison steaks--Our evenings. + +LETTER XV + +A whisky slave--The pleasures of monotony--The mountain lion--"Another +mouth to feed"--A tiresome boy--An outcast--Thanksgiving Day--The +newcomer--A literary humbug--Milking a dry cow--Trout-fishing--A +snow-storm--A desperado's den. + +LETTER XVI + +A harmonious home--Intense cold--A purple sun--A grim jest--A perilous +ride--Frozen eyelids--Longmount--The pathless prairie--Hardships of +emigrant life--A trapper's advice--The Little Thompson--Evans and "Jim." + +LETTER XVII + +Woman's mission--The last morning--Crossing the St. Vrain--Miller--The +St. Vrain again--Crossing the prairie--"Jim's" dream--"Keeping +strangers"--The inn kitchen--A reputed child-eater--Notoriety--A quiet +dance--"Jim's" resolve--The frost-fall--An unfortunate introduction. + + + + +Letter I + +Lake Tahoe--Morning in San Francisco--Dust--A Pacific +mail-train--Digger Indians--Cape Horn--A mountain hotel--A pioneer--A +Truckee livery stable--A mountain stream--Finding a bear--Tahoe. + +LAKE TAHOE, September 2. + +I have found a dream of beauty at which one might look all one's life +and sigh. Not lovable, like the Sandwich Islands, but beautiful in its +own way! A strictly North American beauty--snow-splotched mountains, +huge pines, red-woods, sugar pines, silver spruce; a crystalline +atmosphere, waves of the richest color; and a pine-hung lake which +mirrors all beauty on its surface. Lake Tahoe is before me, a sheet of +water twenty-two miles long by ten broad, and in some places 1,700 feet +deep. It lies at a height of 6,000 feet, and the snow-crowned summits +which wall it in are from 8,000 to 11,000 feet in altitude. The air is +keen and elastic. There is no sound but the distant and slightly +musical ring of the lumberer's axe. + +It is a weariness to go back, even in thought, to the clang of San +Francisco, which I left in its cold morning fog early yesterday, +driving to the Oakland ferry through streets with side-walks heaped +with thousands of cantaloupe and water-melons, tomatoes, cucumbers, +squashes, pears, grapes, peaches, apricots--all of startling size as +compared with any I ever saw before. Other streets were piled with +sacks of flour, left out all night, owing to the security from rain at +this season. I pass hastily over the early part of the journey, the +crossing the bay in a fog as chill as November, the number of "lunch +baskets," which gave the car the look of conveying a great picnic +party, the last view of the Pacific, on which I had looked for nearly a +year, the fierce sunshine and brilliant sky inland, the look of long +RAINLESSNESS, which one may not call drought, the valleys with sides +crimson with the poison oak, the dusty vineyards, with great purple +clusters thick among the leaves, and between the vines great dusty +melons lying on the dusty earth. From off the boundless harvest fields +the grain was carried in June, and it is now stacked in sacks along the +track, awaiting freightage. California is a "land flowing with milk +and honey." The barns are bursting with fullness. In the dusty +orchards the apple and pear branches are supported, that they may not +break down under the weight of fruit; melons, tomatoes, and squashes of +gigantic size lie almost unheeded on the ground; fat cattle, gorged +almost to repletion, shade themselves under the oaks; superb "red" +horses shine, not with grooming, but with condition; and thriving farms +everywhere show on what a solid basis the prosperity of the "Golden +State" is founded. Very uninviting, however rich, was the blazing +Sacramento Valley, and very repulsive the city of Sacramento, which, at +a distance of 125 miles from the Pacific, has an elevation of only +thirty feet. The mercury stood at 103 degrees in the shade, and the +fine white dust was stifling. + +In the late afternoon we began the ascent of the Sierras, whose sawlike +points had been in sight for many miles. The dusty fertility was all +left behind, the country became rocky and gravelly, and deeply scored +by streams bearing the muddy wash of the mountain gold mines down to +the muddier Sacramento. There were long broken ridges and deep +ravines, the ridges becoming longer, the ravines deeper, the pines +thicker and larger, as we ascended into a cool atmosphere of exquisite +purity, and before 6 P.M. the last traces of cultivation and the last +hardwood trees were left behind.[1] + +[1] In consequence of the unobserved omission of a date to my letters +having been pointed out to me, I take this opportunity of stating that +I traveled in Colorado in the autumn and early winter of 1873, on my +way to England from the Sandwich Islands. The letters are a faithful +picture of the country and state of society as it then was; but friends +who have returned from the West within the last six months tell me that +things are rapidly changing, that the frame house is replacing the log +cabin, and that the footprints of elk and bighorn may be sought for in +vain on the dewy slopes of Estes Park. + + I. L. B. + +(Author's note to the third edition, January 16, 1880.) + + +At Colfax, a station at a height of 2,400 feet, I got out and walked +the length of the train. First came two great gaudy engines, the +Grizzly Bear and the White Fox, with their respective tenders loaded +with logs of wood, the engines with great, solitary, reflecting lamps +in front above the cow guards, a quantity of polished brass-work, +comfortable glass houses, and well-stuffed seats for the +engine-drivers. The engines and tenders were succeeded by a baggage +car, the latter loaded with bullion and valuable parcels, and in charge +of two "express agents." Each of these cars is forty-five feet long. +Then came two cars loaded with peaches and grapes; then two "silver +palace" cars, each sixty feet long; then a smoking car, at that time +occupied mainly by Chinamen; and then five ordinary passenger cars, +with platforms like all the others, making altogether a train about 700 +feet in length. + +The platforms of the four front cars were clustered over with Digger +Indians, with their squaws, children, and gear. They are perfect +savages, without any aptitude for even aboriginal civilization, and are +altogether the most degraded of the ill-fated tribes which are dying +out before the white races. They were all very diminutive, five feet +one inch being, I should think, about the average height, with flat +noses, wide mouths, and black hair, cut straight above the eyes and +hanging lank and long at the back and sides. The squaws wore their +hair thickly plastered with pitch, and a broad band of the same across +their noses and cheeks. They carried their infants on their backs, +strapped to boards. The clothing of both sexes was a ragged, dirty +combination of coarse woolen cloth and hide, the moccasins being +unornamented. They were all hideous and filthy, and swarming with +vermin. The men carried short bows and arrows, one of them, who +appeared to be the chief, having a lynx's skin for a quiver. A few had +fishing tackle, but the bystanders said that they lived almost entirely +upon grasshoppers. They were a most impressive incongruity in the +midst of the tokens of an omnipotent civilization. + +The light of the sinking sun from that time glorified the Sierras, and +as the dew fell, aromatic odors made the still air sweet. On a single +track, sometimes carried on a narrow ledge excavated from the mountain +side by men lowered from the top in baskets, overhanging ravines from +2,000 to 3,000 feet deep, the monster train SNAKED its way upwards, +stopping sometimes in front of a few frame houses, at others where +nothing was to be seen but a log cabin with a few Chinamen hanging +about it, but where trails on the sides of the ravines pointed to a +gold country above and below. So sharp and frequent are the curves on +some parts of the ascent, that on looking out of the window one could +seldom see more than a part of the train at once. At Cape Horn, where +the track curves round the ledge of a precipice 2,500 feet in depth, it +is correct to be frightened, and a fashion of holding the breath and +shutting the eyes prevails, but my fears were reserved for the crossing +of a trestle bridge over a very deep chasm, which is itself approached +by a sharp curve. This bridge appeared to be overlapped by the cars so +as to produce the effect of looking down directly into a wild gulch, +with a torrent raging along it at an immense depth below. + +Shivering in the keen, frosty air near the summit pass of the Sierras, +we entered the "snow-sheds," wooden galleries, which for about fifty +miles shut out all the splendid views of the region, as given in +dioramas, not even allowing a glimpse of "the Gem of the Sierras," the +lovely Donner Lake. One of these sheds is twenty-seven miles long. In +a few hours the mercury had fallen from 103 degrees to 29 degrees, and +we had ascended 6,987 feet in 105 miles! After passing through the +sheds, we had several grand views of a pine forest on fire before +reaching Truckee at 11 P.M. having traveled 258 miles. Truckee, the +center of the "lumbering region" of the Sierras, is usually spoken of +as "a rough mountain town," and Mr. W. had told me that all the roughs +of the district congregated there, that there were nightly pistol +affrays in bar-rooms, etc., but as he admitted that a lady was sure of +respect, and Mr. G. strongly advised me to stay and see the lakes, I +got out, much dazed, and very stupid with sleep, envying the people in +the sleeping car, who were already unconscious on their luxurious +couches. The cars drew up in a street--if street that could be called +which was only a wide, cleared space, intersected by rails, with here +and there a stump, and great piles of sawn logs bulking big in the +moonlight, and a number of irregular clap-board, steep-roofed houses, +many of them with open fronts, glaring with light and crowded with men. +We had pulled up at the door of a rough Western hotel, with a partially +open front, being a bar-room crowded with men drinking and smoking, and +the space between it and the cars was a moving mass of loafers and +passengers. On the tracks, engines, tolling heavy bells, were mightily +moving, the glare from their cyclopean eyes dulling the light of a +forest which was burning fitfully on a mountain side; and on open +spaces great fires of pine logs were burning cheerily, with groups of +men round them. A band was playing noisily, and the unholy sound of +tom-toms was not far off. Mountains--the Sierras of many a fireside +dream--seemed to wall in the town, and great pines stood out, sharp and +clear cut, against a sky in which a moon and stars were shining +frostily. + +It was a sharp frost at that great height, and when an "irrepressible +nigger," who seemed to represent the hotel establishment, deposited me +and my carpetbag in a room which answered for "the parlor," I was glad +to find some remains of pine knots still alight in the stove. A man +came in and said that when the cars were gone he would try to get me a +room, but they were so full that it would be a very poor one. The +crowd was solely masculine. It was then 11:30 P.M., and I had not had +a meal since 6 A.M.; but when I asked hopefully for a hot supper, with +tea, I was told that no supper could be got at that hour; but in half +an hour the same man returned with a small cup of cold, weak tea, and a +small slice of bread, which looked as if it had been much handled. + +I asked the Negro factotum about the hire of horses, and presently a +man came in from the bar who, he said, could supply my needs. This +man, the very type of a Western pioneer, bowed, threw himself into a +rocking-chair, drew a spittoon beside him, cut a fresh quid of tobacco, +began to chew energetically, and put his feet, cased in miry high +boots, into which his trousers were tucked, on the top of the stove. +He said he had horses which would both "lope" and trot, that some +ladies preferred the Mexican saddle, that I could ride alone in perfect +safety; and after a route had been devised, I hired a horse for two +days. This man wore a pioneer's badge as one of the earliest settlers +of California, but he had moved on as one place after another had +become too civilized for him, "but nothing," he added, "was likely to +change much in Truckee." I was afterwards told that the usual regular +hours of sleep are not observed there. The accommodation is too +limited for the population of 2,000,[2] which is masculine mainly, and +is liable to frequent temporary additions, and beds are occupied +continuously, though by different occupants, throughout the greater +part of the twenty-four hours. Consequently I found the bed and room +allotted to me quite tumbled looking. Men's coats and sticks were +hanging up, miry boots were littered about, and a rifle was in one +corner. There was no window to the outer air, but I slept soundly, +being only once awoke by an increase of the same din in which I had +fallen asleep, varied by three pistol shots fired in rapid succession. + +[2] Nelson's Guide to the Central Pacific Railroad. + + +This morning Truckee wore a totally different aspect. The crowds of +the night before had disappeared. There were heaps of ashes where the +fires had been. A sleepy German waiter seemed the only person about +the premises, the open drinking saloons were nearly empty, and only a +few sleepy-looking loafers hung about in what is called the street. It +might have been Sunday; but they say that it brings a great accession +of throng and jollity. Public worship has died out at present; work is +discontinued on Sunday, but the day is given up to pleasure. Putting a +minimum of indispensables into a bag, and slipping on my Hawaiian +riding dress[3] over a silk skirt, and a dust cloak over all, I +stealthily crossed the plaza to the livery stable, the largest building +in Truckee, where twelve fine horses were stabled in stalls on each +side of a broad drive. My friend of the evening before showed me his +"rig," three velvet-covered side-saddles almost without horns. Some +ladies, he said, used the horn of the Mexican saddle, but none "in the +part" rode cavalier fashion. I felt abashed. I could not ride any +distance in the conventional mode, and was just going to give up this +splendid "ravage," when the man said, "Ride your own fashion; here, at +Truckee, if anywhere in the world, people can do as they like." +Blissful Truckee! In no time a large grey horse was "rigged out" in a +handsome silver-bossed Mexican saddle, with ornamental leather tassels +hanging from the stirrup guards, and a housing of black bear's-skin. I +strapped my silk skirt on the saddle, deposited my cloak in the +corn-bin, and was safely on the horse's back before his owner had time +to devise any way of mounting me. Neither he nor any of the loafers +who had assembled showed the slightest sign of astonishment, but all +were as respectful as possible. + +[3] For the benefit of other lady travelers, I wish to explain that my +"Hawaiian riding dress" is the "American Lady's Mountain Dress," a +half-fitting jacket, a skirt reaching to the ankles, and full Turkish +trousers gathered into frills falling over the boots,--a thoroughly +serviceable and feminine costume for mountaineering and other rough +traveling, as in the Alps or any other part of the world. + + I. L. B. + +(Author's note to the second edition, November 27, 1879.) + + +Once on horseback my embarrassment disappeared, and I rode through +Truckee, whose irregular, steep-roofed houses and shanties, set down in +a clearing and surrounded closely by mountain and forest, looked like a +temporary encampment; passed under the Pacific Railroad; and then for +twelve miles followed the windings of the Truckee River, a clear, +rushing, mountain stream, in which immense pine logs had gone aground +not to be floated off till the next freshet, a loud-tongued, rollicking +stream of ice-cold water, on whose banks no ferns or trailers hang, and +which leaves no greenness along its turbulent progress. + +All was bright with that brilliancy of sky and atmosphere, that blaze +of sunshine and universal glitter, which I never saw till I came to +California, combined with an elasticity in the air which removed all +lassitude, and gives one spirit enough for anything. On either side of +the Truckee great sierras rose like walls, castellated, embattled, +rifted, skirted and crowned with pines of enormous size, the walls now +and then breaking apart to show some snow-slashed peak rising into a +heaven of intense, unclouded, sunny blue. At this altitude of 6,000 +feet one must learn to be content with varieties of Coniferae, for, +except for aspens, which spring up in some places where the pines have +been cleared away, and for cotton-woods, which at a lower level fringe +the streams, there is nothing but the bear cherry, the raspberry, the +gooseberry, the wild grape, and the wild currant. None of these grew +near the Truckee, but I feasted my eyes on pines[4] which, though not +so large as the Wellingtonia of the Yosemite, are really gigantic, +attaining a height of 250 feet, their huge stems, the warm red of cedar +wood, rising straight and branchless for a third of their height, their +diameter from seven to fifteen feet, their shape that of a larch, but +with the needles long and dark, and cones a foot long. Pines cleft the +sky; they were massed wherever level ground occurred; they stood over +the Truckee at right angles, or lay across it in prostrate grandeur. +Their stumps and carcasses were everywhere; and smooth "shoots" on the +sierras marked where they were shot down as "felled timber," to be +floated off by the river. To them this wild region owes its scattered +population, and the sharp ring of the lumberer's axe mingles with the +cries of wild beasts and the roar of mountain torrents. + +[4] Pinus Lambertina. + + +The track is a soft, natural, wagon road, very pleasant to ride on. +The horse was much too big for me, and had plans of his own; but now +and then, where the ground admitted to it, I tried his heavy "lope" +with much amusement. I met nobody, and passed nothing on the road but +a freight wagon, drawn by twenty-two oxen, guided by three fine-looking +men, who had some difficulty in making room for me to pass their +awkward convoy. After I had ridden about ten miles the road went up a +steep hill in the forest, turned abruptly, and through the blue gloom +of the great pines which rose from the ravine in which the river was +then hid, came glimpses of two mountains, about 11,000 feet in height, +whose bald grey summits were crowned with pure snow. It was one of +those glorious surprises in scenery which make one feel as if one must +bow down and worship. The forest was thick, and had an undergrowth of +dwarf spruce and brambles, but as the horse had become fidgety and +"scary" on the track, I turned off in the idea of taking a short cut, +and was sitting carelessly, shortening my stirrup, when a great, dark, +hairy beast rose, crashing and snorting, out of the tangle just in +front of me. I had only a glimpse of him, and thought that my +imagination had magnified a wild boar, but it was a bear. The horse +snorted and plunged violently, as if he would go down to the river, and +then turned, still plunging, up a steep bank, when, finding that I must +come off, I threw myself off on the right side, where the ground rose +considerably, so that I had not far to fall. I got up covered with +dust, but neither shaken nor bruised. It was truly grotesque and +humiliating. The bear ran in one direction, and the horse in another. +I hurried after the latter, and twice he stopped till I was close to +him, then turned round and cantered away. After walking about a mile +in deep dust, I picked up first the saddle-blanket and next my bag, and +soon came upon the horse, standing facing me, and shaking all over. I +thought I should catch him then, but when I went up to him he turned +round, threw up his heels several times, rushed off the track, galloped +in circles, bucking, kicking, and plunging for some time, and then +throwing up his heels as an act of final defiance, went off at full +speed in the direction of Truckee, with the saddle over his shoulders +and the great wooden stirrups thumping his sides, while I trudged +ignominiously along in the dust, laboriously carrying the bag and +saddle-blanket. + +I walked for nearly an hour, heated and hungry, when to my joy I saw +the ox-team halted across the top of a gorge, and one of the teamsters +leading the horse towards me. The young man said that, seeing the +horse coming, they had drawn the team across the road to stop him, and +remembering that he had passed them with a lady on him, they feared +that there had been an accident, and had just saddled one of their own +horses to go in search of me. He brought me some water to wash the +dust from my face, and re-saddled the horse, but the animal snorted and +plunged for some time before he would let me mount, and then sidled +along in such a nervous and scared way, that the teamster walked for +some distance by me to see that I was "all right." He said that the +woods in the neighborhood of Tahoe had been full of brown and grizzly +bears for some days, but that no one was in any danger from them. I +took a long gallop beyond the scene of my tumble to quiet the horse, +who was most restless and troublesome. + +Then the scenery became truly magnificent and bright with life. +Crested blue-jays darted through the dark pines, squirrels in hundreds +scampered through the forest, red dragon-flies flashed like "living +light," exquisite chipmunks ran across the track, but only a dusty blue +lupin here and there reminded me of earth's fairer children. Then the +river became broad and still, and mirrored in its transparent depths +regal pines, straight as an arrow, with rich yellow and green lichen +clinging to their stems, and firs and balsam pines filling up the +spaces between them, the gorge opened, and this mountain-girdled lake +lay before me, with its margin broken up into bays and promontories, +most picturesquely clothed by huge sugar pines. It lay dimpling and +scintillating beneath the noonday sun, as entirely unspoilt as fifteen +years ago, when its pure loveliness was known only to trappers and +Indians. One man lives on it the whole year round; otherwise early +October strips its shores of their few inhabitants, and thereafter, for +seven months, it is rarely accessible except on snowshoes. It never +freezes. In the dense forests which bound it, and drape two-thirds of +its gaunt sierras, are hordes of grizzlies, brown bears, wolves, elk, +deer, chipmunks, martens, minks, skunks, foxes, squirrels, and snakes. +On its margin I found an irregular wooden inn, with a lumber-wagon at +the door, on which was the carcass of a large grizzly bear, shot behind +the house this morning. I had intended to ride ten miles farther, but, +finding that the trail in some places was a "blind" one, and being +bewitched by the beauty and serenity of Tahoe, I have remained here +sketching, reveling in the view from the veranda, and strolling in the +forest. At this height there is frost every night of the year, and my +fingers are benumbed. + +The beauty is entrancing. The sinking sun is out of sight behind the +western Sierras, and all the pine-hung promontories on this side of the +water are rich indigo, just reddened with lake, deepening here and +there into Tyrian purple. The peaks above, which still catch the sun, +are bright rose-red, and all the mountains on the other side are pink; +and pink, too, are the far-off summits on which the snow-drifts rest. +Indigo, red, and orange tints stain the still water, which lies solemn +and dark against the shore, under the shadow of stately pines. An hour +later, and a moon nearly full--not a pale, flat disc, but a radiant +sphere--has wheeled up into the flushed sky. The sunset has passed +through every stage of beauty, through every glory of color, through +riot and triumph, through pathos and tenderness, into a long, dreamy, +painless rest, succeeded by the profound solemnity of the moonlight, +and a stillness broken only by the night cries of beasts in the +aromatic forests. + + I. L. B. + + + + +Letter II + +A lady's "get-up"--Grizzly bears--The "Gems of the Sierras"--A tragic +tale--A carnival of color. + +CHEYENNE, WYOMING, September 7. + +As night came on the cold intensified, and the stove in the parlor +attracted every one. A San Francisco lady, much "got up" in paint, +emerald green velvet, Brussels lace, and diamonds, rattled continuously +for the amusement of the company, giving descriptions of persons and +scenes in a racy Western twang, without the slightest scruple as to +what she said. In a few years Tahoe will be inundated in summer with +similar vulgarity, owing to its easiness of access. I sustained the +reputation which our country-women bear in America by looking a +"perfect guy"; and feeling that I was a salient point for the speaker's +next sally, I was relieved when the landlady, a ladylike Englishwoman, +asked me to join herself and her family in the bar-room, where we had +much talk about the neighborhood and its wild beasts, especially bears. +The forest is full of them, but they seem never to attack people unless +when wounded, or much aggravated by dogs, or a shebear thinks you are +going to molest her young. + +I dreamt of bears so vividly that I woke with a furry death hug at my +throat, but feeling quite refreshed. When I mounted my horse after +breakfast the sun was high and the air so keen and intoxicating that, +giving the animal his head, I galloped up and down hill, feeling +completely tireless. Truly, that air is the elixir of life. I had a +glorious ride back to Truckee. The road was not as solitary as the day +before. In a deep part of the forest the horse snorted and reared, and +I saw a cinnamon-colored bear with two cubs cross the track ahead of +me. I tried to keep the horse quiet that the mother might acquit me of +any designs upon her lolloping children, but I was glad when the +ungainly, long-haired party crossed the river. Then I met a team, the +driver of which stopped and said he was glad that I had not gone to +Cornelian Bay, it was such a bad trail, and hoped I had enjoyed Tahoe. +The driver of another team stopped and asked if I had seen any bears. +Then a man heavily armed, a hunter probably, asked me if I were the +English tourist who had "happened on" a "Grizzly" yesterday. Then I +saw a lumberer taking his dinner on a rock in the river, who "touched +his hat" and brought me a draught of ice-cold water, which I could +hardly drink owing to the fractiousness of the horse, and gathered me +some mountain pinks, which I admired. I mention these little incidents +to indicate the habit of respectful courtesy to women which prevails in +that region. These men might have been excused for speaking in a +somewhat free-and-easy tone to a lady riding alone, and in an unwonted +fashion. Womanly dignity and manly respect for women are the salt of +society in this wild West. + +My horse was so excitable that I avoided the center of Truckee, and +skulked through a collection of Chinamen's shanties to the stable, +where a prodigious roan horse, standing seventeen hands high, was +produced for my ride to the Donner Lake. I asked the owner, who was as +interested in my enjoying myself as a West Highlander might have been, +if there were not ruffians about who might make an evening ride +dangerous. A story was current of a man having ridden through Truckee +two evenings before with a chopped-up human body in a sack behind the +saddle, and hosts of stories of ruffianism are located there, rightly +or wrongly. This man said, "There's a bad breed of ruffians, but the +ugliest among them all won't touch you. There's nothing Western folk +admire so much as pluck in a woman." I had to get on a barrel before I +could reach the stirrup, and when I was mounted my feet only came +half-way down the horse's sides. I felt like a fly on him. The road +at first lay through a valley without a river, but some swampishness +nourished some rank swamp grass, the first GREEN grass I have seen in +America; and the pines, with their red stems, looked beautiful rising +out of it. I hurried along, and came upon the Donner Lake quite +suddenly, to be completely smitten by its beauty. It is only about +three miles long by one and a half broad, and lies hidden away among +mountains, with no dwellings on its shores but some deserted lumberers' +cabins.[5] Its loneliness pleased me well. I did not see man, beast, +or bird from the time I left Truckee till I returned. The mountains, +which rise abruptly from the margin, are covered with dense pine +forests, through which, here and there, strange forms of bare grey +rock, castellated, or needle-like, protrude themselves. On the +opposite side, at a height of about 6,000 feet, a grey, ascending line, +from which rumbling, incoherent sounds occasionally proceeded, is seen +through the pines. This is one of the snow-sheds of the Pacific +Railroad, which shuts out from travelers all that I was seeing. The +lake is called after Mr. Donner, who, with his family, arrived at the +Truckee River in the fall of the year, in company with a party of +emigrants bound for California. Being encumbered with many cattle, he +let the company pass on, and, with his own party of sixteen souls, +which included his wife and four children, encamped by the lake. In +the morning they found themselves surrounded by an expanse of snow, and +after some consultation it was agreed that the whole party except Mr. +Donner who was unwell, his wife, and a German friend, should take the +horses and attempt to cross the mountain, which, after much peril, they +succeeded in doing; but, as the storm continued for several weeks, it +was impossible for any rescue party to succor the three who had been +left behind. In the early spring, when the snow was hard enough for +traveling, a party started in quest, expecting to find the snow-bound +alive and well, as they had cattle enough for their support, and, after +weeks of toil and exposure, they scaled the Sierras and reached the +Donner Lake. On arriving at the camp they opened the rude door, and +there, sitting before the fire, they found the German, holding a +roasted human arm and hand, which he was greedily eating. The rescue +party overpowered him, and with difficulty tore the arm from him. A +short search discovered the body of the lady, minus the arm, frozen in +the snow, round, plump, and fair, showing that she was in perfect +health when she met her fate. The rescuers returned to California, +taking the German with them, whose story was that Mr. Donner died in +the fall, and that the cattle escaped, leaving them but little food, +and that when this was exhausted Mrs. Donner died. The story never +gained any credence, and the truth oozed out that the German had +murdered the husband, then brutally murdered the wife, and had seized +upon Donner's money. There were, however, no witnesses, and the +murderer escaped with the enforced surrender of the money to the Donner +orphans. + +[5] Visitors can now be accommodated at a tolerable mountain hotel. + + +This tragic story filled my mind as I rode towards the head of the +lake, which became every moment grander and more unutterably lovely. +The sun was setting fast, and against his golden light green +promontories, wooded with stately pines, stood out one beyond another +in a medium of dark rich blue, while grey bleached summits, peaked, +turreted, and snow slashed, were piled above them, gleaming with amber +light. Darker grew the blue gloom, the dew fell heavily, aromatic +odors floated on the air, and still the lofty peaks glowed with living +light, till in one second it died off from them, leaving them with the +ashy paleness of a dead face. It was dark and cold under the mountain +shadows, the frosty chill of the high altitude wrapped me round, the +solitude was overwhelming, and I reluctantly turned my horse's head +towards Truckee, often looking back to the ashy summits in their +unearthly fascination. Eastwards the look of the scenery was changing +every moment, while the lake for long remained "one burnished sheet of +living gold," and Truckee lay utterly out of sight in a hollow filled +with lake and cobalt. Before long a carnival of color began which I +can only describe as delirious, intoxicating, a hardly bearable joy, a +tender anguish, an indescribable yearning, an unearthly music, rich in +love and worship. It lasted considerably more than an hour, and though +the road was growing very dark, and the train which was to take me +thence was fast climbing the Sierras, I could not ride faster than a +walk. + +The eastward mountains, which had been grey, blushed pale pink, the +pink deepened into rose, and the rose into crimson, and then all +solidity etherealized away and became clear and pure as an amethyst, +while all the waving ranges and the broken pine-clothed ridges below +etherealized too, but into a dark rich blue, and a strange effect of +atmosphere blended the whole into one perfect picture. It changed, +deepened, reddened, melted, growing more and more wonderful, while +under the pines it was night, till, having displayed itself for an +hour, the jewelled peaks suddenly became like those of the Sierras, wan +as the face of death. Far later the cold golden light lingered in the +west, with pines in relief against its purity, and where the rose light +had glowed in the east, a huge moon upheaved itself, and the red +flicker of forest fires luridly streaked the mountain sides near and +far off. I realized that night had come with its EERINESS, and putting +my great horse into a gallop I clung on to him till I pulled him up in +Truckee, which was at the height of its evening revelries--fires +blazing out of doors, bar-rooms and saloons crammed, lights glaring, +gaming tables thronged, fiddle and banjo in frightful discord, and the +air ringing with ribaldry and profanity. + + I. L. B. + + + + +Letter III + +A Temple of Morpheus--Utah--A "God-forgotten" town--A distressed +couple--Dog villages--A temperance colony--A Colorado inn--The bug +pest--Fort Collins. + +CHEYENNE, WYOMING, September 8. + +Precisely at 11 P.M. the huge Pacific train, with its heavy bell +tolling, thundered up to the door of the Truckee House, and on +presenting my ticket at the double door of a "Silver Palace" car, the +slippered steward, whispering low, conducted me to my berth--a +luxurious bed three and a half feet wide, with a hair mattress on +springs, fine linen sheets, and costly California blankets. The +twenty-four inmates of the car were all invisible, asleep behind rich +curtains. It was a true Temple of Morpheus. Profound sleep was the +object to which everything was dedicated. Four silver lamps hanging +from the roof, and burning low, gave a dreamy light. On each side of +the center passage, rich rep curtains, green and crimson, striped with +gold, hung from silver bars running near the roof, and trailed on the +soft Axminster carpet. The temperature was carefully kept at 70 +degrees. It was 29 degrees outside. Silence and freedom from jolting +were secured by double doors and windows, costly and ingenious +arrangements of springs and cushions, and a speed limited to eighteen +miles an hour. + +As I lay down, the gallop under the dark pines, the frosty moon, the +forest fires, the flaring lights and roaring din of Truckee faded as +dreams fade, and eight hours later a pure, pink dawn divulged a level +blasted region, with grey sage brush growing out of a soil encrusted +with alkali, and bounded on either side by low glaring ridges. All +through that day we traveled under a cloudless sky over solitary +glaring plains, and stopped twice at solitary, glaring frame houses, +where coarse, greasy meals, infested by lazy flies, were provided at a +dollar per head. By evening we were running across the continent on a +bee line, and I sat for an hour on the rear platform of the rear car to +enjoy the wonderful beauty of the sunset and the atmosphere. Far as +one could see in the crystalline air there was nothing but desert. The +jagged Humboldt ranges flaming in the sunset, with snow in their +clefts, though forty-five miles off, looked within an easy canter. The +bright metal track, purpling like all else in the cool distance, was +all that linked one with Eastern or Western civilization. + +The next morning, when the steward unceremoniously turned us out of our +berths soon after sunrise, we were running down upon the Great Salt +Lake, bounded by the white Wahsatch ranges. Along its shores, by means +of irrigation, Mormon industry has compelled the ground to yield fine +crops of hay and barley; and we passed several cabins, from which, even +at that early hour, Mormons, each with two or three wives, were going +forth to their day's work. The women were ugly, and their shapeless +blue dresses hideous. At the Mormon town of Ogden we changed cars, and +again traversed dusty plains, white and glaring, varied by muddy +streams and rough, arid valleys, now and then narrowing into canyons. +By common consent the windows were kept closed to exclude the fine +white alkaline dust, which is very irritating to the nostrils. The +journey became more and more wearisome as we ascended rapidly over +immense plains and wastes of gravel destitute of mountain boundaries, +and with only here and there a "knob" or "butte" [6] to break the +monotony. The wheel-marks of the trail to Utah often ran parallel with +the track, and bones of oxen were bleaching in the sun, the remains of +those "whose carcasses fell in the wilderness" on the long and drouthy +journey. The daybreak of to-day (Sunday) found us shivering at Fort +Laramie, a frontier post dismally situated at a height of 7,000 feet. +Another 1,000 feet over gravelly levels brought us to Sherman, the +highest level reached by this railroad. From this point eastward the +streams fall into the Atlantic. The ascent of these apparently level +plateaus is called "crossing the Rocky Mountains," but I have seen +nothing of the range, except two peaks like teeth lying low on the +distant horizon. It became mercilessly cold; some people thought it +snowed, but I only saw rolling billows of fog. Lads passed through the +cars the whole morning, selling newspapers, novels, cacti, lollypops, +pop corn, pea nuts, and ivory ornaments, so that, having lost all +reckoning of the days, I never knew that it was Sunday till the cars +pulled up at the door of the hotel in this detestable place. + +[6] The mountains which bound the "valley of the Babbling Waters," +Utah, afford striking examples of these "knobs" or "buttes." + + +The surrounding plains were endless and verdureless. The scanty +grasses were long ago turned into sun-cured hay by the fierce summer +heats. There is neither tree nor bush, the sky is grey, the earth +buff, the air blae and windy, and clouds of coarse granitic dust sweep +across the prairie and smother the settlement. Cheyenne is described +as "a God-forsaken, God-forgotten place." That it forgets God is +written on its face. It owes its existence to the railroad, and has +diminished in population, but is a depot for a large amount of the +necessaries of life which are distributed through the scantily settled +districts within distances of 300 miles by "freight wagons," each drawn +by four or six horses or mules, or double that number of oxen. At +times over 100 wagons, with double that number of teamsters, are in +Cheyenne at once. A short time ago it was a perfect pandemonium, +mainly inhabited by rowdies and desperadoes, the scum of advancing +civilization; and murders, stabbings, shooting, and pistol affrays were +at times events of almost hourly occurrence in its drinking dens. But +in the West, when things reach their worst, a sharp and sure remedy is +provided. Those settlers who find the state of matters intolerable, +organize themselves into a Vigilance Committee. "Judge Lynch," with a +few feet of rope, appears on the scene, the majority crystallizes round +the supporters of order, warnings are issued to obnoxious people, +simply bearing a scrawl of a tree with a man dangling from it, with +such words as "Clear out of this by 6 A.M., or----." A number of the +worst desperadoes are tried by a yet more summary process than a +drumhead court martial, "strung up," and buried ignominiously. I have +been told that 120 ruffians were disposed of in this way here in a +single fortnight. Cheyenne is now as safe as Hilo, and the interval +between the most desperate lawlessness and the time when United States +law, with its corruption and feebleness, comes upon the scene is one of +comparative security and good order. Piety is not the forte of +Cheyenne. The roads resound with atrocious profanity, and the rowdyism +of the saloons and bar-rooms is repressed, not extirpated. + +The population, once 6,000, is now about 4,000. It is an ill-arranged +set of frame houses and shanties [7] and rubbish heaps, and offal of +deer and antelope, produce the foulest smells I have smelt for a long +time. Some of the houses are painted a blinding white; others are +unpainted; there is not a bush, or garden, or green thing; it just +straggles out promiscuously on the boundless brown plains, on the +extreme verge of which three toothy peaks are seen. It is utterly +slovenly-looking, and unornamental, abounds in slouching +bar-room-looking characters, and looks a place of low, mean lives. +Below the hotel window freight cars are being perpetually shunted, but +beyond the railroad tracks are nothing but the brown plains, with their +lonely sights--now a solitary horseman at a traveling amble, then a +party of Indians in paint and feathers, but civilized up to the point +of carrying firearms, mounted on sorry ponies, the bundled-up squaws +riding astride on the baggage ponies; then a drove of ridgy-spined, +long-horned cattle, which have been several months eating their way +from Texas, with their escort of four or five much-spurred horsemen, in +peaked hats, blue-hooded coats, and high boots, heavily armed with +revolvers and repeating rifles, and riding small wiry horses. A +solitary wagon, with a white tilt, drawn by eight oxen, is probably +bearing an emigrant and his fortunes to Colorado. On one of the dreary +spaces of the settlement six white-tilted wagons, each with twelve +oxen, are standing on their way to a distant part. Everything suggests +a beyond. + +[7] The discovery of gold in the Black Hills has lately given it a +great impetus, and as it is the chief point of departure for the +diggings it is increasing in population and importance. (July, 1879) + + +September 9. + +I have found at the post office here a circular letter of +recommendation from ex-Governor Hunt, procured by Miss Kingsley's +kindness, and another equally valuable one of "authentication" and +recommendation from Mr. Bowles, of the Springfield Republican, whose +name is a household word in all the West. Armed with these, I shall +plunge boldly into Colorado. I am suffering from giddiness and nausea +produced by the bad smells. A "help" here says that there have been +fifty-six deaths from cholera during the last twenty days. Is common +humanity lacking, I wonder, in this region of hard greed? Can it not +be bought by dollars here, like every other commodity, votes included? +Last night I made the acquaintance of a shadowy gentleman from +Wisconsin, far gone in consumption, with a spirited wife and young +baby. He had been ordered to the Plains as a last resource, but was +much worse. Early this morning he crawled to my door, scarcely able to +speak from debility and bleeding from the lungs, begging me to go to +his wife, who, the doctor said was ill of cholera. The child had been +ill all night, and not for love or money could he get any one to do +anything for them, not even to go for the medicine. The lady was blue, +and in great pain from cramp, and the poor unweaned infant was roaring +for the nourishment which had failed. I vainly tried to get hot water +and mustard for a poultice, and though I offered a Negro a dollar to go +for the medicine, he looked at it superciliously, hummed a tune, and +said he must wait for the Pacific train, which was not due for an hour. +Equally in vain I hunted through Cheyenne for a feeding bottle. Not a +maternal heart softened to the helpless mother and starving child, and +my last resource was to dip a piece of sponge in some milk and water, +and try to pacify the creature. I applied Rigollot's leaves, went for +the medicine, saw the popular host--a bachelor--who mentioned a girl +who, after much difficulty, consented to take charge of the baby for +two dollars a day and attend to the mother, and having remained till +she began to amend, I took the cars for Greeley, a settlement on the +Plains, which I had been recommended to make my starting point for the +mountains. + + +FORT COLLINS, September 10. + +It gave me a strange sensation to embark upon the Plains. Plains, +plains everywhere, plains generally level, but elsewhere rolling in +long undulations, like the waves of a sea which had fallen asleep. +They are covered thinly with buff grass, the withered stalks of +flowers, Spanish bayonet, and a small beehive-shaped cactus. One could +gallop all over them. + +They are peopled with large villages of what are called prairie dogs, +because they utter a short, sharp bark, but the dogs are, in reality, +marmots. We passed numbers of villages, which are composed of raised +circular orifices, about eighteen inches in diameter, with sloping +passages leading downwards for five or six feet. Hundreds of these +burrows are placed together. On nearly every rim a small furry +reddish-buff beast sat on his hind legs, looking, so far as head went, +much like a young seal. These creatures were acting as sentinels, and +sunning themselves. As we passed, each gave a warning yelp, shook its +tail, and, with a ludicrous flourish of its hind legs, dived into its +hole. The appearance of hundreds of these creatures, each eighteen +inches long, sitting like dogs begging, with their paws down and all +turned sunwards, is most grotesque. The Wish-ton-Wish has few enemies, +and is a most prolific animal. From its enormous increase and the +energy and extent of its burrowing operations, one can fancy that in +the course of years the prairies will be seriously injured, as it +honeycombs the ground, and renders it unsafe for horses. The burrows +seem usually to be shared by owls, and many of the people insist that a +rattlesnake is also an inmate, but I hope for the sake of the harmless, +cheery little prairie dog, that this unwelcome fellowship is a myth. + +After running on a down grade for some time, five distinct ranges of +mountains, one above another, a lurid blue against a lurid sky, +upheaved themselves above the prairie sea. An American railway car, +hot, stuffy and full of chewing, spitting Yankees, was not an ideal way +of approaching this range which had early impressed itself upon my +imagination. Still, it was truly grand, although it was sixty miles +off, and we were looking at it from a platform 5,000 feet in height. +As I write I am only twenty-five miles from them, and they are +gradually gaining possession of me. + +I can look at and FEEL nothing else. At five in the afternoon frame +houses and green fields began to appear, the cars drew up, and two of +my fellow passengers and I got out and carried our own luggage through +the deep dust to a small, rough, Western tavern, where with difficulty +we were put up for the night. This settlement is called the Greeley +Temperance Colony, and was founded lately by an industrious class of +emigrants from the East, all total abstainers, and holding advanced +political opinions. They bought and fenced 50,000 acres of land, +constructed an irrigating canal, which distributes its waters on +reasonable terms, have already a population of 3,000, and are the most +prosperous and rising colony in Colorado, being altogether free from +either laziness or crime. Their rich fields are artificially +productive solely; and after seeing regions where Nature gives +spontaneously, one is amazed that people should settle here to be +dependent on irrigating canals, with the risk of having their crops +destroyed by grasshoppers. A clause in the charter of the colony +prohibits the introduction, sale, or consumption of intoxicating +liquor, and I hear that the men of Greeley carry their crusade against +drink even beyond their limits, and have lately sacked three houses +open for the sale of drink near their frontier, pouring the whisky upon +the ground, so that people don't now like to run the risk of bringing +liquor near Greeley, and the temperance influence is spreading over a +very large area. As the men have no bar-rooms to sit in, I observed +that Greeley was asleep at an hour when other places were beginning +their revelries. Nature is niggardly, and living is coarse and rough, +the merest necessaries of hardy life being all that can be thought of +in this stage of existence. + +My first experiences of Colorado travel have been rather severe. At +Greeley I got a small upstairs room at first, but gave it up to a +married couple with a child, and then had one downstairs no bigger than +a cabin, with only a canvas partition. It was very hot, and every +place was thick with black flies. The English landlady had just lost +her "help," and was in a great fuss, so that I helped her to get supper +ready. Its chief features were greasiness and black flies. Twenty men +in working clothes fed and went out again, "nobody speaking to nobody." +The landlady introduced me to a Vermont settler who lives in the "Foot +Hills," who was very kind and took a great deal of trouble to get me a +horse. Horses abound, but they are either large American horses, which +are only used for draught, or small, active horses, called broncos, +said to be from a Spanish word, signifying that they can never be +broke. They nearly all "buck," and are described as being more "ugly" +and treacherous than mules. There is only one horse in Greeley "safe +for a woman to ride." I tried an Indian pony by moonlight--such a +moonlight--but found he had tender feet. The kitchen was the only +sitting room, so I shortly went to bed, to be awoke very soon by +crawling creatures apparently in myriads. I struck a light, and found +such swarms of bugs that I gathered myself up on the wooden chairs, and +dozed uneasily till sunrise. Bugs are a great pest in Colorado. They +come out of the earth, infest the wooden walls, and cannot be got rid +of by any amount of cleanliness. Many careful housewives take their +beds to pieces every week and put carbolic acid on them. + +It was a glorious, cool morning, and the great range of the Rocky +Mountains looked magnificent. I tried the pony again, but found he +would not do for a long journey; and as my Vermont acquaintance offered +me a seat in his wagon to Fort Collins, twenty-five miles nearer the +Mountains, I threw a few things together and came here with him. We +left Greeley at 10, and arrived here at 4:30, staying an hour for food +on the way. I liked the first half of the drive; but the fierce, +ungoverned, blazing heat of the sun on the whitish earth for the last +half, was terrible even with my white umbrella, which I have not used +since I left New Zealand; it was sickening. Then the eyes have never +anything green to rest upon, except in the river bottoms, where there +is green hay grass. We followed mostly the course of the River +Cache-a-la-Poudre, which rises in the Mountains, and after supplying +Greeley with irrigation, falls into the Platte, which is an affluent of +the Missouri. When once beyond the scattered houses and great ring +fence of the vigorous Greeley colonists, we were on the boundless +prairie. Now and then horsemen passed us, and we met three wagons with +white tilts. Except where the prairie dogs have honeycombed the +ground, you can drive almost anywhere, and the passage of a few wagons +over the same track makes a road. We forded the river, whose course is +marked the whole way by a fringe of small cotton-woods and aspens, and +traveled hour after hour with nothing to see except some dog towns, +with their quaint little sentinels; but the view in front was glorious. +The Alps, from the Lombard Plains, are the finest mountain panorama I +ever saw, but not equal to this; for not only do five high-peaked +giants, each nearly the height of Mont Blanc, lift their dazzling +summits above the lower ranges, but the expanse of mountains is so +vast, and the whole lie in a transparent medium of the richest blue, +not haze--something peculiar to the region. The lack of foreground is +a great artistic fault, and the absence of greenery is melancholy, and +makes me recall sadly the entrancing detail of the Hawaiian Islands. +Once only, the second time we forded the river, the cotton-woods formed +a foreground, and then the loveliness was heavenly. We stopped at a +log house and got a rough dinner of beef and potatoes, and I was amused +at the five men who shared it with us for apologizing to me for being +without their coats, as if coats would not be an enormity on the Plains. + +It is the election day for the Territory, and men were galloping over +the prairie to register their votes. The three in the wagon talked +politics the whole time. They spoke openly and shamelessly of the +prices given for votes; and apparently there was not a politician on +either side who was not accused of degrading corruption. We saw a +convoy of 5,000 head of Texas cattle traveling from southern Texas to +Iowa. They had been nine months on the way! They were under the +charge of twenty mounted vacheros, heavily armed, and a light wagon +accompanied them, full of extra rifles and ammunition, not unnecessary, +for the Indians are raiding in all directions, maddened by the reckless +and useless slaughter of the buffalo, which is their chief subsistence. +On the Plains are herds of wild horses, buffalo, deer, and antelope; +and in the Mountains, bears, wolves, deer, elk, mountain lions, bison, +and mountain sheep. You see a rifle in every wagon, as people always +hope to fall in with game. + +By the time we reached Fort Collins I was sick and dizzy with the heat +of the sun, and not disposed to be pleased with a most unpleasing +place. It was a military post, but at present consists of a few frame +houses put down recently on the bare and burning plain. The settlers +have "great expectations," but of what? The Mountains look hardly +nearer than from Greeley; one only realizes their vicinity by the loss +of their higher peaks. This house is freer from bugs than the one at +Greeley, but full of flies. These new settlements are altogether +revolting, entirely utilitarian, given up to talk of dollars as well as +to making them, with coarse speech, coarse food, coarse everything, +nothing wherewith to satisfy the higher cravings if they exist, nothing +on which the eye can rest with pleasure. The lower floor of this inn +swarms with locusts in addition to thousands of black flies. The +latter cover the ground and rise buzzing from it as you walk. + + I. L. B. + + + + +Letter IV + +A plague of flies--A melancholy charioteer--The Foot Hills--A mountain +boarding-house--A dull life--"Being agreeable"--Climate of +Colorado--Soroche and snakes. + +CANYON, September 12. + +I was actually so dull and tired that I deliberately slept away the +afternoon in order to forget the heat and flies. Thirty men in working +clothes, silent and sad looking, came in to supper. The beef was tough +and greasy, the butter had turned to oil, and beef and butter were +black with living, drowned, and half-drowned flies. The greasy +table-cloth was black also with flies, and I did not wonder that the +guests looked melancholy and quickly escaped. I failed to get a horse, +but was strongly recommended to come here and board with a settler, +who, they said, had a saw-mill and took boarders. The person who +recommended it so strongly gave me a note of introduction, and told me +that it was in a grand part of the mountains, where many people had +been camping out all the summer for the benefit of their health. The +idea of a boarding-house, as I know them in America, was rather +formidable in the present state of my wardrobe, and I decided on +bringing my carpet-bag, as well as my pack, lest I should be rejected +for my bad clothes. + +Early the next morning I left in a buggy drawn by light broncos and +driven by a profoundly melancholy young man. He had never been to the +canyon; there was no road. We met nobody, saw nothing except antelope +in the distance, and he became more melancholy and lost his way, +driving hither and thither for about twenty miles till we came upon an +old trail which eventually brought us to a fertile "bottom," where hay +and barley were being harvested, and five or six frame houses looked +cheerful. I had been recommended to two of these, which professed to +take in strangers, but one was full of reapers, and in the other a +child was dead. So I took the buggy on, glad to leave the glaring, +prosaic settlement behind. There was a most curious loneliness about +the journey up to that time. Except for the huge barrier to the right, +the boundless prairies were everywhere, and it was like being at sea +without a compass. The wheels made neither sound nor indentation as we +drove over the short, dry grass, and there was no cheerful clatter of +horses' hoofs. The sky was cloudy and the air hot and still. In one +place we passed the carcass of a mule, and a number of vultures soared +up from it, to descend again immediately. Skeletons and bones of +animals were often to be seen. A range of low, grassy hills, called +the Foot Hills, rose from the plain, featureless and monotonous, except +where streams, fed by the snows of the higher regions, had cut their +way through them. Confessedly bewildered, and more melancholy than +ever, the driver turned up one of the wildest of these entrances, and +in another hour the Foot Hills lay between us and the prairie sea, and +a higher and broken range, with pitch pines of average size, was +revealed behind them. These Foot Hills, which swell up uninterestingly +from the plains on their eastern side, on their western have the +appearance of having broken off from the next range, and the break is +abrupt, and takes the form of walls and terraces of rock of the most +brilliant color, weathered and stained by ores, and, even under the +grey sky, dazzling to the eyes. The driver thought he had understood +the directions given, but he was stupid, and once we lost some miles by +arriving at a river too rough and deep to be forded, and again we were +brought up by an impassable canyon. He grew frightened about his +horses, and said no money would ever tempt him into the mountains +again; but average intelligence would have made it all easy. + +The solitude was becoming somber, when, after driving for nine hours, +and traveling at the least forty-five miles, without any sign of +fatigue on the part of the broncos, we came to a stream, by the side of +which we drove along a definite track, till we came to a sort of +tripartite valley, with a majestic crooked canyon 2,000 feet deep +opening upon it. A rushing stream roared through it, and the Rocky +Mountains, with pines scattered over them, came down upon it. A little +farther, and the canyon became utterly inaccessible. This was +exciting; here was an inner world. A rough and shaky bridge, made of +the outsides of pines laid upon some unsecured logs, crossed the river. +The broncos stopped and smelt it, not liking it, but some encouraging +speech induced them to go over. On the other side was a log cabin, +partially ruinous, and the very rudest I ever saw, its roof of +plastered mud being broken into large holes. It stood close to the +water among some cotton-wood trees. A little higher there was a very +primitive saw-mill, also out of repair, with some logs lying about. An +emigrant wagon and a forlorn tent, with a camp-fire and a pot, were in +the foreground, but there was no trace of the boarding-house, of which +I stood a little in dread. The driver went for further directions to +the log cabin, and returned with a grim smile deepening the melancholy +of his face to say it was Mr. Chalmers', but there was no accommodation +for such as him, much less for me! This was truly "a sell." I got +down and found a single room of the rudest kind, with the wall at one +end partially broken down, holes in the roof, holes for windows, and no +furniture but two chairs and two unplaned wooden shelves, with some +sacks of straw upon them for beds. There was an adjacent cabin room, +with a stove, benches, and table, where they cooked and ate, but this +was all. A hard, sad-looking woman looked at me measuringly. She said +that they sold milk and butter to parties who camped in the canyon, +that they had never had any boarders but two asthmatic old ladies, but +they would take me for five dollars per week if I "would make myself +agreeable." The horses had to be fed, and I sat down on a box, had +some dried beef and milk, and considered the matter. If I went back to +Fort Collins, I thought I was farther from a mountain life, and had no +choice but Denver, a place from which I shrank, or to take the cars for +New York. Here the life was rough, rougher than any I had ever seen, +and the people repelled me by their faces and manners; but if I could +rough it for a few days, I might, I thought, get over canyons and all +other difficulties into Estes Park, which has become the goal of my +journey and hopes. So I decided to remain. + +September 16. + +Five days here, and I am no nearer Estes Park. How the days pass I +know not; I am weary of the limitations of this existence. This is "a +life in which nothing happens." When the buggy disappeared, I felt as +if I had cut the bridge behind me. I sat down and knitted for some +time--my usual resource under discouraging circumstances. I really did +not know how I should get on. There was no table, no bed, no basin, no +towel, no glass, no window, no fastening on the door. The roof was in +holes, the logs were unchinked, and one end of the cabin was partially +removed! Life was reduced to its simplest elements. I went out; the +family all had something to do, and took no notice of me. I went back, +and then an awkward girl of sixteen, with uncombed hair, and a painful +repulsiveness of face and air, sat on a log for half an hour and stared +at me. I tried to draw her into talk, but she twirled her fingers and +replied snappishly in monosyllables. Could I by any effort "make +myself agreeable"? I wondered. The day went on. I put on my Hawaiian +dress, rolling up the sleeves to the elbows in an "agreeable" fashion. +Towards evening the family returned to feed, and pushed some dried beef +and milk in at the door. They all slept under the trees, and before +dark carried the sacks of straw out for their bedding. I followed +their example that night, or rather watched Charles's Wain while they +slept, but since then have slept on blankets on the floor under the +roof. They have neither lamp nor candle, so if I want to do anything +after dark I have to do it by the unsteady light of pine knots. As the +nights are cold, and free from bugs, and I do a good deal of manual +labor, I sleep well. At dusk I make my bed on the floor, and draw a +bucket of ice-cold water from the river; the family go to sleep under +the trees, and I pile logs on the fire sufficient to burn half the +night, for I assure you the solitude is eerie enough. There are +unaccountable noises, (wolves), rummagings under the floor, queer +cries, and stealthy sounds of I know not what. One night a beast (fox +or skunk) rushed in at the open end of the cabin, and fled through the +window, almost brushing my face, and on another, the head and three or +four inches of the body of a snake were protruded through a chink of +the floor close to me, to my extreme disgust. My mirror is the +polished inside of my watchcase. At sunrise Mrs. Chalmers comes in--if +coming into a nearly open shed can be called IN--and makes a fire, +because she thinks me too stupid to do it, and mine is the family room; +and by seven I am dressed, have folded the blankets, and swept the +floor, and then she puts some milk and bread or stirabout on a box by +the door. After breakfast I draw more water, and wash one or two +garments daily, taking care that there are no witnesses of my +inexperience. Yesterday a calf sucked one into hopeless rags. The +rest of the day I spend in mending, knitting, writing to you, and the +various odds and ends which arise when one has to do all for oneself. +At twelve and six some food is put on the box by the door, and at dusk +we make up our beds. A distressed emigrant woman has just given birth +to a child in a temporary shanty by the river, and I go to help her +each day. + +I have made the acquaintance of all the careworn, struggling settlers +within a walk. All have come for health, and most have found or are +finding it, even if they have not better shelter than a wagon tilt or a +blanket on sticks laid across four poles. The climate of Colorado is +considered the finest in North America, and consumptives, asthmatics, +dyspeptics, and sufferers from nervous diseases, are here in hundreds +and thousands, either trying the "camp cure" for three or four months, +or settling here permanently. People can safely sleep out of doors for +six months of the year. The plains are from 4,000 to 6,000 feet high, +and some of the settled "parks," or mountain valleys, are from 8,000 +to 10,000. The air, besides being much rarefied, is very dry. The +rainfall is far below the average, dews are rare, and fogs nearly +unknown. The sunshine is bright and almost constant, and three-fourths +of the days are cloudless. The milk, beef, and bread are good. The +climate is neither so hot in summer nor so cold in winter as that of +the States, and when the days are hot the nights are cool. Snow rarely +lies on the lower ranges, and horses and cattle don't require to be +either fed or housed during the winter. Of course the rarefied air +quickens respiration. All this is from hearsay.[8] I am not under +favorable circumstances, either for mind or body, and at present I feel +a singular lassitude and difficulty in taking exercise, but this is +said to be the milder form of the affliction known on higher altitudes +as soroche, or "mountain sickness," and is only temporary. I am +forming a plan for getting farther into the mountains, and hope that my +next letter will be more lively. I killed a rattlesnake this morning +close to the cabin, and have taken its rattle, which has eleven joints. +My life is embittered by the abundance of these reptiles--rattlesnakes +and moccasin snakes, both deadly, carpet snakes and "green racers," +reputed dangerous, water snakes, tree snakes, and mouse snakes, +harmless but abominable. Seven rattlesnakes have been killed just +outside the cabin since I came. A snake, three feet long, was coiled +under the pillow of the sick woman. I see snakes in all withered +twigs, and am ready to flee at "the sound of a shaken leaf." And +besides snakes, the earth and air are alive and noisy with forms of +insect life, large and small, stinging, humming, buzzing, striking, +rasping, devouring! + +[8] The curative effect of the climate of Colorado can hardly be +exaggerated. In traveling extensively through the Territory afterwards +I found that nine out of every ten settlers were cured invalids. +Statistics and medical workers on the climate of the State (as it now +is) represent Colorado as the most remarkable sanatorium in the world. + + I. L. B. + + + + +Letter V + +A dateless day--"Those hands of yours"--A Puritan--Persevering +shiftlessness--The house-mother--Family worship--A grim Sunday--A +"thick-skulled Englishman"--A morning call--Another atmosphere--The +Great Lone Land--"Ill found"--A log camp--Bad footing for +horses--Accidents--Disappointment. + +CANYON, September. + +The absence of a date shows my predicament. THEY have no newspaper; +_I_ have no almanack; the father is away for the day, and none of the +others can help me, and they look contemptuously upon my desire for +information on the subject. The monotony will come to an end +to-morrow, for Chalmers offers to be my guide over the mountains to +Estes Park, and has persuaded his wife "for once to go for a frolic"; +and with much reluctance, many growls at the waste of time, and many +apprehensions of danger and loss, she has consented to accompany him. +My life has grown less dull from their having become more interesting +to me, and as I have "made myself agreeable," we are on fairly friendly +terms. My first move in the direction of fraternizing was, however, +snubbed. A few days ago, having finished my own work, I offered to +wash up the plates, but Mrs. C., with a look which conveyed more than +words, a curl of her nose, and a sneer in her twang, said "Guess you'll +make more work nor you'll do. Those hands of yours" (very brown and +coarse they were) "ain't no good; never done nothing, I guess." Then +to her awkward daughter: "This woman says she'll wash up! Ha! ha! look +at her arms and hands!" This was the nearest approach to a laugh I +have heard, and have never seen even a tendency towards a smile. Since +then I have risen in their estimation by improvizing a lamp--Hawaiian +fashion--by putting a wisp of rag into a tin of fat. They have +actually condescended to sit up till the stars come out since. Another +advance was made by means of the shell-pattern quilt I am knitting for +you. There has been a tendency towards approving of it, and a few days +since the girl snatched it out of my hand, saying, "I want this," and +apparently took it to the camp. This has resulted in my having a +knitting class, with the woman, her married daughter, and a woman from +the camp, as pupils. Then I have gained ground with the man by being +able to catch and saddle a horse. I am often reminded of my favorite +couplet,-- + + Beware of desperate steps; the darkest day, + Live till to-morrow, will have passed away. + +But oh! what a hard, narrow life it is with which I am now in contact! +A narrow and unattractive religion, which I believe still to be +genuine, and an intense but narrow patriotism, are the only higher +influences. Chalmers came from Illinois nine years ago, pronounced by +the doctors to be far gone in consumption, and in two years he was +strong. They are a queer family; somewhere in the remote Highlands I +have seen such another. Its head is tall, gaunt, lean, and ragged, and +has lost one eye. On an English road one would think him a starving or +a dangerous beggar. He is slightly intelligent, very opinionated, and +wishes to be thought well informed, which he is not. He belongs to the +straitest sect of Reformed Presbyterians ("Psalm-singers"), but +exaggerates anything of bigotry and intolerance which may characterize +them, and rejoices in truly merciless fashion over the excision of the +philanthropic Mr. Stuart, of Philadelphia, for worshipping with +congregations which sing hymns. His great boast is that his ancestors +were Scottish Covenanters. He considers himself a profound theologian, +and by the pine logs at night discourses to me on the mysteries of the +eternal counsels and the divine decrees. Colorado, with its progress +and its future, is also a constant theme. He hates England with a +bitter, personal hatred, and regards any allusions which I make to the +progress of Victoria as a personal insult. He trusts to live to see +the downfall of the British monarchy and the disintegration of the +empire. He is very fond of talking, and asks me a great deal about my +travels, but if I speak favorably of the climate or resources of any +other country, he regards it as a slur on Colorado. + +They have one hundred and sixty acres of land, a "Squatter's claim," +and an invaluable water power. He is a lumberer, and has a saw-mill of +a very primitive kind. I notice that every day something goes wrong +with it, and this is the case throughout. If he wants to haul timber +down, one or other of the oxen cannot be found; or if the timber is +actually under way, a wheel or a part of the harness gives way, and the +whole affair is at a standstill for days. The cabin is hardly a +shelter, but is allowed to remain in ruins because the foundation of a +frame house was once dug. A horse is always sure to be lame for want +of a shoe nail, or a saddle to be useless from a broken buckle, and the +wagon and harness are a marvel of temporary shifts, patchings, and +insecure linkings with strands of rope. Nothing is ever ready or whole +when it is wanted. Yet Chalmers is a frugal, sober, hard-working man, +and he, his eldest son, and a "hired man" "Rise early," "going forth to +their work and labor till the evening"; and if they do not "late take +rest," they truly "eat the bread of carefulness." It is hardly +surprising that nine years of persevering shiftlessness should have +resulted in nothing but the ability to procure the bare necessaries of +life. + +Of Mrs. C. I can say less. She looks like one of the English poor +women of our childhood--lean, clean, toothless, and speaks, like some +of them, in a piping, discontented voice, which seems to convey a +personal reproach. All her waking hours are spent in a large +sun-bonnet. She is never idle for one minute, is severe and hard, and +despises everything but work. I think she suffers from her husband's +shiftlessness. She always speaks of me as "This" or "that woman." The +family consists of a grown-up son, a shiftless, melancholy-looking +youth, who possibly pines for a wider life; a girl of sixteen, a sour, +repellent-looking creature, with as much manners as a pig; and three +hard, un-child-like younger children. By the whole family all courtesy +and gentleness of act or speech seem regarded as "works of the flesh," +if not of "the devil." They knock over all one's things without +apologizing or picking them up, and when I thank them for anything they +look grimly amazed. I feel that they think it sinful that I do not +work as hard as they do. I wish I could show them "a more excellent +way." This hard greed, and the exclusive pursuit of gain, with the +indifference to all which does not aid in its acquisition, are eating +up family love and life throughout the West. I write this reluctantly, +and after a total experience of nearly two years in the United States. +They seem to have no "Sunday clothes," and few of any kind. The sewing +machine, like most other things, is out of order. One comb serves the +whole family. Mrs. C. is cleanly in her person and dress, and the +food, though poor, is clean. Work, work, work, is their day and their +life. They are thoroughly ungenial, and have that air of suspicion in +speaking of every one which is not unusual in the land of their +ancestors. Thomas Chalmers is the man's ecclesiastical hero, in spite +of his own severe Puritanism. Their live stock consists of two +wretched horses, a fairly good bronco mare, a mule, four badly-bred +cows, four gaunt and famished-looking oxen, some swine of singularly +active habits, and plenty of poultry. The old saddles are tied on with +twine; one side of the bridle is a worn-out strap and the other a rope. +They wear boots, but never two of one pair, and never blacked, of +course, but no stockings. They think it quite effeminate to sleep +under a roof, except during the severest months of the year. There is +a married daughter across the river, just the same hard, loveless, +moral, hard-working being as her mother. Each morning, soon after +seven, when I have swept the cabin, the family come in for "worship." +Chalmers "wales" a psalm, in every sense of the word wail, to the most +doleful of dismal tunes; they read a chapter round, and he prays. If +his prayer has something of the tone of the imprecatory psalms, he has +high authority in his favor; and if there be a tinge of the Pharisaic +thanksgiving, it is hardly surprising that he is grateful that he is +not as other men are when he contemplates the general godlessness of +the region. + +Sunday was a dreadful day. The family kept the Commandment literally, +and did no work. Worship was conducted twice, and was rather longer +than usual. Chalmers does not allow of any books in his house but +theological works, and two or three volumes of dull travels, so the +mother and children slept nearly all day. The man attempted to read a +well-worn copy of Boston's Fourfold State, but shortly fell asleep, and +they only woke up for their meals. Friday and Saturday had been +passably cool, with frosty nights, but on Saturday night it changed, +and I have not felt anything like the heat of Sunday since I left New +Zealand, though the mercury was not higher than 91 degrees. It was +sickening, scorching, melting, unbearable, from the mere power of the +sun's rays. It was an awful day, and seemed as if it would never come +to an end. The cabin, with its mud roof under the shade of the trees, +gave a little shelter, but it was occupied by the family, and I longed +for solitude. I took the Imitation of Christ, and strolled up the +canyon among the withered, crackling leaves, in much dread of snakes, +and lay down on a rough table which some passing emigrant had left, and +soon fell asleep. When I awoke it was only noon. The sun looked +wicked as it blazed like a white magnesium light. A large tree-snake +(quite harmless) hung from the pine under which I had taken shelter, +and looked as if it were going to drop upon me. I was covered with +black flies. The air was full of a busy, noisy din of insects, and +snakes, locusts, wasps, flies, and grasshoppers were all rioting in the +torrid heat. Would the sublime philosophy of Thomas a Kempis, I +wondered, have given way under this? All day I seemed to hear in +mockery the clear laugh of the Hilo streams, and the drip of Kona +showers, and to see as in a mirage the perpetual Green of windward +Hawaii. I was driven back to the cabin in the late afternoon, and in +the evening listened for two hours to abuse of my own country, and to +sweeping condemnations of all religionists outside of the brotherhood +of "Psalm-singers." It is jarring and painful, yet I would say of +Chalmers, as Dr. Holland says of another:-- + + If ever I shall reach the home in heaven, + For whose dear rest I humbly hope and pray, + In the great company of the forgiven + I shall be sure to meet old Daniel Gray. + + +The night came without coolness, but at daylight on Monday morning a +fire was pleasant. You will now have some idea of my surroundings. It +is a moral, hard, unloving, unlovely, unrelieved, unbeautified, +grinding life. These people live in a discomfort and lack of ease and +refinement which seems only possible to people of British stock. A +"foreigner" fills his cabin with ingenuities and elegancies, and a +Hawaiian or South Sea Islander makes his grass house both pretty and +tasteful. Add to my surroundings a mighty canyon, impassable both +above and below, and walls of mountains with an opening some miles off +to the vast prairie sea.[9] + +[9] I have not curtailed this description of the roughness of a +Colorado settler's life, for, with the exceptions of the disrepair and +the Puritanism, it is a type of the hard, unornamented existence with +which I came almost universally in contact during my subsequent +residence in the Territory. + + +An English physician is settled about half a mile from here over a +hill. He is spoken of as holding "very extreme opinions." Chalmers +rails at him for being "a thick-skulled Englishman," for being "fine, +polished," etc. To say a man is "polished" here is to give him a very +bad name. He accuses him also of holding views subversive of all +morality. In spite of all this, I thought he might possess a map, and +I induced Mrs. C. to walk over with me. She intended it as a formal +morning call, but she wore the inevitable sun-bonnet, and had her dress +tied up as when washing. It was not till I reached the gate that I +remembered that I was in my Hawaiian riding dress, and that I still +wore the spurs with which I had been trying a horse in the morning! +The house was in a grass valley which opened from the tremendous canyon +through which the river had cut its way. The Foot Hills, with their +terraces of flaming red rock, were glowing in the sunset, and a pure +green sky arched tenderly over a soft evening scene. Used to the +meanness and baldness of settlers' dwellings. I was delighted to see +that in this instance the usual log cabin was only the lower floor of a +small house, which bore a delightful resemblance to a Swiss chalet. It +stood in a vegetable garden fertilized by an irrigating ditch, outside +of which were a barn and cowshed. A young Swiss girl was bringing the +cows slowly home from the hill, an Englishwoman in a clean print dress +stood by the fence holding a baby, and a fine-looking Englishman in a +striped Garibaldi shirt, and trousers of the same tucked into high +boots, was shelling corn. As soon as Mrs. Hughes spoke I felt she was +truly a lady; and oh! how refreshing her refined, courteous, graceful +English manner was, as she invited us into the house! The entrance was +low, through a log porch festooned and almost concealed by a "wild +cucumber." Inside, though plain and poor, the room looked a home, not +like a squatter's cabin. An old tin was completely covered by a +graceful clematis mixed with streamers of Virginia creeper, and white +muslin curtains, and above all two shelves of admirably-chosen books, +gave the room almost an air of elegance. Why do I write almost? It +was an oasis. It was barely three weeks since I had left "the +communion of educated men," and the first tones of the voices of my +host and hostess made me feel as if I had been out of it for a year. +Mrs. C. stayed an hour and a half, and then went home to the cows, when +we launched upon a sea of congenial talk. They said they had not seen +an educated lady for two years, and pressed me to go and visit them. I +rode home on Dr. Hughes's horse after dark, to find neither fire nor +light in the cabin. Mrs. C. had gone back saying, "Those English +talked just like savages, I couldn't understand a word they said." + +I made a fire, and extemporized a light with some fat and a wick of +rag, and Chalmers came in to discuss my visit and to ask me a question +concerning a matter which had roused the latent curiosity of the whole +family. I had told him, he said, that I knew no one hereabouts, but +"his woman" told him that Dr. H. and I spoke constantly of a Mrs. +Grundy, whom we both knew and disliked, and who was settled, as we +said, not far off! He had never heard of her, he said, and he was the +pioneer settler of the canyon, and there was a man up here from +Longmount who said he was sure there was not a Mrs. Grundy in the +district, unless it was a woman who went by two names! The wife and +family had then come in, and I felt completely nonplussed. I longed to +tell Chalmers that it was he and such as he, there or anywhere, with +narrow hearts, bitter tongues, and harsh judgments, who were the true +"Mrs. Grundys," dwarfing individuality, checking lawful freedom of +speech, and making men "offenders for a word," but I forebore. How I +extricated myself from the difficulty, deponent sayeth not. The rest +of the evening has been spent in preparing to cross the mountains. +Chalmers says he knows the way well, and that we shall sleep to-morrow +at the foot of Long's Peak. Mrs. Chalmers repents of having consented, +and conjures up doleful visions of what the family will come to when +left headless, and of disasters among the cows and hens. I could tell +her that the eldest son and the "hired man" have plotted to close the +saw-mill and go on a hunting and fishing expedition, that the cows will +stray, and that the individual spoken respectfully of as "Mr. Skunk" +will make havoc in the hen-house. + + +NAMELESS REGION, ROCKY MOUNTAINS, September. + +This is indeed far removed. It seems farther away from you than any +place I have been to yet, except the frozen top of the volcano of Mauna +Loa. It is so little profaned by man that if one were compelled to +live here in solitude one might truly say of the bears, deer, and elk +which abound, "Their tameness is shocking to me." It is the world of +"big game." Just now a heavy-headed elk, with much-branched horns +fully three feet long, stood and looked at me, and then quietly trotted +away. He was so near that I heard the grass, crisp with hoar frost, +crackle under his feet. Bears stripped the cherry bushes within a few +yards of us last night. Now two lovely blue birds, with crests on +their heads, are picking about within a stone's-throw. This is "The +Great Lone Land," until lately the hunting ground of the Indians, and +not yet settled or traversed, or likely to be so, owing to the want of +water. A solitary hunter has built a log cabin up here, which he +occupies for a few weeks for the purpose of elk-hunting, but all the +region is unsurveyed, and mostly unexplored. It is 7 A.M. The sun has +not yet risen high enough to melt the hoar frost, and the air is clear, +bright, and cold. The stillness is profound. I hear nothing but the +far-off mysterious roaring of a river in a deep canyon, which we spent +two hours last night in trying to find. The horses are lost, and if I +were disposed to retort upon my companions the term they invariably +apply to me, I should now write, with bitter emphasis, "THAT man" and +"THAT woman" have gone in search of them. + +The scenery up here is glorious, combining sublimity with beauty, and +in the elastic air fatigue has dropped off from me. This is no region +for tourists and women, only for a few elk and bear hunters at times, +and its unprofaned freshness gives me new life. I cannot by any words +give you an idea of scenery so different from any that you or I have +ever seen. This is an upland valley of grass and flowers, of glades +and sloping lawns, and cherry-fringed beds of dry streams, and clumps +of pines artistically placed, and mountain sides densely pine clad, the +pines breaking into fringes as they come down upon the "park," and the +mountains breaking into pinnacles of bold grey rock as they pierce the +blue of the sky. A single dell of bright green grass, on which dwarf +clumps of the scarlet poison oak look like beds of geraniums, slopes +towards the west, as if it must lead to the river which we seek. Deep, +vast canyons, all trending westwards, lie in purple gloom. Pine-clad +ranges, rising into the blasted top of Storm Peak, all run westwards +too, and all the beauty and glory are but the frame out of which +rises--heaven-piercing, pure in its pearly luster, as glorious a +mountain as the sun tinges red in either hemisphere--the splintered, +pinnacled, lonely, ghastly, imposing, double-peaked summit of Long's +Peak, the Mont Blanc of Northern Colorado.[10] + +[10] Gray's Peak and Pike's Peak have their partisans, but after seeing +them all under favorable aspects, Long's Peak stands in my memory as it +does in that vast congeries of mountains, alone in imperial grandeur. + + +This is a view to which nothing needs to be added. This is truly the +"lodge in some vast wilderness" for which one often sighs when in the +midst of "a bustle at once sordid and trivial." In spite of Dr. +Johnson, these "monstrous protuberances" do "inflame the imagination +and elevate the understanding." This scenery satisfies my soul. Now, +the Rocky Mountains realize--nay, exceed--the dream of my childhood. +It is magnificent, and the air is life giving. I should like to spend +some time in these higher regions, but I know that this will turn out +an abortive expedition, owing to the stupidity and pigheadedness of +Chalmers. + +There is a most romantic place called Estes Park, at a height of 7,500 +feet, which can be reached by going down to the plains and then +striking up the St. Vrain Canyon, but this is a distance of fifty-five +miles, and as Chalmers was confident that he could take me over the +mountains, a distance, as he supposed, of about twenty miles, we left +at mid-day yesterday, with the fervent hope, on my part, that I might +not return. Mrs. C. was busy the whole of Tuesday in preparing what +she called "grub," which, together with "plenty of bedding," was to be +carried on a pack mule; but when we started I was disgusted to find +that Chalmers was on what should have been the pack animal, and that +two thickly-quilted cotton "spreads" had been disposed of under my +saddle, making it broad, high, and uncomfortable. Any human being must +have laughed to see an expedition start so grotesquely "ill found." I +had a very old iron-grey horse, whose lower lip hung down feebly, +showing his few teeth, while his fore-legs stuck out forwards, and +matter ran from both his nearly-blind eyes. It is kindness to bring +him up to abundant pasture. My saddle is an old McLellan cavalry +saddle, with a battered brass peak, and the bridle is a rotten leather +strap on one side and a strand of rope on the other. The cotton quilts +covered the Rosinante from mane to tail. Mrs. C. wore an old print +skirt, an old short-gown, a print apron, and a sun-bonnet, with a flap +coming down to her waist, and looked as careworn and clean as she +always does. The inside horn of her saddle was broken; to the outside +one hung a saucepan and a bundle of clothes. The one girth was nearly +at the breaking point when we started. + +My pack, with my well-worn umbrella upon it, was behind my saddle. I +wore my Hawaiian riding dress, with a handkerchief tied over my face +and the sun-cover of my umbrella folded and tied over my hat, for the +sun was very fierce. The queerest figure of all was the would-be +guide. With his one eye, his gaunt, lean form, and his torn clothes, +he looked more like a strolling tinker than the honest worthy settler +that he is. He bestrode rather than rode a gaunt mule, whose tail had +all been shaven off, except a turf for a tassel at the end. Two flour +bags which leaked were tied on behind the saddle, two quilts were under +it, and my canvas bag, a battered canteen, a frying pan, and two +lariats hung from the horn. On one foot C. wore an old high boot, into +which his trouser was tucked, and on the other an old brogue, through +which his toes protruded. + +We had an ascent of four hours through a ravine which gradually opened +out upon this beautiful "park," but we rode through it for some miles +before the view burst upon us. The vastness of this range, like +astronomical distances, can hardly be conceived of. At this place, I +suppose, it is not less than 250 miles wide, and with hardly a break in +its continuity, it stretches almost from the Arctic Circle to the +Straits of Magellan. From the top of Long's Peak, within a short +distance, twenty-two summits, each above 12,000 feet in height, are +visible, and the Snowy Range, the backbone or "divide" of the +continent, is seen snaking distinctly through the wilderness of ranges, +with its waters starting for either ocean. From the first ridge we +crossed after leaving Canyon we had a singular view of range beyond +range cleft by deep canyons, and abounding in elliptical valleys, +richly grassed. The slopes of all the hills, as far as one could see, +were waving with fine grass ready for the scythe, but the food of wild +animals only. All these ridges are heavily timbered with pitch pines, +and where they come down on the grassy slopes they look as if the trees +had been arranged by a landscape gardener. Far off, through an opening +in a canyon, we saw the prairie simulating the ocean. Far off, through +an opening in another direction, was the glistening outline of the +Snowy Range. But still, till we reached this place, it was monotonous, +though grand as a whole: a grey-green or buff-grey, with outbreaks of +brilliantly-colored rock, only varied by the black-green of pines, +which are not the stately pyramidal pines of the Sierra Nevada, but +much resemble the natural Scotch fir. Not many miles from us is North +Park, a great tract of land said to be rich in gold, but those who have +gone to "prospect" have seldom returned, the region being the home of +tribes of Indians who live in perpetual hostility to the whites and to +each other. + +At this great height, and most artistically situated, we came upon a +rude log camp tenanted in winter by an elk hunter, but now deserted. +Chalmers without any scruple picked the padlock; we lighted a fire, +made some tea, and fried some bacon, and after a good meal mounted +again and started for Estes Park. For four weary hours we searched +hither and thither along every indentation of the ground which might be +supposed to slope towards the Big Thompson River, which we knew had to +be forded. Still, as the quest grew more tedious, Long's Peak stood +before us as a landmark in purple glory; and still at his feet lay a +hollow filled with deep blue atmosphere, where I knew that Estes Park +must lie, and still between us and it lay never-lessening miles of +inaccessibility, and the sun was ever weltering, and the shadows ever +lengthening, and Chalmers, who had started confident, bumptious, +blatant, was ever becoming more bewildered, and his wife's thin voice +more piping and discontented, and my stumbling horse more insecure, and +I more determined (as I am at this moment) that somehow or other I +would reach that blue hollow, and even stand on Long's Peak where the +snow was glittering. Affairs were becoming serious, and Chalmers's +incompetence a source of real peril, when, after an exploring +expedition, he returned more bumptious than ever, saying he knew it +would be all right, he had found a trail, and we could get across the +river by dark, and camp out for the night. So he led us into a steep, +deep, rough ravine, where we had to dismount, for trees were lying +across it everywhere, and there was almost no footing on the great +slabs of shelving rock. Yet there was a trail, tolerably well worn, +and the branches and twigs near the ground were well broken back. Ah! +it was a wild place. My horse fell first, rolling over twice, and +breaking off a part of the saddle, in his second roll knocking me over +a shelf of three feet of descent. Then Mrs. C.'s horse and the mule +fell on the top of each other, and on recovering themselves bit each +other savagely. The ravine became a wild gulch, the dry bed of some +awful torrent; there were huge shelves of rock, great overhanging walls +of rock, great prostrate trees, cedar spikes and cacti to wound the +feet, and then a precipice fully 500 feet deep! The trail was a trail +made by bears in search of bear cherries, which abounded! + +It was getting dusk as we had to struggle up the rough gulch we had so +fatuously descended. The horses fell several times; I could hardly get +mine up at all, though I helped him as much as I could; I was cut and +bruised, scratched and torn. A spine of a cactus penetrated my foot, +and some vicious thing cut the back of my neck. Poor Mrs. C. was much +bruised, and I pitied her, for she got no fun out of it as I did. It +was an awful climb. When we got out of the gulch, C. was so confused +that he took the wrong direction, and after an hour of vague wandering +was only recalled to the right one by my pertinacious assertions acting +on his weak brain. I was inclined to be angry with the incompetent +braggart, who had boasted that he could take us to Estes Park +"blindfold"; but I was sorry for him too, so said nothing, even though +I had to walk during these meanderings to save my tired horse. When at +last, at dark, we reached the open, there was a snow flurry, with +violent gusts of wind, and the shelter of the camp, dark and cold as it +was, was desirable. We had no food, but made a fire. I lay down on +some dry grass, with my inverted saddle for a pillow, and slept +soundly, till I was awoke by the cold of an intense frost and the pain +of my many cuts and bruises. Chalmers promised that we should make a +fresh start at six, so I woke him up at five, and here I am alone at +half-past eight! I said to him many times that unless he hobbled or +picketed the horses, we should lose them. "Oh," he said "they'll be +all right." In truth he had no picketing pins. Now, the animals are +merrily trotting homewards. I saw them two miles off an hour ago with +him after them. His wife, who is also after them, goaded to +desperation, said, "He's the most ignorant, careless, good-for-nothing +man I ever saw," upon which I dwelt upon his being well meaning. There +is a sort of well here, but our "afternoon tea" and watering the horses +drained it, so we have had nothing to drink since yesterday, for the +canteen, which started without a cork, lost all its contents when the +mule fell. I have made a monstrous fire, but thirst and impatience are +hard to bear, and preventible misfortunes are always irksome. I have +found the stomach of a bear with fully a pint of cherrystones in it, +and have spent an hour in getting the kernels; and lo! now, at +half-past nine, I see the culprit and his wife coming back with the +animals. + + I. L. B. + + +LOWER CANYON, September 21. + +We never reached Estes Park. There is no trail, and horses have never +been across. We started from camp at ten, and spent four hours in +searching for the trail. Chalmers tried gulch after gulch again, his +self-assertion giving way a little after each failure; sometimes going +east when we should have gone west, always being brought up by a +precipice or other impossibility. At last he went off by himself, and +returned rejoicing, saying he had found the trail; and soon, sure +enough, we were on a well-defined old trail, evidently made by +carcasses which have been dragged along it by hunters. Vainly I +pointed out to him that we were going north-east when we should have +gone south-west, and that we were ascending instead of descending. +"Oh, it's all right, and we shall soon come to water," he always +replied. For two hours we ascended slowly through a thicket of aspen, +the cold continually intensifying; but the trail, which had been +growing fainter, died out, and an opening showed the top of Storm Peak +not far off and not much above us, though it is 11,000 feet high. I +could not help laughing. He had deliberately turned his back on Estes +Park. He then confessed that he was lost, and that he could not find +the way back. His wife sat down on the ground and cried bitterly. We +ate some dry bread, and then I said I had had much experience in +traveling, and would take the control of the party, which was agreed +to, and we began the long descent. Soon after his wife was thrown from +her horse, and cried bitterly again from fright and mortification. +Soon after that the girth of the mule's saddle broke, and having no +crupper, saddle and addenda went over his head, and the flour was +dispersed. Next the girth of the woman's saddle broke, and she went +over her horse's head. Then he began to fumble helplessly at it, +railing against England the whole time, while I secured the saddle, and +guided the route back to an outlet of the park. There a fire was +built, and we had some bread and bacon; and then a search for water +occupied nearly two hours, and resulted in the finding of a mudhole, +trodden and defiled by hundreds of feet of elk, bears, cats, deer, and +other beasts, and containing only a few gallons of water as thick as +pea soup, with which we watered our animals and made some strong tea. + +The sun was setting in glory as we started for the four hours' ride +home, and the frost was intense, and made our bruised, grazed limbs +ache painfully. I was sorry for Mrs. Chalmers, who had had several +falls, and bore her aches patiently, and had said several times to her +husband, with a kind meaning, "I am real sorry for this woman." I was +so tired with the perpetual stumbling of my horse, as well as stiffened +with the bitter cold, that I walked for the last hour or two; and +Chalmers, as if to cover his failure, indulged in loud, incessant talk, +abusing all other religionists, and railing against England in the +coarsest American fashion. Yet, after all, they were not bad souls; +and though he failed so grotesquely, he did his incompetent best. The +log fire in the ruinous cabin was cheery, and I kept it up all night, +and watched the stars through the holes in the roof, and thought of +Long's Peak in its glorious solitude, and resolved that, come what +might, I would reach Estes Park. + + I. L. B. + + + + +Letter VI + +A bronco mare--An accident--Wonderland--A sad story--The children of +the Territories--Hard greed--Halcyon hours--Smartness--Old-fashioned +prejudices--The Chicago colony--Good luck--Three notes of admiration--A +good horse--The St. Vrain--The Rocky Mountains at last--"Mountain +Jim"--A death hug--Estes Park. + +LOWER CANYON, September 25. + +This is another world. My entrance upon it was signalized in this +fashion. Chalmers offered me a bronco mare for a reasonable sum, and +though she was a shifty, half-broken young thing, I came over here on +her to try her, when, just as I was going away, she took into her head +to "scare" and "buck," and when I touched her with my foot she leaped +over a heap of timber, and the girth gave way, and the onlookers tell +me that while she jumped I fell over her tail from a good height upon +the hard gravel, receiving a parting kick on my knee. They could +hardly believe that no bones were broken. The flesh of my left arm +looks crushed into a jelly, but cold-water dressings will soon bring it +right; and a cut on my back bled profusely; and the bleeding, with many +bruises and the general shake, have made me feel weak, but +circumstances do not admit of "making a fuss," and I really think that +the rents in my riding dress will prove the most important part of the +accident. + +The surroundings here are pleasing. The log cabin, on the top of which +a room with a steep, ornamental Swiss roof has been built, is in a +valley close to a clear, rushing river, which emerges a little higher +up from an inaccessible chasm of great sublimity. One side of the +valley is formed by cliffs and terraces of porphyry as red as the +reddest new brick, and at sunset blazing into vermilion. Through +rifts in the nearer ranges there are glimpses of pine-clothed peaks, +which, towards twilight, pass through every shade of purple and +violet. The sky and the earth combine to form a Wonderland every +evening--such rich, velvety coloring in crimson and violet; such an +orange, green, and vermilion sky; such scarlet and emerald clouds; +such an extraordinary dryness and purity of atmosphere, and then the +glorious afterglow which seems to blend earth and heaven! For color, +the Rocky Mountains beat all I have seen. The air has been cold, but +the sun bright and hot during the last few days. + +The story of my host is a story of misfortune. It indicates who should +NOT come to Colorado.[11] He and his wife are under thirty-five. The +son of a London physician in large practice, with a liberal education +in the largest sense of the word, unusual culture and accomplishments, +and the partner of a physician in good practice in the second city in +England, he showed symptoms which threatened pulmonary disease. In an +evil hour he heard of Colorado with its "unrivalled climate, boundless +resources," etc., and, fascinated not only by these material +advantages, but by the notion of being able to found or reform society +on advanced social theories of his own, he became an emigrant. Mrs. +Hughes is one of the most charming, and lovable women I have ever seen, +and their marriage is an ideal one. Both are fitted to shine in any +society, but neither had the slightest knowledge of domestic and +farming details. Dr. H. did not know how to saddle or harness a horse. +Mrs. H. did not know whether you should put an egg into cold or hot +water when you meant to boil it! They arrived at Longmount, bought up +this claim, rather for the beauty of the scenery than for any +substantial advantages, were cheated in land, goods, oxen, everything, +and, to the discredit of the settlers, seemed to be regarded as fair +game. Everything has failed with them, and though they "rise early, +and late take rest, and eat the bread of carefulness," they hardly keep +their heads above water. A young Swiss girl, devoted to them both, +works as hard as they do. They have one horse, no wagon, some poultry, +and a few cows, but no "hired man." It is the hardest and least ideal +struggle that I have ever seen made by educated people. They had all +their experience to learn, and they have bought it by losses and +hardships. That they have learnt so much surprises me. Dr. H. and +these two ladies built the upper room and the addition to the house +without help. He has cropped the land himself, and has learned the +difficult art of milking cows. Mrs. H. makes all the clothes required +for a family of six, and her evenings, when the hard day's work is done +and she is ready to drop from fatigue, are spent in mending and +patching. The day is one long GRIND, without rest or enjoyment, or the +pleasure of chance intercourse with cultivated people. The few +visitors who have "happened in" are the thrifty wives of prosperous +settlers, full of housewifely pride, whose one object seems to be to +make Mrs. H. feel her inferiority to themselves. I wish she did take a +more genuine interest in the "coming-on" of the last calf, the +prospects of the squash crop, and the yield and price of butter; but +though she has learned to make excellent butter and bread, it is all +against the grain. The children are delightful. The little boys are +refined, courteous, childish gentlemen, with love and tenderness to +their parents in all their words and actions. Never a rough or harsh +word is heard within the house. But the atmosphere of struggles and +difficulties has already told on these infants. They consider their +mother in all things, going without butter when they think the stock is +low, bringing in wood and water too heavy for them to carry, anxiously +speculating on the winter prospect and the crops, yet withal the most +childlike and innocent of children. + +[11] The story is ended now. A few months after my visit Mrs. H. died +a few days after her confinement, and was buried on the bleak hill +side, leaving her husband with five children under six years old, and +Dr. H. is a prosperous man on one of the sunniest islands of the +Pacific, with the devoted Swiss friend as his second wife. + + +One of the most painful things in the Western States and Territories is +the extinction of childhood. I have never seen any children, only +debased imitations of men and women, cankered by greed and selfishness, +and asserting and gaining complete independence of their parents at ten +years old. The atmosphere in which they are brought up is one of +greed, godlessness, and frequently of profanity. Consequently these +sweet things seem like flowers in a desert. + +Except for love, which here as everywhere raises life into the ideal, +this is a wretched existence. The poor crops have been destroyed by +grasshoppers over and over again, and that talent deified here under +the name of "smartness" has taken advantage of Dr. H. in all bargains, +leaving him with little except food for his children. Experience has +been dearly bought in all ways, and this instance of failure might be a +useful warning to professional men without agricultural experience not +to come and try to make a living by farming in Colorado. + +My time here has passed very delightfully in spite of my regret and +anxiety for this interesting family. I should like to stay longer, +were it not that they have given up to me their straw bed, and Mrs. H. +and her baby, a wizened, fretful child, sleep on the floor in my room, +and Dr. H. on the floor downstairs, and the nights are frosty and +chill. Work is the order of their day, and of mine, and at night, when +the children are in bed, we three ladies patch the clothes and make +shirts, and Dr. H. reads Tennyson's poems, or we speak tenderly of that +world of culture and noble deeds which seems here "the land very far +off," or Mrs. H. lays aside her work for a few minutes and reads some +favorite passage of prose or poetry, as I have seldom heard either read +before, with a voice of large compass and exquisite tone, quick to +interpret every shade of the author's meaning, and soft, speaking eyes, +moist with feeling and sympathy. These are our halcyon hours, when we +forget the needs of the morrow, and that men still buy, sell, cheat, +and strive for gold, and that we are in the Rocky Mountains, and that +it is near midnight. But morning comes hot and tiresome, and the +never-ending work is oppressive, and Dr. H. comes in from the field two +or three times in the day, dizzy and faint, and they condole with each +other, and I feel that the Colorado settler needs to be made of sterner +stuff and to possess more adaptability. + +To-day has been a very pleasant day for me, though I have only once sat +down since 9 A.M., and it is now 5 P.M. I plotted that the devoted +Swiss girl should go to the nearest settlement with two of the children +for the day in a neighbor's wagon, and that Dr. and Mrs. H. should get +an afternoon of rest and sleep upstairs, while I undertook to do the +work and make something of a cleaning. I had a large "wash" of my own, +having been hindered last week by my bad arm, but a clothes wringer +which screws on to the side of the tub is a great assistance, and by +folding the clothes before passing them through it, I make it serve +instead of mangle and iron. After baking the bread and thoroughly +cleaning the churn and pails, I began upon the tins and pans, the +cleaning of which had fallen into arrears, and was hard at work, very +greasy and grimy, when a man came in to know where to ford the river +with his ox team, and as I was showing him he looked pityingly at me, +saying, "Be you the new hired girl? Bless me, you're awful small!" + +Yesterday we saved three cwt. of tomatoes for winter use, and about two +tons of squash and pumpkin for the cattle, two of the former weighing +140 lbs. I pulled nearly a quarter of an acre of maize, but it was a +scanty crop, and the husks were poorly filled. I much prefer field +work to the scouring of greasy pans and to the wash tub, and both to +either sewing or writing. + +This is not Arcadia. "Smartness," which consists in over-reaching your +neighbor in every fashion which is not illegal, is the quality which is +held in the greatest repute, and Mammon is the divinity. From a +generation brought up to worship the one and admire the other little +can be hoped. In districts distant as this is from "Church +Ordinances," there are three ways in which Sunday is spent: one, to +make it a day for visiting, hunting, and fishing; another, to spend it +in sleeping and abstinence from work; and the third, to continue all +the usual occupations, consequently harvesting and felling and hauling +timber are to be seen in progress. + +Last Sunday a man came here and put up a door, and said he didn't +believe in the Bible or in a God, and he wasn't going to sacrifice his +children's bread to old-fashioned prejudices. There is a manifest +indifference to the higher obligations of the law, "judgment, mercy and +faith"; but in the main the settlers are steady, there are few flagrant +breaches of morals, industry is the rule, life and property are far +safer than in England or Scotland, and the law of universal respect to +women is still in full force. + +The days are now brilliant and the nights sharply frosty. People are +preparing for the winter. The tourists from the East are trooping into +Denver, and the surveying parties are coming down from the mountains. +Snow has fallen on the higher ranges, and my hopes of getting to Estes +Park are down at zero. + + +LONGMOUNT, September 25. + +Yesterday was perfect. The sun was brilliant and the air cool and +bracing. I felt better, and after a hard day's work and an evening +stroll with my friends in the glorious afterglow, I went to bed +cheerful and hopeful as to the climate and its effect on my health. +This morning I awoke with a sensation of extreme lassitude, and on +going out, instead of the delicious atmosphere of yesterday, I found +intolerable suffocating heat, a BLAZING (not BRILLIANT) sun, and a +sirocco like a Victorian hot wind. Neuralgia, inflamed eyes, and a +sense of extreme prostration followed, and my acclimatized hosts were +somewhat similarly affected. The sparkle, the crystalline atmosphere, +and the glory of color of yesterday, had all vanished. We had borrowed +a wagon, but Dr. H.'s strong but lazy horse and a feeble hired one made +a poor span; and though the distance here is only twenty-two miles over +level prairie, our tired animal, and losing the way three times, have +kept us eight and a half hours in the broiling sun. All notions of +locality fail me on the prairie, and Dr. H. was not much better. We +took wrong tracks, got entangled among fences, plunged through the deep +mud of irrigation ditches, and were despondent. It was a miserable +drive, sitting on a heap of fodder under the angry sun. Half-way here +we camped at a river, now only a series of mud holes, and I fell asleep +under the imperfect shade of a cotton-wood tree, dreading the thought +of waking and jolting painfully along over the dusty prairie in the +dust-laden, fierce sirocco, under the ferocious sun. We never saw man +or beast the whole day. + +This is the "Chicago Colony," and it is said to be prospering, after +some preliminary land swindles. It is as uninviting as Fort Collins. +We first came upon dust-colored frame houses set down at intervals on +the dusty buff plain, each with its dusty wheat or barley field +adjacent, the crop, not the product of the rains of heaven, but of the +muddy overflow of "Irrigating Ditch No.2." Then comes a road made up +of many converging wagon tracks, which stiffen into a wide straggling +street, in which glaring frame houses and a few shops stand opposite to +each other. A two-storey house, one of the whitest and most glaring, +and without a veranda like all the others, is the "St. Vrain Hotel," +called after the St. Vrain River, out of which the ditch is taken which +enables Longmount to exist. Everything was broiling in the heat of the +slanting sun, which all day long had been beating on the unshaded +wooden rooms. The heat within was more sickening than outside, and +black flies covered everything, one's face included. We all sat +fighting the flies in my bedroom, which was cooler than elsewhere, till +a glorious sunset over the Rocky Range, some ten miles off, compelled +us to go out and enjoy it. Then followed supper, Western fashion, +without table-cloths, and all the "unattached" men of Longmount came in +and fed silently and rapidly. It was a great treat to have tea to +drink, as I had not tasted any for a fortnight. The landlord is a +jovial, kindly man. I told him how my plans had faded, and how I was +reluctantly going on to-morrow to Denver and New York, being unable to +get to Estes Park, and he said there might yet be a chance of some one +coming in to-night who would be going up. He soon came to my room and +asked definitely what I could do--if I feared cold, if I could "rough +it," if I could "ride horseback and lope." Estes Park and its +surroundings are, he says, "the most beautiful scenery in Colorado," +and "it's a real shame," he added, "for you not to see it." We had +hardly sat down to tea when he came, saying "You're in luck this time; +two young men have just come in and are going up to-morrow morning." I +am rather pleased, and have hired a horse for three days; but I am not +very hopeful, for I am almost ill of the smothering heat, and still +suffer from my fall, and not having been on horseback since, thirty +miles will be a long ride. Then I fear that the accommodation is as +rough as Chalmers's, and that solitude will be impossible. We have +been strolling in the street every since it grew dark to get the little +air which is moving. + + +ESTES PARK!!! September 28. + +I wish I could let those three notes of admiration go to you instead of +a letter. They mean everything that is rapturous and +delightful--grandeur, cheerfulness, health, enjoyment, novelty, +freedom, etc., etc. I have just dropped into the very place I have +been seeking, but in everything it exceeds all my dreams. There is +health in every breath of air; I am much better already, and get up to +a seven o'clock breakfast without difficulty. It is quite +comfortable--in the fashion that I like. I have a log cabin, raised on +six posts, all to myself, with a skunk's lair underneath it, and a +small lake close to it. There is a frost every night, and all day it +is cool enough for a roaring fire. The ranchman, who is half-hunter, +half-stockman, and his wife are jovial, hearty Welsh people from +Llanberis, who laugh with loud, cheery British laughs, sing in parts +down to the youngest child, are free hearted and hospitable, and pile +the pitch-pine logs half-way up the great rude chimney. There has been +fresh meat each day since I came, delicious bread baked daily, +excellent potatoes, tea and coffee, and an abundant supply of milk like +cream. I have a clean hay bed with six blankets, and there are neither +bugs nor fleas. The scenery is the most glorious I have ever seen, and +is above us, around us, at the very door. Most people have advized me +to go to Colorado Springs, and only one mentioned this place, and till +I reached Longmount I never saw any one who had been here, but I saw +from the lie of the country that it must be most superbly situated. +People said, however, that it was most difficult of access, and that +the season for it was over. In traveling there is nothing like +dissecting people's statements, which are usually colored by their +estimate of the powers or likings of the person spoken to, making all +reasonable inquiries, and then pertinaciously but quietly carrying out +one's own plans. This is perfection, and all the requisites for health +are present, including plenty of horses and grass to ride on. + +It is not easy to sit down to write after ten hours of hard riding, +especially in a cabin full of people, and wholesome fatigue may make my +letter flat when it ought to be enthusiastic. I was awake all night at +Longmount owing to the stifling heat, and got up nervous and miserable, +ready to give up the thought of coming here, but the sunrise over the +Plains, and the wonderful red of the Rocky Mountains, as they reflected +the eastern sky, put spirit into me. The landlord had got a horse, but +could not give any satisfactory assurances of his being quiet, and +being much shaken by my fall at Canyon, I earnestly wished that the +Greeley Tribune had not given me a reputation for horsemanship, which +had preceded me here. The young men who were to escort me "seemed very +innocent," he said, but I have not arrived at his meaning yet. When +the horse appeared in the street at 8:30, I saw, to my dismay, a +high-bred, beautiful creature, stable kept, with arched neck, quivering +nostrils, and restless ears and eyes. My pack, as on Hawaii, was +strapped behind the Mexican saddle, and my canvas bag hung on the horn, +but the horse did not look fit to carry "gear," and seemed to require +two men to hold and coax him. There were many loafers about, and I +shrank from going out and mounting in my old Hawaiian riding dress, +though Dr. and Mrs. H. assured me that I looked quite "insignificant +and unnoticeable." We got away at nine with repeated injunctions from +the landlord in the words, "Oh, you should be heroic!" + +The sky was cloudless, and a deep brilliant blue, and though the sun +was hot the air was fresh and bracing. The ride for glory and delight +I shall label along with one to Hanalei, and another to Mauna Kea, +Hawaii. I felt better quite soon; the horse in gait and temper turned +out perfection--all spring and spirit, elastic in his motion, walking +fast and easily, and cantering with a light, graceful swing as soon as +one pressed the reins on his neck, a blithe, joyous animal, to whom a +day among the mountains seemed a pleasant frolic. So gentle he was, +that when I got off and walked he followed me without being led, and +without needing any one to hold him he allowed me to mount on either +side. In addition to the charm of his movements he has the catlike +sure-footedness of a Hawaiian horse, and fords rapid and rough-bottomed +rivers, and gallops among stones and stumps, and down steep hills, with +equal security. I could have ridden him a hundred miles as easily as +thirty. We have only been together two days, yet we are firm friends, +and thoroughly understand each other. I should not require another +companion on a long mountain tour. All his ways are those of an animal +brought up without curb, whip, or spur, trained by the voice, and used +only to kindness, as is happily the case with the majority of horses in +the Western States. Consequently, unless they are broncos, they +exercise their intelligence for your advantage, and do their work +rather as friends than as machines. + +I soon began not only to feel better, but to be exhilarated with the +delightful motion. The sun was behind us, and puffs of a cool elastic +air came down from the glorious mountains in front. We cantered across +six miles of prairie, and then reached the beautiful canyon of the St. +Vrain, which, towards its mouth, is a narrow, fertile, wooded valley, +through which a bright rapid river, which we forded many times, hurries +along, with twists and windings innumerable. Ah, how brightly its +ripples danced in the glittering sunshine, and how musically its waters +murmured like the streams of windward Hawaii! We lost our way over and +over again, though the "innocent" young men had been there before; +indeed, it would require some talent to master the intricacies of that +devious trail, but settlers making hay always appeared in the nick of +time to put us on the right track. Very fair it was, after the brown +and burning plains, and the variety was endless. Cotton-wood trees +were green and bright, aspens shivered in gold tremulousness, wild +grape-vines trailed their lemon-colored foliage along the ground, and +the Virginia creeper hung its crimson sprays here and there, lightening +up green and gold into glory. Sometimes from under the cool and bowery +shade of the colored tangle we passed into the cool St. Vrain, and then +were wedged between its margin and lofty cliffs and terraces of +incredibly staring, fantastic rocks, lined, patched, and splashed with +carmine, vermilion, greens of all tints, blue, yellow, orange, violet, +deep crimson, coloring that no artist would dare to represent, and of +which, in sober prose, I scarcely dare tell. Long's wonderful peaks, +which hitherto had gleamed above the green, now disappeared, to be seen +no more for twenty miles. We entered on an ascending valley, where the +gorgeous hues of the rocks were intensified by the blue gloom of the +pitch pines, and then taking a track to the north-west, we left the +softer world behind, and all traces of man and his works, and plunged +into the Rocky Mountains. + +There were wonderful ascents then up which I led my horse; wild +fantastic views opening up continually, a recurrence of surprises; the +air keener and purer with every mile, the sensation of loneliness more +singular. A tremendous ascent among rocks and pines to a height of +9,000 feet brought us to a passage seven feet wide through a wall of +rock, with an abrupt descent of 2,000 feet, and a yet higher ascent +beyond. I never saw anything so strange as looking back. It was a +single gigantic ridge which we had passed through, standing up +knifelike, built up entirely of great brick-shaped masses of bright red +rock, some of them as large as the Royal Institution, Edinburgh, piled +one on another by Titans. Pitch pines grew out of their crevices, but +there was not a vestige of soil. Beyond, wall beyond wall of similar +construction, and range above range, rose into the blue sky. Fifteen +miles more over great ridges, along passes dark with shadow, and so +narrow that we had to ride in the beds of the streams which had +excavated them, round the bases of colossal pyramids of rock crested +with pines, up into fair upland "parks," scarlet in patches with the +poison oak, parks so beautifully arranged by nature that I momentarily +expected to come upon some stately mansion, but that afternoon crested +blue jays and chipmunks had them all to themselves. Here, in the early +morning, deer, bighorn, and the stately elk, come down to feed, and +there, in the night, prowl and growl the Rocky Mountain lion, the +grizzly bear, and the cowardly wolf. There were chasms of immense +depth, dark with the indigo gloom of pines, and mountains with snow +gleaming on their splintered crests, loveliness to bewilder and +grandeur to awe, and still streams and shady pools, and cool depths of +shadow; mountains again, dense with pines, among which patches of aspen +gleamed like gold; valleys where the yellow cotton-wood mingled with +the crimson oak, and so, on and on through the lengthening shadows, +till the trail, which in places had been hardly legible, became well +defined, and we entered a long gulch with broad swellings of grass +belted with pines. + +A very pretty mare, hobbled, was feeding; a collie dog barked at us, +and among the scrub, not far from the track, there was a rude, black +log cabin, as rough as it could be to be a shelter at all, with smoke +coming out of the roof and window. We diverged towards it; it mattered +not that it was the home, or rather den, of a notorious "ruffian" and +"desperado." One of my companions had disappeared hours before, the +remaining one was a town-bred youth. I longed to speak to some one who +loved the mountains. I called the hut a DEN--it looked like the den of +a wild beast. The big dog lay outside it in a threatening attitude and +growled. The mud roof was covered with lynx, beaver, and other furs +laid out to dry, beaver paws were pinned out on the logs, a part of the +carcass of a deer hung at one end of the cabin, a skinned beaver lay in +front of a heap of peltry just within the door, and antlers of deer, +old horseshoes, and offal of many animals, lay about the den. + +Roused by the growling of the dog, his owner came out, a broad, +thickset man, about the middle height, with an old cap on his head, and +wearing a grey hunting suit much the worse for wear (almost falling to +pieces, in fact), a digger's scarf knotted round his waist, a knife in +his belt, and "a bosom friend," a revolver, sticking out of the breast +pocket of his coat; his feet, which were very small, were bare, except +for some dilapidated moccasins made of horse hide. The marvel was how +his clothes hung together, and on him. The scarf round his waist must +have had something to do with it. His face was remarkable. He is a +man about forty-five, and must have been strikingly handsome. He has +large grey-blue eyes, deeply set, with well-marked eyebrows, a handsome +aquiline nose, and a very handsome mouth. His face was smooth shaven +except for a dense mustache and imperial. Tawny hair, in thin +uncared-for curls, fell from under his hunter's cap and over his +collar. One eye was entirely gone, and the loss made one side of the +face repulsive, while the other might have been modeled in marble. +"Desperado" was written in large letters all over him. I almost +repented of having sought his acquaintance. His first impulse was to +swear at the dog, but on seeing a lady he contented himself with +kicking him, and coming to me he raised his cap, showing as he did so a +magnificently-formed brow and head, and in a cultured tone of voice +asked if there were anything he could do for me? I asked for some +water, and he brought some in a battered tin, gracefully apologizing +for not having anything more presentable. We entered into +conversation, and as he spoke I forgot both his reputation and +appearance, for his manner was that of a chivalrous gentleman, his +accent refined, and his language easy and elegant. I inquired about +some beavers' paws which were drying, and in a moment they hung on the +horn of my saddle. Apropos of the wild animals of the region, he told +me that the loss of his eye was owing to a recent encounter with a +grizzly bear, which, after giving him a death hug, tearing him all +over, breaking his arm and scratching out his eye, had left him for +dead. As we rode away, for the sun was sinking, he said, courteously, +"You are not an American. I know from your voice that you are a +countrywoman of mine. I hope you will allow me the pleasure of calling +on you." [12] + +[12] Of this unhappy man, who was shot nine months later within two +miles of his cabin, I write in the subsequent letters only as he +appeared to me. His life, without doubt, was deeply stained with +crimes and vices, and his reputation for ruffianism was a deserved one. +But in my intercourse with him I saw more of his nobler instincts than +of the darker parts of his character, which, unfortunately for himself +and others, showed itself in its worst colors at the time of his tragic +end. It was not until after I left Colorado, not indeed until after +his death, that I heard of the worst points of his character. + + +This man, known through the Territories and beyond them as "Rocky +Mountain Jim," or, more briefly, as "Mountain Jim," is one of the +famous scouts of the Plains, and is the original of some daring +portraits in fiction concerning Indian Frontier warfare. So far as I +have at present heard, he is a man for whom there is now no room, for +the time for blows and blood in this part of Colorado is past, and the +fame of many daring exploits is sullied by crimes which are not easily +forgiven here. He now has a "squatter's claim," but makes his living +as a trapper, and is a complete child of the mountains. Of his genius +and chivalry to women there does not appear to be any doubt; but he is +a desperate character, and is subject to "ugly fits," when people think +it best to avoid him. It is here regarded as an evil that he has +located himself at the mouth of the only entrance to the park, for he +is dangerous with his pistols, and it would be safer if he were not +here. His besetting sin is indicated in the verdict pronounced on him +by my host: "When he's sober Jim's a perfect gentleman; but when he's +had liquor he's the most awful ruffian in Colorado." + +From the ridge on which this gulch terminates, at a height of 9,000 +feet, we saw at last Estes Park, lying 1,500 feet below in the glory of +the setting sun, an irregular basin, lighted up by the bright waters of +the rushing Thompson, guarded by sentinel mountains of fantastic shape +and monstrous size, with Long's Peak rising above them all in +unapproachable grandeur, while the Snowy Range, with its outlying spurs +heavily timbered, come down upon the park slashed by stupendous canyons +lying deep in purple gloom. The rushing river was blood red, Long's +Peak was aflame, the glory of the glowing heaven was given back from +earth. Never, nowhere, have I seen anything to equal the view into +Estes Park. The mountains "of the land which is very far off" are very +near now, but the near is more glorious than the far, and reality than +dreamland. The mountain fever seized me, and, giving my tireless horse +one encouraging word, he dashed at full gallop over a mile of smooth +sward at delirious speed. + +But I was hungry, and the air was frosty, and I was wondering what the +prospects of food and shelter were in this enchanted region, when we +came suddenly upon a small lake, close to which was a very trim-looking +log cabin, with a flat mud roof, with four smaller ones; picturesquely +dotted about near it, two corrals,[13] a long shed, in front of which a +steer was being killed, a log dairy with a water wheel, some hay piles, +and various evidences of comfort; and two men, on serviceable horses, +were just bringing in some tolerable cows to be milked. A short, +pleasant-looking man ran up to me and shook hands gleefully, which +surprised me; but he has since told me that in the evening light he +thought I was "Mountain Jim, dressed up as a woman!" I recognized in +him a countryman, and he introduced himself as Griffith Evans, a +Welshman from the slate quarries near Llanberis. When the cabin door +was opened I saw a good-sized log room, unchinked, however, with +windows of infamous glass, looking two ways; a rough stone fireplace, +in which pine logs, half as large as I am, were burning; a boarded +floor, a round table, two rocking chairs, a carpet-covered backwoods +couch; and skins, Indian bows and arrows, wampum belts, and antlers, +fitly decorated the rough walls, and equally fitly, rifles were stuck +up in the corners. Seven men, smoking, were lying about on the floor, +a sick man lay on the couch, and a middle-aged lady sat at the table +writing. I went out again and asked Evans if he could take me in, +expecting nothing better than a shakedown; but, to my joy, he told me +he could give me a cabin to myself, two minutes' walk from his own. So +in this glorious upper world, with the mountain pines behind and the +clear lake in front, in the "blue hollow at the foot of Long's Peak," +at a height of 7,500 feet, where the hoar frost crisps the grass every +night of the year, I have found far more than I ever dared to hope for. + +[13] A corral is a fenced enclosure for cattle. This word, with +bronco, ranch, and a few others, are adaptations from the Spanish, and +are used as extensively throughout California and the Territories as is +the Spanish or Mexican saddle. + + I. L. B. + + + + +Letter VII + +Personality of Long's Peak--"Mountain Jim"--Lake of the Lilies--A +silent forest--The camping ground--"Ring"--A lady's bower--Dawn and +sunrise--A glorious view--Links of diamonds--The ascent of the +Peak--The "Dog's Lift"--Suffering from thirst--The descent--The bivouac. + +ESTES PARK, COLORADO, October. + +As this account of the ascent of Long's Peak could not be written at +the time, I am much disinclined to write it, especially as no sort of +description within my powers could enable another to realize the +glorious sublimity, the majestic solitude, and the unspeakable +awfulness and fascination of the scenes in which I spent Monday, +Tuesday, and Wednesday. + +Long's Peak, 14,700 feet high, blocks up one end of Estes Park, and +dwarfs all the surrounding mountains. From it on this side rise, +snow-born, the bright St. Vrain, and the Big and Little Thompson. By +sunlight or moonlight its splintered grey crest is the one object +which, in spite of wapiti and bighorn, skunk and grizzly, unfailingly +arrests the eyes. From it come all storms of snow and wind, and the +forked lightnings play round its head like a glory. It is one of the +noblest of mountains, but in one's imagination it grows to be much more +than a mountain. It becomes invested with a personality. In its +caverns and abysses one comes to fancy that it generates and chains the +strong winds, to let them loose in its fury. The thunder becomes its +voice, and the lightnings do it homage. Other summits blush under the +morning kiss of the sun, and turn pale the next moment; but it detains +the first sunlight and holds it round its head for an hour at least, +till it pleases to change from rosy red to deep blue; and the sunset, +as if spell-bound, lingers latest on its crest. The soft winds which +hardly rustle the pine needles down here are raging rudely up there +round its motionless summit. The mark of fire is upon it; and though +it has passed into a grim repose, it tells of fire and upheaval as +truly, though not as eloquently, as the living volcanoes of Hawaii. +Here under its shadow one learns how naturally nature worship, and the +propitiation of the forces of nature, arose in minds which had no +better light. + +Long's Peak, "the American Matterhorn," as some call it, was ascended +five years ago for the first time. I thought I should like to attempt +it, but up to Monday, when Evans left for Denver, cold water was thrown +upon the project. It was too late in the season, the winds were likely +to be strong, etc.; but just before leaving, Evans said that the +weather was looking more settled, and if I did not get farther than the +timber line it would be worth going. Soon after he left, "Mountain +Jim" came in, and said he would go up as guide, and the two youths who +rode here with me from Longmount and I caught at the proposal. Mrs. +Edwards at once baked bread for three days, steaks were cut from the +steer which hangs up conveniently, and tea, sugar, and butter were +benevolently added. Our picnic was not to be a luxurious or +"well-found" one, for, in order to avoid the expense of a pack mule, we +limited our luggage to what our saddle horses could carry. Behind my +saddle I carried three pair of camping blankets and a quilt, which +reached to my shoulders. My own boots were so much worn that it was +painful to walk, even about the park, in them, so Evans had lent me a +pair of his hunting boots, which hung to the horn of my saddle. The +horses of the two young men were equally loaded, for we had to prepare +for many degrees of frost. "Jim" was a shocking figure; he had on an +old pair of high boots, with a baggy pair of old trousers made of deer +hide, held on by an old scarf tucked into them; a leather shirt, with +three or four ragged unbuttoned waistcoats over it; an old smashed +wideawake, from under which his tawny, neglected ringlets hung; and +with his one eye, his one long spur, his knife in his belt, his +revolver in his waistcoat pocket, his saddle covered with an old beaver +skin, from which the paws hung down; his camping blankets behind him, +his rifle laid across the saddle in front of him, and his axe, canteen, +and other gear hanging to the horn, he was as awful-looking a ruffian +as one could see. By way of contrast he rode a small Arab mare, of +exquisite beauty, skittish, high spirited, gentle, but altogether too +light for him, and he fretted her incessantly to make her display +herself. + +Heavily loaded as all our horses were, "Jim" started over the half-mile +of level grass at a hard gallop, and then throwing his mare on her +haunches, pulled up alongside of me, and with a grace of manner which +soon made me forget his appearance, entered into a conversation which +lasted for more than three hours, in spite of the manifold checks of +fording streams, single file, abrupt ascents and descents, and other +incidents of mountain travel. The ride was one series of glories and +surprises, of "park" and glade, of lake and stream, of mountains on +mountains, culminating in the rent pinnacles of Long's Peak, which +looked yet grander and ghastlier as we crossed an attendant mountain +11,000 feet high. The slanting sun added fresh beauty every hour. +There were dark pines against a lemon sky, grey peaks reddening and +etherealizing, gorges of deep and infinite blue, floods of golden glory +pouring through canyons of enormous depth, an atmosphere of absolute +purity, an occasional foreground of cottonwood and aspen flaunting in +red and gold to intensify the blue gloom of the pines, the trickle and +murmur of streams fringed with icicles, the strange sough of gusts +moving among the pine tops--sights and sounds not of the lower earth, +but of the solitary, beast-haunted, frozen upper altitudes. From the +dry, buff grass of Estes Park we turned off up a trail on the side of a +pine-hung gorge, up a steep pine-clothed hill, down to a small valley, +rich in fine, sun-cured hay about eighteen inches high, and enclosed by +high mountains whose deepest hollow contains a lily-covered lake, fitly +named "The Lake of the Lilies." Ah, how magical its beauty was, as it +slept in silence, while THERE the dark pines were mirrored motionless +in its pale gold, and HERE the great white lily cups and dark green +leaves rested on amethyst-colored water! + +From this we ascended into the purple gloom of great pine forests which +clothe the skirts of the mountains up to a height of about 11,000 feet, +and from their chill and solitary depths we had glimpses of golden +atmosphere and rose-lit summits, not of "the land very far off," but of +the land nearer now in all its grandeur, gaining in sublimity by +nearness--glimpses, too, through a broken vista of purple gorges, of +the illimitable Plains lying idealized in the late sunlight, their +baked, brown expanse transfigured into the likeness of a sunset sea +rolling infinitely in waves of misty gold. + +We rode upwards through the gloom on a steep trail blazed through the +forest, all my intellect concentrated on avoiding being dragged off my +horse by impending branches, or having the blankets badly torn, as +those of my companions were, by sharp dead limbs, between which there +was hardly room to pass--the horses breathless, and requiring to stop +every few yards, though their riders, except myself, were afoot. The +gloom of the dense, ancient, silent forest is to me awe inspiring. On +such an evening it is soundless, except for the branches creaking in +the soft wind, the frequent snap of decayed timber, and a murmur in the +pine tops as of a not distant waterfall, all tending to produce +EERINESS and a sadness "hardly akin to pain." There no lumberer's axe +has ever rung. The trees die when they have attained their prime, and +stand there, dead and bare, till the fierce mountain winds lay them +prostrate. The pines grew smaller and more sparse as we ascended, and +the last stragglers wore a tortured, warring look. The timber line was +passed, but yet a little higher a slope of mountain meadow dipped to +the south-west towards a bright stream trickling under ice and icicles, +and there a grove of the beautiful silver spruce marked our camping +ground. The trees were in miniature, but so exquisitely arranged that +one might well ask what artist's hand had planted them, scattering them +here, clumping them there, and training their slim spires towards +heaven. Hereafter, when I call up memories of the glorious, the view +from this camping ground will come up. Looking east, gorges opened to +the distant Plains, then fading into purple grey. Mountains with +pine-clothed skirts rose in ranges, or, solitary, uplifted their grey +summits, while close behind, but nearly 3,000 feet above us, towered +the bald white crest of Long's Peak, its huge precipices red with the +light of a sun long lost to our eyes. Close to us, in the caverned +side of the Peak, was snow that, owing to its position, is eternal. +Soon the afterglow came on, and before it faded a big half-moon hung +out of the heavens, shining through the silver blue foliage of the +pines on the frigid background of snow, and turning the whole into +fairyland. The "photo" which accompanies this letter is by a +courageous Denver artist who attempted the ascent just before I +arrived, but, after camping out at the timber line for a week, was +foiled by the perpetual storms, and was driven down again, leaving some +very valuable apparatus about 3,000 feet from the summit. + +Unsaddling and picketing the horses securely, making the beds of pine +shoots, and dragging up logs for fuel, warmed us all. "Jim" built up a +great fire, and before long we were all sitting around it at supper. +It didn't matter much that we had to drink our tea out of the battered +meat tins in which it was boiled, and eat strips of beef reeking with +pine smoke without plates or forks. + +"Treat Jim as a gentleman and you'll find him one," I had been told; +and though his manner was certainly bolder and freer than that of +gentlemen generally, no imaginary fault could be found. He was very +agreeable as a man of culture as well as a child of nature; the +desperado was altogether out of sight. He was very courteous and even +kind to me, which was fortunate, as the young men had little idea of +showing even ordinary civilities. That night I made the acquaintance +of his dog "Ring," said to be the best hunting dog in Colorado, with +the body and legs of a collie, but a head approaching that of a +mastiff, a noble face with a wistful human expression, and the most +truthful eyes I ever saw in an animal. His master loves him if he +loves anything, but in his savage moods ill-treats him. "Ring's" +devotion never swerves, and his truthful eyes are rarely taken off his +master's face. He is almost human in his intelligence, and, unless he +is told to do so, he never takes notice of any one but "Jim." In a +tone as if speaking to a human being, his master, pointing to me, said, +"Ring, go to that lady, and don't leave her again to-night." "Ring" at +once came to me, looked into my face, laid his head on my shoulder, and +then lay down beside me with his head on my lap, but never taking his +eyes from "Jim's" face. + +The long shadows of the pines lay upon the frosted grass, an aurora +leaped fitfully, and the moonlight, though intensely bright, was pale +beside the red, leaping flames of our pine logs and their red glow on +our gear, ourselves, and Ring's truthful face. One of the young men +sang a Latin student's song and two Negro melodies; the other "Sweet +Spirit, hear my Prayer." "Jim" sang one of Moore's melodies in a +singular falsetto, and all together sang, "The Star-spangled Banner" +and "The Red, White, and Blue." Then "Jim" recited a very clever poem +of his own composition, and told some fearful Indian stories. A group +of small silver spruces away from the fire was my sleeping place. The +artist who had been up there had so woven and interlaced their lower +branches as to form a bower, affording at once shelter from the wind +and a most agreeable privacy. It was thickly strewn with young pine +shoots, and these, when covered with a blanket, with an inverted saddle +for a pillow, made a luxurious bed. The mercury at 9 P.M. was 12 +degrees below the freezing point. "Jim," after a last look at the +horses, made a huge fire, and stretched himself out beside it, but +"Ring" lay at my back to keep me warm. I could not sleep, but the +night passed rapidly. I was anxious about the ascent, for gusts of +ominous sound swept through the pines at intervals. Then wild animals +howled, and "Ring" was perturbed in spirit about them. Then it was +strange to see the notorious desperado, a red-handed man, sleeping as +quietly as innocence sleeps. But, above all, it was exciting to lie +there, with no better shelter than a bower of pines, on a mountain +11,000 feet high, in the very heart of the Rocky Range, under twelve +degrees of frost, hearing sounds of wolves, with shivering stars +looking through the fragrant canopy, with arrowy pines for bed-posts, +and for a night lamp the red flames of a camp-fire. + +Day dawned long before the sun rose, pure and lemon colored. The rest +were looking after the horses, when one of the students came running to +tell me that I must come farther down the slope, for "Jim" said he had +never seen such a sunrise. From the chill, grey Peak above, from the +everlasting snows, from the silvered pines, down through mountain +ranges with their depths of Tyrian purple, we looked to where the +Plains lay cold, in blue-grey, like a morning sea against a far +horizon. Suddenly, as a dazzling streak at first, but enlarging +rapidly into a dazzling sphere, the sun wheeled above the grey line, a +light and glory as when it was first created. "Jim" involuntarily and +reverently uncovered his head, and exclaimed, "I believe there is a +God!" I felt as if, Parsee-like, I must worship. The grey of the +Plains changed to purple, the sky was all one rose-red flush, on which +vermilion cloud-streaks rested; the ghastly peaks gleamed like rubies, +the earth and heavens were new created. Surely "the Most High dwelleth +not in temples made with hands!" For a full hour those Plains +simulated the ocean, down to whose limitless expanse of purple, cliff, +rocks, and promontories swept down. + +By seven we had finished breakfast, and passed into the ghastlier +solitudes above, I riding as far as what, rightly, or wrongly, are +called the "Lava Beds," an expanse of large and small boulders, with +snow in their crevices. It was very cold; some water which we crossed +was frozen hard enough to bear the horse. "Jim" had advised me against +taking any wraps, and my thin Hawaiian riding dress, only fit for the +tropics, was penetrated by the keen air. The rarefied atmosphere soon +began to oppress our breathing, and I found that Evans's boots were so +large that I had no foothold. Fortunately, before the real difficulty +of the ascent began, we found, under a rock, a pair of small overshoes, +probably left by the Hayden exploring expedition, which just lasted for +the day. As we were leaping from rock to rock, "Jim" said, "I was +thinking in the night about your traveling alone, and wondering where +you carried your Derringer, for I could see no signs of it." On my +telling him that I traveled unarmed, he could hardly believe it, and +adjured me to get a revolver at once. + +On arriving at the "Notch" (a literal gate of rock), we found ourselves +absolutely on the knifelike ridge or backbone of Long's Peak, only a +few feet wide, covered with colossal boulders and fragments, and on the +other side shelving in one precipitous, snow-patched sweep of 3,000 +feet to a picturesque hollow, containing a lake of pure green water. +Other lakes, hidden among dense pine woods, were farther off, while +close above us rose the Peak, which, for about 500 feet, is a smooth, +gaunt, inaccessible-looking pile of granite. Passing through the +"Notch," we looked along the nearly inaccessible side of the Peak, +composed of boulders and debris of all shapes and sizes, through which +appeared broad, smooth ribs of reddish-colored granite, looking as if +they upheld the towering rock mass above. I usually dislike bird's-eye +and panoramic views, but, though from a mountain, this was not one. +Serrated ridges, not much lower than that on which we stood, rose, one +beyond another, far as that pure atmosphere could carry the vision, +broken into awful chasms deep with ice and snow, rising into pinnacles +piercing the heavenly blue with their cold, barren grey, on, on for +ever, till the most distant range upbore unsullied snow alone. There +were fair lakes mirroring the dark pine woods, canyons dark and +blue-black with unbroken expanses of pines, snow-slashed pinnacles, +wintry heights frowning upon lovely parks, watered and wooded, lying in +the lap of summer; North Park floating off into the blue distance, +Middle Park closed till another season, the sunny slopes of Estes Park, +and winding down among the mountains the snowy ridge of the Divide, +whose bright waters seek both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. There, +far below, links of diamonds showed where the Grand River takes its +rise to seek the mysterious Colorado, with its still unsolved enigma, +and lose itself in the waters of the Pacific; and nearer the snow-born +Thompson bursts forth from the ice to begin its journey to the Gulf of +Mexico. Nature, rioting in her grandest mood, exclaimed with voices of +grandeur, solitude, sublimity, beauty, and infinity, "Lord, what is +man, that Thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that Thou +visitest him?" Never-to-be-forgotten glories they were, burnt in upon +my memory by six succeeding hours of terror. + +You know I have no head and no ankles, and never ought to dream of +mountaineering; and had I known that the ascent was a real +mountaineering feat I should not have felt the slightest ambition to +perform it. As it is, I am only humiliated by my success, for "Jim" +dragged me up, like a bale of goods, by sheer force of muscle. At the +"Notch" the real business of the ascent began. Two thousand feet of +solid rock towered above us, four thousand feet of broken rock shelved +precipitously below; smooth granite ribs, with barely foothold, stood +out here and there; melted snow refrozen several times, presented a +more serious obstacle; many of the rocks were loose, and tumbled down +when touched. To me it was a time of extreme terror. I was roped to +"Jim," but it was of no use; my feet were paralyzed and slipped on the +bare rock, and he said it was useless to try to go that way, and we +retraced our steps. I wanted to return to the "Notch," knowing that my +incompetence would detain the party, and one of the young men said +almost plainly that a woman was a dangerous encumbrance, but the +trapper replied shortly that if it were not to take a lady up he would +not go up at all. He went on to explore, and reported that further +progress on the correct line of ascent was blocked by ice; and then for +two hours we descended, lowering ourselves by our hands from rock to +rock along a boulder-strewn sweep of 4,000 feet, patched with ice and +snow, and perilous from rolling stones. My fatigue, giddiness, and +pain from bruised ankles, and arms half pulled out of their sockets, +were so great that I should never have gone halfway had not "Jim," +nolens volens, dragged me along with a patience and skill, and withal a +determination that I should ascend the Peak, which never failed. After +descending about 2,000 feet to avoid the ice, we got into a deep ravine +with inaccessible sides, partly filled with ice and snow and partly +with large and small fragments of rock, which were constantly giving +away, rendering the footing very insecure. That part to me was two +hours of painful and unwilling submission to the inevitable; of +trembling, slipping, straining, of smooth ice appearing when it was +least expected, and of weak entreaties to be left behind while the +others went on. "Jim" always said that there was no danger, that there +was only a short bad bit ahead, and that I should go up even if he +carried me! + +Slipping, faltering, gasping from the exhausting toil in the rarefied +air, with throbbing hearts and panting lungs, we reached the top of the +gorge and squeezed ourselves between two gigantic fragments of rock by +a passage called the "Dog's Lift," when I climbed on the shoulders of +one man and then was hauled up. This introduced us by an abrupt turn +round the south-west angle of the Peak to a narrow shelf of +considerable length, rugged, uneven, and so overhung by the cliff in +some places that it is necessary to crouch to pass at all. Above, the +Peak looks nearly vertical for 400 feet; and below, the most tremendous +precipice I have ever seen descends in one unbroken fall. This is +usually considered the most dangerous part of the ascent, but it does +not seem so to me, for such foothold as there is is secure, and one +fancies that it is possible to hold on with the hands. But there, and +on the final, and, to my thinking, the worst part of the climb, one +slip, and a breathing, thinking, human being would lie 3,000 feet +below, a shapeless, bloody heap! "Ring" refused to traverse the Ledge, +and remained at the "Lift" howling piteously. + +From thence the view is more magnificent even than that from the +"Notch." At the foot of the precipice below us lay a lovely lake, wood +embosomed, from or near which the bright St. Vrain and other streams +take their rise. I thought how their clear cold waters, growing turbid +in the affluent flats, would heat under the tropic sun, and eventually +form part of that great ocean river which renders our far-off islands +habitable by impinging on their shores. Snowy ranges, one behind the +other, extended to the distant horizon, folding in their wintry embrace +the beauties of Middle Park. Pike's Peak, more than one hundred miles +off, lifted that vast but shapeless summit which is the landmark of +southern Colorado. There were snow patches, snow slashes, snow +abysses, snow forlorn and soiled looking, snow pure and dazzling, snow +glistening above the purple robe of pine worn by all the mountains; +while away to the east, in limitless breadth, stretched the green-grey +of the endless Plains. Giants everywhere reared their splintered +crests. From thence, with a single sweep, the eye takes in a distance +of 300 miles--that distance to the west, north, and south being made up +of mountains ten, eleven, twelve, and thirteen thousand feet in height, +dominated by Long's Peak, Gray's Peak, and Pike's Peak, all nearly the +height of Mont Blanc! On the Plains we traced the rivers by their +fringe of cottonwoods to the distant Platte, and between us and them +lay glories of mountain, canyon, and lake, sleeping in depths of blue +and purple most ravishing to the eye. + +As we crept from the ledge round a horn of rock I beheld what made me +perfectly sick and dizzy to look at--the terminal Peak itself--a +smooth, cracked face or wall of pink granite, as nearly perpendicular +as anything could well be up which it was possible to climb, well +deserving the name of the "American Matterhorn." [14] + +[14] Let no practical mountaineer be allured by my description into the +ascent of Long's Peak. Truly terrible as it was to me, to a member of +the Alpine Club it would not be a feat worth performing. + + +SCALING, not climbing, is the correct term for this last ascent. It +took one hour to accomplish 500 feet, pausing for breath every minute +or two. The only foothold was in narrow cracks or on minute +projections on the granite. To get a toe in these cracks, or here and +there on a scarcely obvious projection, while crawling on hands and +knees, all the while tortured with thirst and gasping and struggling +for breath, this was the climb; but at last the Peak was won. A grand, +well-defined mountain top it is, a nearly level acre of boulders, with +precipitous sides all round, the one we came up being the only +accessible one. + +It was not possible to remain long. One of the young men was seriously +alarmed by bleeding from the lungs, and the intense dryness of the day +and the rarefication of the air, at a height of nearly 15,000 feet, +made respiration very painful. There is always water on the Peak, but +it was frozen as hard as a rock, and the sucking of ice and snow +increases thirst. We all suffered severely from the want of water, and +the gasping for breath made our mouths and tongues so dry that +articulation was difficult, and the speech of all unnatural. + +From the summit were seen in unrivalled combination all the views which +had rejoiced our eyes during the ascent. It was something at last to +stand upon the storm-rent crown of this lonely sentinel of the Rocky +Range, on one of the mightiest of the vertebrae of the backbone of the +North American continent, and to see the waters start for both oceans. +Uplifted above love and hate and storms of passion, calm amidst the +eternal silences, fanned by zephyrs and bathed in living blue, peace +rested for that one bright day on the Peak, as if it were some region + + Where falls not rain, or hail, or any snow, + Or ever wind blows loudly. + +We placed our names, with the date of ascent, in a tin within a +crevice, and descended to the Ledge, sitting on the smooth granite, +getting our feet into cracks and against projections, and letting +ourselves down by our hands, "Jim" going before me, so that I might +steady my feet against his powerful shoulders. I was no longer giddy, +and faced the precipice of 3,500 feet without a shiver. Repassing the +Ledge and Lift, we accomplished the descent through 1,500 feet of ice +and snow, with many falls and bruises, but no worse mishap, and there +separated, the young men taking the steepest but most direct way to the +"Notch," with the intention of getting ready for the march home, and +"Jim" and I taking what he thought the safer route for me--a descent +over boulders for 2,000 feet, and then a tremendous ascent to the +"Notch." I had various falls, and once hung by my frock, which caught +on a rock, and "Jim" severed it with his hunting knife, upon which I +fell into a crevice full of soft snow. We were driven lower down the +mountains than he had intended by impassable tracts of ice, and the +ascent was tremendous. For the last 200 feet the boulders were of +enormous size, and the steepness fearful. Sometimes I drew myself up +on hands and knees, sometimes crawled; sometimes "Jim" pulled me up by +my arms or a lariat, and sometimes I stood on his shoulders, or he made +steps for me of his feet and hands, but at six we stood on the "Notch" +in the splendor of the sinking sun, all color deepening, all peaks +glorifying, all shadows purpling, all peril past. + +"Jim" had parted with his brusquerie when we parted from the students, +and was gentle and considerate beyond anything, though I knew that he +must be grievously disappointed, both in my courage and strength. +Water was an object of earnest desire. My tongue rattled in my mouth, +and I could hardly articulate. It is good for one's sympathies to have +for once a severe experience of thirst. Truly, there was + + Water, water, everywhere, + But not a drop to drink. + +Three times its apparent gleam deceived even the mountaineer's +practiced eye, but we found only a foot of "glare ice." At last, in a +deep hole, he succeeded in breaking the ice, and by putting one's arm +far down one could scoop up a little water in one's hand, but it was +tormentingly insufficient. With great difficulty and much assistance I +recrossed the "Lava Beds," was carried to the horse and lifted upon +him, and when we reached the camping ground I was lifted off him, and +laid on the ground wrapped up in blankets, a humiliating termination of +a great exploit. The horses were saddled, and the young men were all +ready to start, but "Jim" quietly said, "Now, gentlemen, I want a good +night's rest, and we shan't stir from here to-night." I believe they +were really glad to have it so, as one of them was quite "finished." I +retired to my arbor, wrapped myself in a roll of blankets, and was soon +asleep. + +When I woke, the moon was high shining through the silvery branches, +whitening the bald Peak above, and glittering on the great abyss of +snow behind, and pine logs were blazing like a bonfire in the cold +still air. My feet were so icy cold that I could not sleep again, and +getting some blankets to sit in, and making a roll of them for my back, +I sat for two hours by the camp-fire. It was weird and gloriously +beautiful. The students were asleep not far off in their blankets with +their feet towards the fire. "Ring" lay on one side of me with his +fine head on my arm, and his master sat smoking, with the fire lighting +up the handsome side of his face, and except for the tones of our +voices, and an occasional crackle and splutter as a pine knot blazed +up, there was no sound on the mountain side. The beloved stars of my +far-off home were overhead, the Plough and Pole Star, with their steady +light; the glittering Pleiades, looking larger than I ever saw them, +and "Orion's studded belt" shining gloriously. Once only some wild +animals prowled near the camp, when "Ring," with one bound, disappeared +from my side; and the horses, which were picketed by the stream, broke +their lariats, stampeded, and came rushing wildly towards the fire, and +it was fully half an hour before they were caught and quiet was +restored. "Jim," or Mr. Nugent, as I always scrupulously called him, +told stories of his early youth, and of a great sorrow which had led +him to embark on a lawless and desperate life. His voice trembled, and +tears rolled down his cheek. Was it semi-conscious acting, I wondered, +or was his dark soul really stirred to its depths by the silence, the +beauty, and the memories of youth? + +We reached Estes Park at noon of the following day. A more successful +ascent of the Peak was never made, and I would not now exchange my +memories of its perfect beauty and extraordinary sublimity for any +other experience of mountaineering in any part of the world. Yesterday +snow fell on the summit, and it will be inaccessible for eight months +to come. + + I. L. B. + + + + +Letter VIII + +Estes Park--Big game--"Parks" in Colorado--Magnificent scenery--Flowers +and pines--An awful road--Our log cabin--Griffith Evans--A miniature +world--Our topics--A night alarm--A skunk--Morning glories--Daily +routine--The panic--"Wait for the wagon"--A musical evening. + +ESTES PARK, COLORADO TERRITORY, October 2. + +How time has slipped by I do not know. This is a glorious region, and +the air and life are intoxicating. I live mainly out of doors and on +horseback, wear my half-threadbare Hawaiian dress, sleep sometimes +under the stars on a bed of pine boughs, ride on a Mexican saddle, and +hear once more the low music of my Mexican spurs. "There's a stranger! +Heave arf a brick at him!" is said by many travelers to express the +feeling of the new settlers in these Territories. This is not my +experience in my cheery mountain home. How the rafters ring as I write +with songs and mirth, while the pitch-pine logs blaze and crackle in +the chimney, and the fine snow dust drives in through the chinks and +forms mimic snow wreaths on the floor, and the wind raves and howls and +plays among the creaking pine branches and snaps them short off, and +the lightning plays round the blasted top of Long's Peak, and the hardy +hunters divert themselves with the thought that when I go to bed I must +turn out and face the storm! + +You will ask, "What is Estes Park?" This name, with the quiet Midland +Countries' sound, suggests "park palings" well lichened, a lodge with a +curtseying woman, fallow deer, and a Queen Anne mansion. Such as it +is, Estes Park is mine. It is unsurveyed, "no man's land," and mine by +right of love, appropriation, and appreciation; by the seizure of its +peerless sunrises and sunsets, its glorious afterglow, its blazing +noons, its hurricanes sharp and furious, its wild auroras, its glories +of mountain and forest, of canyon, lake, and river, and the +stereotyping them all in my memory. Mine, too, in a better than the +sportsman's sense, are its majestic wapiti, which play and fight under +the pines in the early morning, as securely as fallow deer under our +English oaks; its graceful "black-tails," swift of foot; its superb +bighorns, whose noble leader is to be seen now and then with his +classic head against the blue sky on the top of a colossal rock; its +sneaking mountain lion with his hideous nocturnal caterwaulings, the +great "grizzly," the beautiful skunk, the wary beaver, who is always +making lakes, damming and turning streams, cutting down young +cotton-woods, and setting an example of thrift and industry; the wolf, +greedy and cowardly; the coyote and the lynx, and all the lesser fry of +mink, marten, cat, hare, fox, squirrel, and chipmunk, as well as things +that fly, from the eagle down to the crested blue-jay. May their +number never be less, in spite of the hunter who kills for food and +gain, and the sportsman who kills and marauds for pastime! + +But still I have not answered the natural question,[15] "What is Estes +Park?" Among the striking peculiarities of these mountains are +hundreds of high-lying valleys, large and small, at heights varying +from 6,000 to 11,000 feet. The most important are North Park, held by +hostile Indians; Middle Park, famous for hot springs and trout; South +Park is 10,000 feet high, a great rolling prairie seventy miles long, +well grassed and watered, but nearly closed by snow in winter. But +parks innumerable are scattered throughout the mountains, most of them +unnamed, and others nicknamed by the hunters or trappers who have made +them their temporary resorts. They always lie far within the flaming +Foot Hills, their exquisite stretches of flowery pastures dotted +artistically with clumps of trees sloping lawnlike to bright swift +streams full of red-waist-coated trout, or running up in soft glades +into the dark forest, above which the snow peaks rise in their infinite +majesty. Some are bits of meadow a mile long and very narrow, with a +small stream, a beaver dam, and a pond made by beaver industry. +Hundreds of these can only be reached by riding in the bed of a stream, +or by scrambling up some narrow canyon till it debouches on the +fairy-like stretch above. These parks are the feeding grounds of +innumerable wild animals, and some, like one three miles off, seem +chosen for the process of antler-casting, the grass being covered for +at least a square mile with the magnificent branching horns of the elk. + +[15] Nor should I at this time, had not Henry Kingsley, Lord Dunraven, +and "The Field," divulged the charms and whereabouts of these "happy +hunting grounds," with the certain result of directing a stream of +tourists into the solitary, beast-haunted paradise. + + +Estes Park combines the beauties of all. Dismiss all thoughts of the +Midland Counties. For park palings there are mountains, forest +skirted, 9,000, 11,000, 14,000 feet high; for a lodge, two sentinel +peaks of granite guarding the only feasible entrance; and for a Queen +Anne mansion an unchinked log cabin with a vault of sunny blue +overhead. The park is most irregularly shaped, and contains hardly any +level grass. It is an aggregate of lawns, slopes, and glades, about +eighteen miles in length, but never more than two miles in width. The +Big Thompson, a bright, rapid trout stream, snow born on Long's Peak a +few miles higher, takes all sorts of magical twists, vanishing and +reappearing unexpectedly, glancing among lawns, rushing through +romantic ravines, everywhere making music through the still, long +nights. Here and there the lawns are so smooth, the trees so +artistically grouped, a lake makes such an artistic foreground, or a +waterfall comes tumbling down with such an apparent feeling for the +picturesque, that I am almost angry with Nature for her close imitation +of art. But in another hundred yards Nature, glorious, unapproachable, +inimitable, is herself again, raising one's thoughts reverently upwards +to her Creator and ours. Grandeur and sublimity, not softness, are the +features of Estes Park. The glades which begin so softly are soon lost +in the dark primaeval forests, with their peaks of rosy granite, and +their stretches of granite blocks piled and poised by nature in some +mood of fury. The streams are lost in canyons nearly or quite +inaccessible, awful in their blackness and darkness; every valley ends +in mystery; seven mountain ranges raise their frowning barriers between +us and the Plains, and at the south end of the park Long's Peak rises +to a height of 14,700 feet, with his bare, scathed head slashed with +eternal snow. The lowest part of the Park is 7,500 feet high; and +though the sun is hot during the day, the mercury hovers near the +freezing point every night of the summer. An immense quantity of snow +falls, but partly owing to the tremendous winds which drift it into the +deep valleys, and partly to the bright warm sun of the winter months, +the park is never snowed up, and a number of cattle and horses are +wintered out of doors on its sun-cured saccharine grasses, of which the +gramma grass is the most valuable. + +The soil here, as elsewhere in the neighborhood, is nearly everywhere +coarse, grey, granitic dust, produced probably by the disintegration of +the surrounding mountains. It does not hold water, and is never wet in +any weather. There are no thaws here. The snow mysteriously disappears +by rapid evaporation. Oats grow, but do not ripen, and, when well +advanced, are cut and stacked for winter fodder. Potatoes yield +abundantly, and, though not very large, are of the best quality, mealy +throughout. Evans has not attempted anything else, and probably the +more succulent vegetables would require irrigation. The wild flowers +are gorgeous and innumerable, though their beauty, which culminates in +July and August, was over before I arrived, and the recent snow +flurries have finished them. The time between winter and winter is +very short, and the flowery growth and blossom of a whole year are +compressed into two months. Here are dandelions, buttercups, +larkspurs, harebells, violets, roses, blue gentian, columbine, +painter's brush, and fifty others, blue and yellow predominating; and +though their blossoms are stiffened by the cold every morning, they are +starring the grass and drooping over the brook long before noon, making +the most of their brief lives in the sunshine. Of ferns, after many a +long hunt, I have only found the Cystopteris fragilis and the Blechnum +spicant, but I hear that the Pteris aquilina is also found. Snakes and +mosquitoes do not appear to be known here. Coming almost direct from +the tropics, one is dissatisfied with the uniformity of the foliage; +indeed, foliage can hardly be written of, as the trees properly so +called at this height are exclusively Coniferae, and bear needles +instead of leaves. In places there are patches of spindly aspens, +which have turned a lemon yellow, and along the streams bear cherries, +vines, and roses lighten the gulches with their variegated crimson +leaves. The pines are not imposing, either from their girth or height. +Their coloring is blackish green, and though they are effective singly +or in groups, they are somber and almost funereal when densely massed, +as here, along the mountain sides. The timber line is at a height of +about 11,000 feet, and is singularly well defined. The most attractive +tree I have seen is the silver spruce, Abies Englemanii, near of kin to +what is often called the balsam fir. Its shape and color are both +beautiful. My heart warms towards it, and I frequent all the places +where I can find it. It looks as if a soft, blue, silver powder had +fallen on its deep-green needles, or as if a bluish hoar-frost, which +must melt at noon, were resting upon it. Anyhow, one can hardly +believe that the beauty is permanent, and survives the summer heat and +the winter cold. The universal tree here is the Pinus ponderosa, but +it never attains any very considerable size, and there is nothing to +compare with the red-woods of the Sierra Nevada, far less with the +sequoias of California. + +As I have written before, Estes Park is thirty miles from Longmount, +the nearest settlement, and it can be reached on horseback only by the +steep and devious track by which I came, passing through a narrow rift +in the top of a precipitous ridge, 9,000 feet high, called the Devil's +Gate. Evans takes a lumber wagon with four horses over the mountains, +and a Colorado engineer would have no difficulty in making a wagon +road. In several of the gulches over which the track hangs there are +the remains of wagons which have come to grief in the attempt to +emulate Evans's feat, which without evidence, I should have supposed to +be impossible. It is an awful road. The only settlers in the park are +Griffith Evans, and a married man a mile higher up. "Mountain Jim's" +cabin is in the entrance gulch, four miles off, and there is not +another cabin for eighteen miles toward the Plains. The park is +unsurveyed, and the huge tract of mountainous country beyond is almost +altogether unexplored. Elk hunters occasionally come up and camp out +here; but the two settlers, who, however, are only squatters, for +various reasons are not disposed to encourage such visitors. When +Evans, who is a very successful hunter, came here, he came on foot, and +for some time after settling here he carried the flour and necessaries +required by his family on his back over the mountains. + +As I intend to make Estes Park my headquarters until the winter sets +in, I must make you acquainted with my surroundings and mode of living. +The "Queen Anne mansion" is represented by a log cabin made of big hewn +logs. The chinks should be filled with mud and lime, but these are +wanting. The roof is formed of barked young spruce, then a layer of +hay, and an outer coating of mud, all nearly flat. The floors are +roughly boarded. The "living room" is about sixteen feet square, and +has a rough stone chimney in which pine logs are always burning. At +one end there is a door into a small bedroom, and at the other a door +into a small eating room, at the table of which we feed in relays. +This opens into a very small kitchen with a great American +cooking-stove, and there are two "bed closets" besides. Although rude, +it is comfortable, except for the draughts. The fine snow drives in +through the chinks and covers the floors, but sweeping it out at +intervals is both fun and exercise. There are no heaps or rubbish +places outside. Near it, on the slope under the pines, is a pretty +two-roomed cabin, and beyond that, near the lake, is my cabin, a very +rough one. My door opens into a little room with a stone chimney, and +that again into a small room with a hay bed, a chair with a tin basin +on it, a shelf and some pegs. A small window looks on the lake, and +the glories of the sunrises which I see from it are indescribable. +Neither of my doors has a lock, and, to say the truth, neither will +shut, as the wood has swelled. Below the house, on the stream which +issues from the lake, there is a beautiful log dairy, with a water +wheel outside, used for churning. Besides this, there are a corral, a +shed for the wagon, a room for the hired man, and shelters for horses +and weakly calves. All these things are necessaries at this height. + +The ranchmen are two Welshmen, Evans and Edwards, each with a wife and +family. The men are as diverse as they can be. "Griff," as Evans is +called, is short and small, and is hospitable, careless, reckless, +jolly, social, convivial, peppery, good natured, "nobody's enemy but +his own." He had the wit and taste to find out Estes Park, where +people have found him out, and have induced him to give them food and +lodging, and add cabin to cabin to take them in. He is a splendid +shot, an expert and successful hunter, a bold mountaineer, a good +rider, a capital cook, and a generally "jolly fellow." His cheery +laugh rings through the cabin from the early morning, and is +contagious, and when the rafters ring at night with such songs as "D'ye +ken John Peel?" "Auld Lang Syne," and "John Brown," what would the +chorus be without poor "Griff's" voice? What would Estes Park be +without him, indeed? When he went to Denver lately we missed him as we +should have missed the sunshine, and perhaps more. In the early +morning, when Long's Peak is red, and the grass crackles with the +hoar-frost, he arouses me with a cheery thump on my door. "We're going +cattle-hunting, will you come?" or, "Will you help to drive in the +cattle? You can take your pick of the horses. I want another hand." +Free-hearted, lavish, popular, poor "Griff" loves liquor too well for +his prosperity, and is always tormented by debt. He makes lots of +money, but puts it into "a bag with holes." He has fifty horses and +1,000 head of cattle, many of which are his own, wintering up here, and +makes no end of money by taking in people at eight dollars a week, yet +it all goes somehow. He has a most industrious wife, a girl of +seventeen, and four younger children, all musical, but the wife has to +work like a slave; and though he is a kind husband, her lot, as +compared with her lord's, is like that of a squaw. Edwards, his +partner, is his exact opposite, tall, thin, and condemnatory looking, +keen, industrious, saving, grave, a teetotaler, grieved for all reasons +at Evans's follies, and rather grudging; as naturally unpopular as +Evans is popular; a "decent man," who, with his industrious wife, will +certainly make money as fast as Evans loses it. + +I pay eight dollars a week, which includes the unlimited use of a +horse, when one can be found and caught. We breakfast at seven on +beef, potatoes, tea, coffee, new bread, and butter. Two pitchers of +cream and two of milk are replenished as fast as they are exhausted. +Dinner at twelve is a repetition of the breakfast, but with the coffee +omitted and a gigantic pudding added. Tea at six is a repetition of +breakfast. "Eat whenever you are hungry, you can always get milk and +bread in the kitchen," Evans says--"eat as much as you can, it'll do +you good"--and we all eat like hunters. There is no change of food. +The steer which was being killed on my arrival is now being eaten +through from head to tail, the meat being hacked off quite +promiscuously, without any regard to joints. In this dry, rarefied +air, the outside of the flesh blackens and hardens, and though the +weather may be hot, the carcass keeps sweet for two or three months. +The bread is super excellent, but the poor wives seem to be making and +baking it all day. + +The regular household living and eating together at this time consists +of a very intelligent and high-minded American couple, Mr. and Mrs. +Dewy, people whose character, culture, and society I should value +anywhere; a young Englishman, brother of a celebrated African traveler, +who, because he rides on an English saddle, and clings to some other +insular peculiarities, is called "The Earl"; a miner prospecting for +silver; a young man, the type of intelligent, practical "Young +America," whose health showed consumptive tendencies when he was in +business, and who is living a hunter's life here; a grown-up niece of +Evans; and a melancholy-looking hired man. A mile off there is an +industrious married settler, and four miles off, in the gulch leading +to the park, "Mountain Jim," otherwise Mr. Nugent, is posted. His +business as a trapper takes him daily up to the beaver dams in Black +Canyon to look after his traps, and he generally spends some time in or +about our cabin, not, I can see, to Evans's satisfaction. For, in +truth, this blue hollow, lying solitary at the foot of Long's Peak, is +a miniature world of great interest, in which love, jealousy, hatred, +envy, pride, unselfishness, greed, selfishness, and self-sacrifice can +be studied hourly, and there is always the unpleasantly exciting risk +of an open quarrel with the neighboring desperado, whose "I'll shoot +you!" has more than once been heard in the cabin. + +The party, however, has often been increased by "campers," either elk +hunters or "prospectors" for silver or locations, who feed with us and +join us in the evening. They get little help from Evans, either as to +elk or locations, and go away disgusted and unsuccessful. Two +Englishmen of refinement and culture camped out here prospecting a few +weeks ago, and then, contrary to advice, crossed the mountains into +North Park, where gold is said to abound, and it is believed that they +have fallen victims to the bloodthirsty Indians of the region. Of +course, we never get letters or newspapers unless some one rides to +Longmount for them. Two or three novels and a copy of Our New West are +our literature. Our latest newspaper is seventeen days old. Somehow +the park seems to become the natural limit of our interests so far as +they appear in conversation at table. The last grand aurora, the +prospect of a snow-storm, track and sign of elk and grizzly, rumors of +a bighorn herd near the lake, the canyons in which the Texan cattle +were last seen, the merits of different rifles, the progress of two +obvious love affairs, the probability of some one coming up from the +Plains with letters, "Mountain Jim's" latest mood or escapade, and the +merits of his dog "Ring" as compared with those of Evans's dog "Plunk," +are among the topics which are never abandoned as exhausted. + +On Sunday work is nominally laid aside, but most of the men go out +hunting or fishing till the evening, when we have the harmonium and +much sacred music and singing in parts. To be alone in the park from +the afternoon till the last glory of the afterglow has faded, with no +books but a Bible and Prayer-book, is truly delightful. No worthier +temple for a "Te Deum" or "Gloria in Excelsis" could be found than this +"temple not made with hands," in which one may worship without being +distracted by the sight of bonnets of endless form, and curiously +intricate "back hair," and countless oddities of changing fashion. + +I shall not soon forget my first night here. + +Somewhat dazed by the rarefied air, entranced by the glorious beauty, +slightly puzzled by the motley company, whose faces loomed not always +quite distinctly through the cloud of smoke produced by eleven pipes, I +went to my solitary cabin at nine, attended by Evans. It was very +dark, and it seemed a long way off. Something howled--Evans said it +was a wolf--and owls apparently innumerable hooted incessantly. The +pole-star, exactly opposite my cabin door, burned like a lamp. The +frost was sharp. Evans opened the door, lighted a candle, and left me, +and I was soon in my hay bed. I was frightened--that is, afraid of +being frightened, it was so eerie--but sleep soon got the better of my +fears. I was awoke by a heavy breathing, a noise something like sawing +under the floor, and a pushing and upheaving, all very loud. My candle +was all burned, and, in truth, I dared not stir. The noise went on for +an hour fully, when, just as I thought the floor had been made +sufficiently thin for all purposes of ingress, the sounds abruptly +ceased, and I fell asleep again. My hair was not, as it ought to have +been, white in the morning! + +I was dressed by seven, our breakfast hour, and when I reached the +great cabin and told my story, Evans laughed hilariously, and Edwards +contorted his face dismally. They told me that there was a skunk's +lair under my cabin, and that they dare not make any attempt to +dislodge him for fear of rendering the cabin untenable. They have +tried to trap him since, but without success, and each night the noisy +performance is repeated. I think he is sharpening his claws on the +under side of my floor, as the grizzlies sharpen theirs upon the trees. +The odor with which this creature, truly named Mephitis, can overpower +its assailants is truly AWFUL. We were driven out of the cabin for +some hours merely by the passage of one across the corral. The bravest +man is a coward in its neighborhood. Dogs rub their noses on the +ground till they bleed when they have touched the fluid, and even die +of the vomiting produced by the effluvia. The odor can be smelt a mile +off. If clothes are touched by the fluid they must be destroyed. At +present its fur is very valuable. Several have been killed since I +came. A shot well aimed at the spine secures one safely, and an +experienced dog can kill one by leaping upon it suddenly without being +exposed to danger. It is a beautiful beast, about the size and length +of a fox, with long thick black or dark-brown fur, and two white +streaks from the head to the long bushy tail. The claws of its +fore-feet are long and polished. Yesterday one was seen rushing from +the dairy and was shot. "Plunk," the big dog, touched it and has to be +driven into exile. The body was valiantly removed by a man with a long +fork, and carried to a running stream, but we are nearly choked with +the odor from the spot where it fell. I hope that my skunk will enjoy +a quiet spirit so long as we are near neighbors. + +October 3. + +This is surely one of the most entrancing spots on earth. Oh, that I +could paint with pen or brush! From my bed I look on Mirror Lake, and +with the very earliest dawn, when objects are not discernible, it lies +there absolutely still, a purplish lead color. Then suddenly into its +mirror flash inverted peaks, at first a dawn darker all round. This is +a new sight, each morning new. Then the peaks fade, and when morning +is no longer "spread upon the mountains," the pines are mirrored in my +lake almost as solid objects, and the glory steals downwards, and a red +flush warms the clear atmosphere of the park, and the hoar-frost +sparkles and the crested blue-jays step forth daintily on the jewelled +grass. The majesty and beauty grow on me daily. As I crossed from my +cabin just now, and the long mountain shadows lay on the grass, and +form and color gained new meanings, I was almost false to Hawaii; I +couldn't go on writing for the glory of the sunset, but went out and +sat on a rock to see the deepening blue in the dark canyons, and the +peaks becoming rose color one by one, then fading into sudden +ghastliness, the awe-inspiring heights of Long's Peak fading last. +Then came the glories of the afterglow, when the orange and lemon of +the east faded into gray, and then gradually the gray for some distance +above the horizon brightened into a cold blue, and above the blue into +a broad band of rich, warm red, with an upper band of rose color; above +it hung a big cold moon. This is the "daily miracle" of evening, as +the blazing peaks in the darkness of Mirror Lake are the miracle of +morning. Perhaps this scenery is not lovable, but, as if it were a +strong stormy character, it has an intense fascination. + +The routine of my day is breakfast at seven, then I go back and "do" my +cabin and draw water from the lake, read a little, loaf a little, +return to the big cabin and sweep it alternately with Mrs. Dewy, after +which she reads aloud till dinner at twelve. Then I ride with Mr. +Dewy, or by myself, or with Mrs. Dewy, who is learning to ride cavalier +fashion in order to accompany her invalid husband, or go after cattle +till supper at six. After that we all sit in the living room, and I +settle down to write to you, or mend my clothes, which are dropping to +pieces. Some sit round the table playing at eucre, the strange hunters +and prospectors lie on the floor smoking, and rifles are cleaned, +bullets cast, fishing flies made, fishing tackle repaired, boots are +waterproofed, part-songs are sung, and about half-past eight I cross +the crisp grass to my cabin, always expecting to find something in it. +We all wash our own clothes, and as my stock is so small, some part of +every day has to be spent at the wash tub. Politeness and propriety +always prevail in our mixed company, and though various grades of +society are represented, true democratic equality prevails, not its +counterfeit, and there is neither forwardness on one side nor +condescension on the other. + +Evans left for Denver ten days ago, taking his wife and family to the +Plains for the winter, and the mirth of our party departed with him. +Edwards is somber, except when he lies on the floor in the evening, and +tells stories of his march through Georgia with Sherman. I gave Evans +a 100-dollar note to change, and asked him to buy me a horse for my +tour, and for three days we have expected him. The mail depends on +him. I have had no letters from you for five weeks, and can hardly +curb my impatience. I ride or walk three or four miles out on the +Longmount trail two or three times a day to look for him. Others, for +different reasons, are nearly equally anxious. After dark we start at +every sound, and every time the dogs bark all the able-bodied of us +turn out en masse. "Wait for the wagon" has become a nearly maddening +joke. + + +October 9. + +The letter and newspaper fever has seized on every one. We have sent +at last to Longmount. The evening I rode out on the Longmount trail +towards dusk, escorted by "Mountain Jim," and in the distance we saw a +wagon with four horses and a saddle horse behind, and the driver waved +a handkerchief, the concerted signal if I were the possessor of a +horse. We turned back, galloping down the long hill as fast as two +good horses could carry us, and gave the joyful news. It was an hour +before the wagon arrived, bringing not Evans but two "campers" of +suspicious aspect, who have pitched their camp close to my cabin! You +cannot imagine what it is to be locked in by these mountain walls, and +not to know where your letters are lying. Later on, Mr. Buchan, one of +our usual inmates, returned from Denver with papers, letters for every +one but me, and much exciting news. The financial panic has spread out +West, gathering strength on its way. The Denver banks have all +suspended business. They refuse to cash their own checks, or to allow +their customers to draw a dollar, and would not even give green-backs +for my English gold! Neither Mr. Buchan nor Evans could get a cent. +Business is suspended, and everybody, however rich, is for the time +being poor. The Indians have taken to the "war path," and are burning +ranches and killing cattle. There is a regular "scare" among the +settlers, and wagon loads of fugitives are arriving in Colorado +Springs. The Indians say, "The white man has killed the buffalo and +left them to rot on the plains. We will be revenged." Evans had +reached Longmount, and will be here tonight. + + +October 10. + +"Wait for the wagon" still! We had a hurricane of wind and hail last +night; it was eleven before I could go to my cabin, and I only reached +it with the help of two men. The moon was not up, and the sky overhead +was black with clouds, when suddenly Long's Peak, which had been +invisible, gleamed above the dark mountains, all glistening with +new-fallen snow, on which the moon, as yet uprisen here, was shining. +The evening before, after sunset, I saw another novel effect. My lake +turned a brilliant orange in the twilight, and in its still mirror the +mountains were reflected a deep rich blue. It is a world of wonders. +To-day we had a great storm with flurries of fine snow; and when the +clouds rolled up at noon, the Snowy Range and all the higher mountains +were pure white. I have been hard at work all day to drown my +anxieties, which are heightened by a rumor that Evans has gone +buffalo-hunting on the Platte! + +This evening, quite unexpectedly, Evans arrived with a heavy mail in a +box. I sorted it, but there was nothing for me and Evans said he was +afraid that he had left my letters, which were separate from the +others, behind at Denver, but he had written from Longmount for them. +A few hours later they were found in a box of groceries! + +All the hilarity of the house has returned with Evans, and he has +brought a kindred spirit with him, a young man who plays and sings +splendidly, has an inexhaustible repertoire, and produces sonatas, +funeral marches, anthems, reels, strathspeys, and all else, out of his +wonderful memory. Never, surely was a chamber organ compelled to such +service. A little cask of suspicious appearance was smuggled into the +cabin from the wagon, and heightens the hilarity a little, I fear. No +churlishness could resist Evans's unutterable jollity or the contagion +of his hearty laugh. He claps people on the back, shouts at them, will +do anything for them, and makes a perpetual breeze. "My kingdom for a +horse!" He has not got one for me, and a shadow crossed his face when +I spoke of the subject. Eventually he asked for a private conference, +when he told me, with some confusion, that he had found himself "very +hard up" in Denver, and had been obliged to appropriate my 100-dollar +note. He said he would give me, as interest for it up to November +25th, a good horse, saddle, and bridle for my proposed journey of 600 +miles. I was somewhat dismayed, but there was no other course, as the +money was gone. + +[16] I tried a horse, mended my clothes, reduced my pack to a weight of +twelve pounds, and was all ready for an early start, when before +daylight I was wakened by Evans's cheery voice at my door. "I say, +Miss B., we've got to drive wild cattle to-day; I wish you'd lend a +hand, there's not enough of us; I'll give you a good horse; one day +won't make much difference." So we've been driving cattle all day, +riding about twenty miles, and fording the Big Thompson about as many +times. Evans flatters me by saying that I am "as much use as another +man"; more than one of our party, I hope, who always avoided the "ugly" +cows. + +[16] In justice to Evans, I must mention here that every cent of the +money was ultimately paid, that the horse was perfection, and that the +arrangement turned out a most advantageous one for me. + + +October 12. + +I am still here, helping in the kitchen, driving cattle, and riding +four or five times a day. Evans detains me each morning by saying, +"Here's lots of horses for you to try," and after trying five or six a +day, I do not find one to my liking. Today, as I was cantering a tall +well-bred one round the lake, he threw the bridle off by a toss of his +head, leaving me with the reins in my hands; one bucked, and two have +tender feet, and tumbled down. Such are some of our little varieties. +Still I hope to get off on my tour in a day or two, so at least as to +be able to compare Estes Park with some of the better-known parts of +Colorado. + +You would be amused if you could see our cabin just now. There are +nine men in the room and three women. For want of seats most of the +men are lying on the floor; all are smoking, and the blithe young +French Canadian who plays so beautifully, and catches about fifty +speckled trout for each meal, is playing the harmonium with a pipe in +his mouth. Three men who have camped in Black Canyon for a week are +lying like dogs on the floor. They are all over six feet high, +immovably solemn, neither smiling at the general hilarity, nor at the +absurd changes which are being rung on the harmonium. They may be +described as clothed only in boots, for their clothes are torn to rags. +They stare vacantly. They have neither seen a woman nor slept under a +roof for six months. Negro songs are being sung, and before that +"Yankee Doodle" was played immediately after "Rule Britannia," and it +made every one but the strangers laugh, it sounded so foolish and mean. +The colder weather is bringing the beasts down from the heights. I +heard both wolves and the mountain lion as I crossed to my cabin last +night. + + I. L. B. + + + + +LETTER IX + +"Please Ma'ams"--A desperado--A cattle hunt--The muster--A mad cow--A +snowstorm--Snowed up--Birdie--The Plains--A prairie schooner--Denver--A +find--Plum Creek--"Being agreeable"--Snowbound--The grey mare. + +ESTES PARK, COLORADO. + +This afternoon, as I was reading in my cabin, little Sam Edwards ran +in, saying, "Mountain Jim wants to speak to you." This brought to my +mind images of infinite worry, gauche servants, "please Ma'am," +contretemps, and the habit growing out of our elaborate and uselessly +conventional life of magnifying the importance of similar trifles. +Then "things" came up, with the tyranny they exercise. I REALLY need +nothing more than this log cabin offers. But elsewhere one must have a +house and servants, and burdens and worries--not that one may be +hospitable and comfortable, but for the "thick clay" in the shape of +"things" which one has accumulated. My log house takes me about five +minutes to "do," and you could eat off the floor, and it needs no lock, +as it contains nothing worth stealing. + +But "Mountain Jim" was waiting while I made these reflections to ask us +to take a ride; and he, Mr. and Mrs. Dewy, and I, had a delightful +stroll through colored foliage, and then, when they were fatigued, I +changed my horse for his beautiful mare, and we galloped and raced in +the beautiful twilight, in the intoxicating frosty air. Mrs. Dewy +wishes you could have seen us as we galloped down the pass, the +fearful-looking ruffian on my heavy wagon horse, and I on his bare +wooden saddle, from which beaver, mink, and marten tails, and pieces of +skin, were hanging raggedly, with one spur, and feet not in the +stirrups, the mare looking so aristocratic and I so beggarly! Mr. +Nugent is what is called "splendid company." With a sort of breezy +mountain recklessness in everything, he passes remarkably acute +judgments on men and events; on women also. He has pathos, poetry, and +humor, an intense love of nature, strong vanity in certain directions, +an obvious desire to act and speak in character, and sustain his +reputation as a desperado, a considerable acquaintance with literature, +a wonderful verbal memory, opinions on every person and subject, a +chivalrous respect for women in his manner, which makes it all the more +amusing when he suddenly turns round upon one with some graceful +raillery, a great power of fascination, and a singular love of +children. The children of this house run to him, and when he sits down +they climb on his broad shoulders and play with his curls. They say in +the house that "no one who has been here thinks any one worth speaking +to after Jim," but I think that this is probably an opinion which time +would alter. Somehow, he is kept always before the public of Colorado, +for one can hardly take up a newspaper without finding a paragraph +about him, a contribution by him, or a fragment of his biography. +Ruffian as he looks, the first word he speaks--to a lady, at +least--places him on a level with educated gentlemen, and his +conversation is brilliant, and full of the light and fitfulness of +genius. Yet, on the whole, he is a most painful spectacle. His +magnificent head shows so plainly the better possibilities which might +have been his. His life, in spite of a certain dazzle which belongs to +it, is a ruined and wasted one, and one asks what of good can the +future have in store for one who has for so long chosen evil?[17] + +[17] September of the next year answered the question by laying him +down in a dishonored grave, with a rifle bullet in his brain. + + +Shall I ever get away? We were to have had a grand cattle hunt +yesterday, beginning at 6:30, but the horses were all lost. Often out +of fifty horses all that are worth anything are marauding, and a day is +lost in hunting for them in the canyons. However, before daylight this +morning Evans called through my door, "Miss Bird, I say we've got to +drive cattle fifteen miles, I wish you'd lend a hand; there's not +enough of us; I'll give you a good horse." + +The scene of the drive is at a height of 7,500 feet, watered by two +rapid rivers. On all sides mountains rise to an altitude of from +11,000 to 15,000 feet, their skirts shaggy with pitch-pine forests, and +scarred by deep canyons, wooded and boulder strewn, opening upon the +mountain pasture previously mentioned. Two thousand head of half-wild +Texan cattle are scattered in herds throughout the canyons, living on +more or less suspicious terms with grizzly and brown bears, mountain +lions, elk, mountain sheep, spotted deer, wolves, lynxes, wild cats, +beavers, minks, skunks, chipmunks, eagles, rattlesnakes, and all the +other two-legged, four-legged, vertebrate, and invertebrate inhabitants +of this lonely and romantic region. On the whole, they show a tendency +rather to the habits of wild than of domestic cattle. They march to +water in Indian file, with the bulls leading, and when threatened, take +strategic advantage of ridgy ground, slinking warily along in the +hollows, the bulls acting as sentinels, and bringing up the rear in +case of an attack from dogs. Cows have to be regularly broken in for +milking, being as wild as buffaloes in their unbroken state; but, owing +to the comparative dryness of the grasses, and the system of allowing +the calf to have the milk during the daytime, a dairy of 200 cows does +not produce as much butter as a Devonshire dairy of fifty. Some +"necessary" cruelty is involved in the stockman's business, however +humane he may be. The system is one of terrorism, and from the time +that the calf is bullied into the branding pen, and the hot iron burns +into his shrinking flesh, to the day when the fatted ox is driven down +from his boundless pastures to be slaughtered in Chicago, "the fear and +dread of man" are upon him. + +The herds are apt to penetrate the savage canyons which come down from +the Snowy Range, when they incur a risk of being snowed up and starved, +and it is necessary now and then to hunt them out and drive them down +to the "park." On this occasion, the whole were driven down for a +muster, and for the purpose of branding the calves. + +After a 6:30 breakfast this morning, we started, the party being +composed of my host, a hunter from the Snowy Range, two stockmen from +the Plains, one of whom rode a violent buck-jumper, and was said by his +comrade to be the "best rider in North Americay," and myself. We were +all mounted on Mexican saddles, rode, as the custom is, with light +snaffle bridles, leather guards over our feet, and broad wooden +stirrups, and each carried his lunch in a pouch slung on the lassoing +horn of his saddle. Four big, badly-trained dogs accompanied us. It +was a ride of nearly thirty miles, and of many hours, one of the most +splendid I ever took. We never got off our horses except to tighten +the girths, we ate our lunch with our bridles knotted over saddle +horns, started over the level at full gallops, leapt over trunks of +trees, dashed madly down hillsides rugged with rocks or strewn with +great stones, forded deep, rapid streams, saw lovely lakes and views of +surpassing magnificence, startled a herd of elk with uncouth heads and +in the chase, which for some time was unsuccessful, rode to the very +base of Long's Peak, over 14,000 feet high, where the bright waters of +one of the affluents of the Platte burst from the eternal snows through +a canyon of indescribable majesty. The sun was hot, but at a height of +over 8,000 feet the air was crisp and frosty, and the enjoyment of +riding a good horse under such exhilarating circumstances was extreme. +In one wild part of the ride we had to come down a steep hill, thickly +wooded with pitch pines, to leap over the fallen timber, and steer +between the dead and living trees to avoid being "snagged," or bringing +down a heavy dead branch by an unwary touch. + +Emerging from this, we caught sight of a thousand Texan cattle feeding +in a valley below. The leaders scented us, and, taking fright, began +to move off in the direction of the open "park," while we were about a +mile from and above them. "Head them off, boys!" our leader shouted; +"all aboard; hark away!" and with something of the "High, tally-ho in +the morning!" away we all went at a hard gallop down-hill. I could not +hold my excited animal; down-hill, up-hill, leaping over rocks and +timber, faster every moment the pace grew, and still the leader +shouted, "Go it, boys!" and the horses dashed on at racing speed, +passing and repassing each other, till my small but beautiful bay was +keeping pace with the immense strides of the great buck-jumper ridden +by "the finest rider in North Americay," and I was dizzied and +breathless by the pace at which we were going. A shorter time than it +takes to tell it brought us close to and abreast of the surge of +cattle. The bovine waves were a grand sight: huge bulls, shaped like +buffaloes, bellowed and roared, and with great oxen and cows with +yearling calves, galloped like racers, and we galloped alongside of +them, and shortly headed them and in no time were placed as sentinels +across the mouth of the valley. It seemed like infantry awaiting the +shock of cavalry as we stood as still as our excited horses would +allow. I almost quailed as the surge came on, but when it got close to +us my comrades hooted fearfully, and we dashed forward with the dogs, +and, with bellowing, roaring, and thunder of hoofs, the wave receded as +it came. I rode up to our leader, who received me with much laughter. +He said I was "a good cattleman," and that he had forgotten that a lady +was of the party till he saw me "come leaping over the timber, and +driving with the others." + +It was not for two hours after this that the real business of driving +began, and I was obliged to change my thoroughbred for a well-trained +cattle horse--a bronco, which could double like a hare, and go over any +ground. I had not expected to work like a vachero, but so it was, and +my Hawaiian experience was very useful. We hunted the various canyons +and known "camps," driving the herds out of them; and, until we had +secured 850 head in the corral some hours afterwards, we scarcely saw +each other to speak to. Our first difficulty was with a herd which got +into some swampy ground, when a cow, which afterwards gave me an +infinity of trouble, remained at bay for nearly an hour, tossing the +dog three times, and resisting all efforts to dislodge her. She had a +large yearling calf with her, and Evans told me that the attachment of +a cow to her first calf is sometimes so great that she will kill her +second that the first may have the milk. I got a herd of over a +hundred out of a canyon by myself, and drove them down to the river +with the aid of one badly-broken dog, which gave me more trouble than +the cattle. The getting over was most troublesome; a few took to the +water readily and went across, but others smelt it, and then, doubling +back, ran in various directions; while some attacked the dog as he was +swimming, and others, after crossing, headed back in search of some +favorite companions which had been left behind, and one specially +vicious cow attacked my horse over and over again. It took an hour and +a half of time and much patience to gather them all on the other side. + +It was getting late in the day, and a snowstorm was impending, before I +was joined by the other drivers and herds, and as the former had +diminished to three, with only three dogs, it was very difficult to +keep the cattle together. You drive them as gently as possible, so as +not to frighten or excite them,[18] riding first on one side, then on +the other, to guide them; and if they deliberately go in a wrong +direction, you gallop in front and head them off. The great excitement +is when one breaks away from the herd and gallops madly up and +down-hill, and you gallop after him anywhere, over and among rocks and +trees, doubling when he doubles, and heading him till you get him back +again. The bulls were quite easily managed, but the cows with calves, +old or young, were most troublesome. By accident I rode between one +cow and her calf in a narrow place, and the cow rushed at me and was +just getting her big horns under the horse, when he reared, and spun +dexterously aside. This kind of thing happened continually. There was +one very handsome red cow which became quite mad. She had a calf with +her nearly her own size, and thought every one its enemy, and though +its horns were well developed, and it was quite able to take care of +itself, she insisted on protecting it from all fancied dangers. One of +the dogs, a young, foolish thing, seeing that the cow was excited, took +a foolish pleasure in barking at her, and she was eventually quite +infuriated. She turned to bay forty times at least; tore up the ground +with her horns, tossed and killed the calves of two other cows, and +finally became so dangerous to the rest of the herd that, just as the +drive was ending, Evans drew his revolver and shot her, and the calf +for which she had fought so blindly lamented her piteously. She rushed +at me several times mad with rage, but these trained cattle horses keep +perfectly cool, and, nearly without will on my part, mine jumped aside +at the right moment, and foiled the assailant. Just at dusk we reached +the corral--an acre of grass enclosed by stout post-and-rail fences +seven feet high--and by much patience and some subtlety lodged the +whole herd within its shelter, without a blow, a shout, or even a crack +of a whip, wild as the cattle were. It was fearfully cold. We +galloped the last mile and a half in four and a half minutes, reached +the cabin just as the snow began to fall, and found strong, hot tea +ready. + +[18] In several visits to America I have observed that the Americans +are far in advance of us and our colonial kinsmen in their treatment of +horses and other animals. This was very apparent with regard to this +Texan herd. There were no stock whips, no needless worrying of the +animals in the excitement of sport. Any dog seizing a bullock by his +tail or heels would have been called off and punished, and quietness +and gentleness were the rule. The horses were ridden without whips, +and with spurs so blunt that they could not hurt even a human skin, and +were ruled by the voice and a slight pressure on the light snaffle +bridle. This is the usual plan, even where, as in Colorado, the horses +are bronchos, and inherit ineradicable vice. I never yet saw a horse +BULLIED into submission in the United States. + + +October 18. + +Snow-bound for three days! I could not write yesterday, it was so +awful. People gave up all occupation, and talked of nothing but the +storm. The hunters all kept by the great fire in the living room, only +going out to bring in logs and clear the snow from the door and +windows. I never spent a more fearful night than two nights ago, alone +in my cabin in the storm, with the roof lifting, the mud cracking and +coming off, and the fine snow hissing through the chinks between the +logs, while splittings and breaking of dead branches, wind wrung and +snow laden, went on incessantly, with screechings, howlings, thunder +and lightning, and many unfamiliar sounds besides. After snowing +fiercely all day, another foot of it fell in the early night, and, +after drifting against my door, blocked me effectually in. About +midnight the mercury fell to zero, and soon after a gale rose, which +lasted for ten hours. My window frame is swelled, and shuts, +apparently, hermetically; and my bed is six feet from it. I had gone +to sleep with six blankets on, and a heavy sheet over my face. Between +two and three I was awoke by the cabin being shifted from underneath by +the wind, and the sheet was frozen to my lips. I put out my hands, and +the bed was thickly covered with fine snow. Getting up to investigate +matters, I found the floor some inches deep in parts in fine snow, and +a gust of fine, needle-like snow stung my face. The bucket of water +was solid ice. I lay in bed freezing till sunrise, when some of the +men came to see if I "was alive," and to dig me out. They brought a +can of hot water, which turned to ice before I could use it. I dressed +standing in snow, and my brushes, boots, and etceteras were covered +with snow. When I ran to the house, not a mountain or anything else +could be seen, and the snow on one side was drifted higher than the +roof. The air, as high as one could see, was one white, stinging smoke +of snowdrift--a terrific sight. In the living room, the snow was +driving through the chinks, and Mrs. Dewy was shoveling it from the +floor. Mr. D.'s beard was hoary with frost in a room with a fire all +night. Evans was lying ill, with his bed covered with snow. Returning +from my cabin after breakfast, loaded with occupations for the day, I +was lifted off my feet, and deposited in a drift, and all my things, +writing book and letter included, were carried in different directions. +Some, including a valuable photograph, were irrecoverable. The writing +book was found, some hours afterwards, under three feet of snow. + +There are tracks of bears and deer close to the house, but no one can +hunt in this gale, and the drift is blinding. We have been slightly +overcrowded in our one room. Chess, music, and whist have been +resorted to. One hunter, for very ennui, has devoted himself to +keeping my ink from freezing. We all sat in great cloaks and coats, +and kept up an enormous fire, with the pitch running out of the logs. +The isolation is extreme, for we are literally snowed up, and the other +settler in the Park and "Mountain Jim" are both at Denver. Late in the +evening the storm ceased. In some places the ground is bare of snow, +while in others all irregularities are leveled, and the drifts are +forty feet deep. Nature is grand under this new aspect. The cold is +awful; the high wind with the mercury at zero would skin any part +exposed to it. + + +October 19. + +Evans offers me six dollars a week if I will stay into the winter and +do the cooking after Mrs. Edwards leaves! I think I should like +playing at being a "hired girl" if it were not for the bread-making! +But it would suit me better to ride after cattle. The men don't like +"baching," as it is called in the wilds--i.e. "doing for themselves." +They washed and ironed their clothes yesterday, and there was an +incongruity about the last performance. I really think (though for the +fifteenth time) that I shall leave to-morrow. The cold has moderated, +the sky is bluer than ever, the snow is evaporating, and a hunter who +has joined us to-day says that there are no drifts on the trail which +one cannot get through. + + +LONGMOUNT, COLORADO, October 20. + +"The Island Valley of Avillon" is left, but how shall I finally tear +myself from its freedom and enchantments? I see Long's snowy peak +rising into the night sky, and know and long after the magnificence of +the blue hollow at its base. We were to have left at 8 but the horses +were lost, so it was 9:30 before we started, the WE being the musical +young French Canadian and myself. I have a bay Indian pony, "Birdie," +a little beauty, with legs of iron, fast, enduring, gentle, and wise; +and with luggage for some weeks, including a black silk dress, behind +my saddle, I am tolerably independent. It was a most glorious ride. +We passed through the gates of rock, through gorges where the unsunned +snow lay deep under the lemon-colored aspens; caught glimpses of +far-off, snow-clad giants rising into a sky of deep sad blue; lunched +above the Foot Hills at a cabin where two brothers and a "hired man" +were "keeping bach," where everything was so trim, clean, and +ornamental that one did not miss a woman; crossed a deep backwater on a +narrow beaver dam, because the log bridge was broken down, and emerged +from the brilliantly-colored canyon of the St. Vrain just at dusk upon +the featureless prairies, when we had some trouble in finding Longmount +in the dark. A hospitable welcome awaited me at this inn, and an +English friend came in and spent the evening with me. + + +GREAT PLATTE CANYON, October 23. + +My letters on this tour will, I fear, be very dull, for after riding +all day, looking after my pony, getting supper, hearing about various +routes, and the pastoral, agricultural, mining, and hunting gossip of +the neighborhood, I am so sleepy and wholesomely tired that I can +hardly write. I left Longmount pretty early on Tuesday morning, the +day being sad, with the blink of an impending snow-storm in the air. +The evening before I was introduced to a man who had been a colonel in +the rebel army, who made a most unfavorable impression upon me, and it +was a great annoyance to me when he presented himself on horse-back to +guide me "over the most intricate part of the journey." Solitude is +infinitely preferable to uncongeniality, and is bliss when compared +with repulsiveness, so I was thoroughly glad when I got rid of my +escort and set out upon the prairie alone. It is a dreary ride of +thirty miles over the low brown plains to Denver, very little settled, +and with trails going in all directions. My sailing orders were "steer +south, and keep to the best beaten track," and it seemed like embarking +on the ocean without a compass. The rolling brown waves on which you +see a horse a mile and a half off impress one strangely, and at noon +the sky darkened up for another storm, the mountains swept down in +blackness to the Plains, and the higher peaks took on a ghastly +grimness horrid to behold. It was first very cold, then very hot, and +finally settled down to a fierce east-windy cold, difficult to endure. +It was free and breezy, however, and my horse was companionable. +Sometimes herds of cattle were browsing on the sun-cured grass, then +herds of horses. Occasionally I met a horseman with a rifle lying +across his saddle, or a wagon of the ordinary sort, but oftener I saw a +wagon with a white tilt, of the kind known as a "Prairie Schooner," +laboring across the grass, or a train of them, accompanied by herds, +mules, and horsemen, bearing emigrants and their household goods in +dreary exodus from the Western States to the much-vaunted prairies of +Colorado. + +The host and hostess of one of these wagons invited me to join their +mid-day meal, I providing tea (which they had not tasted for four +weeks) and they hominy. They had been three months on the journey from +Illinois, and their oxen were so lean and weak that they expected to be +another month in reaching Wet Mountain Valley. They had buried a child +en route, had lost several oxen, and were rather out of heart. Owing +to their long isolation and the monotony of the march they had lost +count of events, and seemed like people of another planet. They wanted +me to join them, but their rate of travel was too slow, so we parted +with mutual expressions of good will, and as their white tilt went +"hull down" in the distance on the lonely prairie sea, I felt sadder +than I often feel on taking leave of old acquaintances. That night +they must have been nearly frozen, camping out in the deep snow in the +fierce wind. I met afterwards 2,000 lean Texan cattle, herded by three +wild-looking men on horseback, followed by two wagons containing women, +children, and rifles. They had traveled 1,000 miles. Then I saw two +prairie wolves, like jackals, with gray fur, cowardly creatures, which +fled from me with long leaps. + +The windy cold became intense, and for the next eleven miles I rode a +race with the coming storm. At the top of every prairie roll I +expected to see Denver, but it was not till nearly five that from a +considerable height I looked down upon the great "City of the Plains," +the metropolis of the Territories. There the great braggart city lay +spread out, brown and treeless, upon the brown and treeless plain, +which seemed to nourish nothing but wormwood and the Spanish bayonet. +The shallow Platte, shriveled into a narrow stream with a shingly bed +six times too large for it, and fringed by shriveled cotton-wood, wound +along by Denver, and two miles up its course I saw a great sandstorm, +which in a few minutes covered the city, blotting it out with a dense +brown cloud. Then with gusts of wind the snowstorm began, and I had to +trust entirely to Birdie's sagacity for finding Evans's shanty. She +had been there once before only, but carried me direct to it over rough +ground and trenches. Gleefully Mrs. Evans and the children ran out to +welcome the pet pony, and I was received most hospitably, and made warm +and comfortable, though the house consists only of a kitchen and two +bed closets. My budget of news from "the park" had to be brought out +constantly, and I wondered how much I had to tell. It was past eleven +when we breakfasted the next morning. It was cloudless with an intense +frost, and six inches of snow on the ground, and everybody thought it +too cold to get up and light the fire. I had intended to leave Birdie +at Denver, but Governor Hunt and Mr. Byers of the Rocky Mountain News +both advised me to travel on horseback rather than by train and stage +telling me that I should be quite safe, and Governor Hunt drew out a +route for me and gave me a circular letter to the settlers along it. + +Denver is no longer the Denver of Hepworth Dixon. A shooting affray in +the street is as rare as in Liverpool, and one no longer sees men +dangling to the lamp-posts when one looks out in the morning! It is a +busy place, the entrepot and distributing point for an immense +district, with good shops, some factories, fair hotels, and the usual +deformities and refinements of civilization. Peltry shops abound, and +sportsman, hunter, miner, teamster, emigrant, can be completely rigged +out at fifty different stores. At Denver, people who come from the +East to try the "camp cure" now so fashionable, get their outfit of +wagon, driver, horses, tent, bedding, and stove, and start for the +mountains. Asthmatic people are there in such numbers as to warrant +the holding of an "asthmatic convention" of patients cured and +benefited. Numbers of invalids who cannot bear the rough life of the +mountains fill its hotels and boarding-houses, and others who have been +partially restored by a summer of camping out, go into the city in the +winter to complete the cure. It stands at a height of 5,000 feet, on +an enormous plain, and has a most glorious view of the Rocky Range. I +should hate even to spend a week there. The sight of those glories so +near and yet out of reach would make me nearly crazy. Denver is at +present the terminus of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. It has a line +connecting it with the Union Pacific Railroad at Cheyenne, and by means +of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, open for about 200 miles, it is +expecting to reach into Mexico. It has also had the enterprise, by +means of another narrow-gauge railroad, to push its way right up into +the mining districts near Gray's Peak. The number of "saloons" in the +streets impresses one, and everywhere one meets the characteristic +loafers of a frontier town, who find it hard even for a few days or +hours to submit to the restraints of civilization, as hard as I did to +ride sidewise to Governor Hunt's office. To Denver men go to spend the +savings of months of hard work in the maddest dissipation, and there +such characters as "Comanche Bill," "Buffalo Bill," "Wild Bill," and +"Mountain Jim," go on the spree, and find the kind of notoriety they +seek. + +A large number of Indians added to the harlequin appearance of the +Denver streets the day I was there. They belonged to the Ute tribe, +through which I had to pass, and Governor Hunt introduced me to a +fine-looking young chief, very well dressed in beaded hide, and bespoke +his courtesy for me if I needed it. The Indian stores and fur stores +and fur depots interested me most. The crowds in the streets, perhaps +owing to the snow on the ground, were almost solely masculine. I only +saw five women the whole day. There were men in every rig: hunters and +trappers in buckskin clothing; men of the Plains with belts and +revolvers, in great blue cloaks, relics of the war; teamsters in +leathern suits; horsemen in fur coats and caps and buffalo-hide boots +with the hair outside, and camping blankets behind their huge Mexican +saddles; Broadway dandies in light kid gloves; rich English sporting +tourists, clean, comely, and supercilious looking; and hundreds of +Indians on their small ponies, the men wearing buckskin suits sewn with +beads, and red blankets, with faces painted vermilion and hair hanging +lank and straight, and squaws much bundled up, riding astride with furs +over their saddles. + +Town tired and confused me, and in spite of Mrs. Evans's kind +hospitality, I was glad when a man brought Birdie at nine yesterday +morning. He said she was a little demon, she had done nothing but +buck, and had bucked him off on the bridge! I found that he had put a +curb on her, and whenever she dislikes anything she resents it by +bucking. I rode sidewise till I was well through the town, long enough +to produce a severe pain in my spine, which was not relieved for some +time even after I had changed my position. It was a lovely Indian +summer day, so warm that the snow on the ground looked an incongruity. +I rode over the Plains for some time, then gradually reached the +rolling country along the base of the mountains, and a stream with +cottonwoods along it, and settlers' houses about every halfmile. I +passed and met wagons frequently, and picked up a muff containing a +purse with 500 dollars in it, which I afterwards had the great pleasure +of restoring to the owner. Several times I crossed the narrow track of +the quaint little Rio Grande Railroad, so that it was a very cheerful +ride. + + +RANCH, PLUM CREEK, October 24. + +You must understand that in Colorado travel, unless on the main road +and in the larger settlements, there are neither hotels nor taverns, +and that it is the custom for the settlers to receive travelers, +charging them at the usual hotel rate for accommodation. It is a very +satisfactory arrangement. However, at Ranch, my first halting place, +the host was unwilling to receive people in this way, I afterwards +found, or I certainly should not have presented my credentials at the +door of a large frame house, with large barns and a generally +prosperous look. The host, who opened the door, looked repellent, but +his wife, a very agreeable, lady-like-looking woman, said they could +give me a bed on a sofa. The house was the most pretentious I have yet +seen, being papered and carpeted, and there were two "hired girls." +There was a lady there from Laramie, who kindly offered to receive me +into her room, a very tall, elegant person, remarkable as being the +first woman who had settled in the Rocky Mountains. She had been +trying the "camp cure" for three months, and was then on her way home. +She had a wagon with beds, tent, tent floor, cooking-stove, and every +camp luxury, a light buggy, a man to manage everything, and a most +superior "hired girl." She was consumptive and frail in strength, but a +very attractive person, and her stories of the perils and limitation of +her early life at Fort Laramie were very interesting. Still I +"wearied," as I had arrived early in the afternoon, and could not out +of politeness retire and write to you. At meals the three "hired men" +and two "hired girls" eat with the family. I soon found that there was +a screw loose in the house, and was glad to leave early the next +morning, although it was obvious that a storm was coming on. + +I saw the toy car of the Rio Grande Railroad whirl past, all cushioned +and warm, and rather wished I were in it, and not out among the snow on +the bleak hill side. I only got on four miles when the storm came on +so badly that I got into a kitchen where eleven wretched travelers were +taking shelter, with the snow melting on them and dripping on the +floor. I had learned the art of "being agreeable" so well at the +Chalmers's, and practiced it so successfully during the two hours I was +there, by paring potatoes and making scones, that when I left, though +the hosts kept "an accommodation house for travelers," they would take +nothing for my entertainment, because they said I was such "good +company"! The storm moderated a little, and at one I saddled Birdie, +and rode four more miles, crossing a frozen creek, the ice of which +broke and let the pony through, to her great alarm. I cannot describe +my feelings on this ride, produced by the utter loneliness, the silence +and dumbness of all things, the snow falling quietly without wind, the +obliterated mountains, the darkness, the intense cold, and the unusual +and appalling aspect of nature. All life was in a shroud, all work and +travel suspended. There was not a foot-mark or wheel-mark. There was +nothing to be afraid of; and though I can't exactly say that I enjoyed +the ride, yet there was the pleasant feeling of gaining health every +hour. + +When the snow darkness began to deepen towards evening, the track +became quite illegible, and when I found myself at this romantically +situated cabin, I was thankful to find that they could give me shelter. +The scene was a solemn one, and reminded me of a description in +Whittier's Snow-Bound. All the stock came round the cabin with mute +appeals for shelter. Sheep dogs got in, and would not be kicked out. +Men went out muffled up, and came back shivering and shaking the snow +from their feet. The churn was put by the stove. Later on, a most +pleasant settler, on his way to Denver, came in his wagon having been +snow blocked two miles off, where he had been obliged to leave it and +bring his horses on here. The "Grey Mare" had a stentorian voice, +smoked a clay pipe which she passed to her children, raged at English +people, derided the courtesy of English manners, and considered that +"Please," "Thank you," and the like, were "all bosh" when life was so +short and busy. And still the snow fell softly, and the air and earth +were silent. + + + + +Letter X + +A white world--Bad traveling--A millionaire's home--Pleasant +Park--Perry's Park--Stock-raising--A cattle king--The Arkansas +Divide--Birdie's sagacity--Luxury--Monument Park--Deference to +prejudice--A death scene--The Manitou--A loose shoe--The Ute +Pass--Bergens Park--A settler's home--Hayden's Divide--Sharp +criticism--Speaking the truth. + +COLORADO SPRINGS, October 28. + +It is difficult to make this anything of a letter. I have been riding +for a whole week, seeing wonders and greatly enjoying the singular +adventurousness and novelty of my tour, but ten hours or more daily +spent in the saddle in this rarefied, intoxicating air, disposes one to +sleep rather than to write in the evening, and is far from conducive to +mental brilliancy. The observing faculties are developed, and the +reflective lie dormant. + +That night on which I last wrote was the coldest I have yet felt. I +pulled the rag carpet from the floor and covered myself with it, but +could not get warm. The sun rose gloriously on a shrouded earth. +Barns, road, shrubs, fences, river, lake, all lay under the glittering +snow. It was light and powdery, and sparkled like diamonds. Not a +breath of wind stirred, there was not a sound. I had to wait till a +passing horseman had broken the track, but soon after I set off into +the new, shining world. I soon lost the horseman's foot-marks, but +kept on near the road by means of the innumerable foot-prints of birds +and ground squirrels, which all went in one direction. After riding +for an hour I was obliged to get off and walk for another, for the snow +balled in Birdie's feet to such an extent that she could hardly keep up +even without my weight on her, and my pick was not strong enough to +remove it. Turning off the road to ask for a chisel, I came upon the +cabin of the people whose muff I had picked up a few days before, and +they received me very warmly, gave me a tumbler of cream, and made some +strong coffee. They were "old Country folk," and I stayed too long +with them. After leaving them I rode twelve miles, but it was "bad +traveling," from the balling of the snow and the difficulty of finding +the track. There was a fearful loneliness about it. The track was +untrodden, and I saw neither man nor beast. The sky became densely +clouded, and the outlook was awful. The great Divide of the Arkansas +was in front, looming vaguely through a heavy snow cloud, and snow +began to fall, not in powder, but in heavy flakes. Finding that there +would be risk in trying to ride till nightfall, in the early afternoon +I left the road and went two miles into the hills by an untrodden path, +where there were gates to open, and a rapid steep-sided creek to cross; +and at the entrance to a most fantastic gorge I came upon an elegant +frame house belonging to Mr. Perry, a millionaire, to whom I had an +introduction which I did not hesitate to present, as it was weather in +which a traveler might almost ask for shelter without one. + +Mr. Perry was away, but his daughter, a very bright-looking, +elegantly-dressed girl, invited me to dine and remain. They had stewed +venison and various luxuries on the table, which was tasteful and +refined, and an adroit, colored table-maid waited, one of five attached +Negro servants who had been their slaves before the war. After dinner, +though snow was slowly falling, a gentleman cousin took me a ride to +show me the beauties of Pleasant Park, which takes rank among the +finest scenery of Colorado, and in good weather is very easy of access. +It did look very grand as we entered it by a narrow pass guarded by two +buttes, or isolated upright masses of rock, bright red, and about 300 +feet in height. The pines were very large, and the narrow canyons +which came down on the park gloomily magnificent. It is remarkable +also from a quantity of "monumental" rocks, from 50 to 300 feet in +height, bright vermilion, green, buff, orange, and sometimes all +combined, their gay tinting a contrast to the disastrous-looking snow +and the somber pines. Bear Canyon, a gorge of singular majesty, comes +down on the park, and we crossed the Bear Creek at the foot of this on +the ice, which gave way, and both our horses broke through into pretty +deep and very cold water, and shortly afterwards Birdie put her foot +into a prairie dog's hole which was concealed by the snow, and on +recovering herself fell three times on her nose. I thought of Bishop +Wilberforce's fatal accident from a smaller stumble, and felt sure that +he would have kept his seat had he been mounted, as I was, on a Mexican +saddle. It was too threatening for a long ride, and on returning I +passed into a region of vivacious descriptions of Egypt, Palestine, +Asia Minor, Turkey, Russia, and other countries, in which Miss Perry +had traveled with her family for three years. + +Perry's Park is one of the great cattle-raising ranches in Colorado. +This, the youngest State in the Union, a Territory until quite +recently, has an area of about 68,000,000 acres, a great portion of +which, though rich in mineral wealth, is worthless either for stock or +arable farming, and the other or eastern part is so dry that crops can +only be grown profitably where irrigation is possible. This region is +watered by the South Fork of the Platte and its affluents, and, though +subject to the grasshopper pest, it produces wheat of the finest +quality, the yield varying according to the mode of cultivation from +eighteen to thirty bushels per acre. The necessity for irrigation, +however, will always bar the way to an indefinite extension of the area +of arable farms. The prospects of cattle-raising seem at present +practically unlimited. In 1876 Colorado had 390,728, valued at L2:13s. +per head, about half of which were imported as young beasts from Texas. +The climate is so fine and the pasturage so ample that shelter and +hand-feeding are never resorted to except in the case of imported +breeding stock from the Eastern States, which sometimes in severe +winters need to be fed in sheds for a short time. Mr. Perry devotes +himself mainly to the breeding of graded shorthorn bulls, which he +sells when young for L6 per head. + +The cattle run at large upon the prairies; each animal being branded, +they need no herding, and are usually only mustered, counted, and the +increase branded in the summer. In the fall, when three or four years +old, they are sold lean or in tolerable condition to dealers who take +them by rail to Chicago, or elsewhere, where the fattest lots are +slaughtered for tinning or for consumption in the Eastern cities, while +the leaner are sold to farmers for feeding up during the winter. Some +of the wealthier stockmen take their best lots to Chicago themselves. +The Colorado cattle are either pure Texan or Spanish, or crosses +between the Texan and graded shorthorns. They are nearly all very +inferior animals, being bony and ragged. The herds mix on the vast +plains at will; along the Arkansas valley 80,000 roam about with the +freedom of buffaloes, and of this number about 16,000 are exported +every fall. Where cattle are killed for use in the mining districts +their average price is three cents per lb. In the summer thousands of +yearlings are driven up from Texas, branded, and turned loose on the +prairies, and are not molested again till they are sent east at three +or four years old. These pure Texans, the old Spanish breed, weigh +from 900 to 1,000 pounds, and the crossed Colorado cattle from 1,000 to +1,200 pounds. + +The "Cattle King" of the State is Mr. Iliff, of South Platte, who owns +nine ranches, with runs of 15,000 acres, and 35,000 cattle. He is +improving his stock; and, indeed, the opening of the dead-meat trade +with this country is giving a great impetus to the improvement of the +breed of cattle among all the larger and richer stock-owners. For this +enormous herd 40 men are employed in summer, about 12 in winter, and +200 horses. In the rare case of a severe and protracted snowstorm the +cattle get a little hay. Owners of 6,000, 8,000 and 10,000 head of +cattle are quite common in Colorado. Sheep are now raised in the State +to the extent of half a million, and a chronic feud prevails between +the "sheep men" and the "cattle men." Sheep-raising is said to be a +very profitable business, but its risks and losses are greater, owing +to storms, while the outlay for labor, dipping materials, etc., is +considerably larger, and owing to the comparative inability of sheep to +scratch away the snow from the grass, hay has to be provided to meet +the emergency of very severe snow-storms. The flocks are made up +mostly of pure and graded Mexicans; but though some flocks which have +been graded carefully for some years show considerable merit, the +average sheep is a leggy, ragged beast. Wether mutton, four and five +years old, is sold when there is any demand for it; but except at +Charpiot's, in Denver, I never saw mutton on any table, public or +private, and wool is the great source of profit, the old ewes being +allowed to die off. The best flocks yield an average of seven pounds. +The shearing season, which begins in early June, lasts about six weeks. +Shearers get six and a half cents a head for inferior sheep, and seven +and a half cents for the better quality, and a good hand shears from +sixty to eighty in a day. It is not likely that sheep-raising will +attain anything of the prominence which cattle-raising is likely to +assume. The potato beetle "scare" is not of much account in the +country of the potato beetle. The farmers seem much depressed by the +magnitude and persistency of the grasshopper pest which finds their +fields in the morning "as the garden of Eden," and leaves them at night +"a desolate wilderness." + +It was so odd and novel to have a beautiful bed room, hot water, and +other luxuries. The snow began to fall in good earnest at six in the +evening, and fell all night, accompanied by intense frost, so that in +the morning there were eight inches of it glittering in the sun. Miss +P. gave me a pair of men's socks to draw on over my boots, and I set +out tolerably early, and broke my own way for two miles. Then a single +wagon had passed, making a legible track for thirty miles, otherwise +the snow was pathless. The sky was absolutely cloudless, and as I made +the long ascent of the Arkansas Divide, the mountains, gashed by deep +canyons, came sweeping down to the valley on my right, and on my left +the Foot Hills were crowned with colored fantastic rocks like castles. +Everything was buried under a glittering shroud of snow. The babble of +the streams was bound by fetters of ice. No branches creaked in the +still air. No birds sang. No one passed or met me. There were no +cabins near or far. The only sound was the crunch of the snow under +Birdie's feet. We came to a river over which some logs were laid with +some young trees across them. Birdie put one foot on this, then drew +it back and put another on, then smelt the bridge noisily. Persuasions +were useless; she only smelt, snorted, held back, and turned her +cunning head and looked at me. It was useless to argue the point with +so sagacious a beast. To the right of the bridge the ice was much +broken, and we forded the river there; but as it was deep enough to +come up to her body, and was icy cold to my feet, I wondered at her +preference. Afterwards I heard that the bridge was dangerous. She is +the queen of ponies, and is very gentle, though she has not only wild +horse blood, but is herself the wild horse. She is always cheerful and +hungry, never tired, looks intelligently at everything, and her legs +are like rocks. Her one trick is that when the saddle is put on she +swells herself to a very large size, so that if any one not accustomed +to her saddles her I soon find the girth three or four inches too +large. When I saddle her a gentle slap on her side, or any slight +start which makes her cease to hold her breath, puts it all right. She +is quite a companion, and bathing her back, sponging her nostrils, and +seeing her fed after my day's ride, is always my first care. + +At last I reached a log cabin where I got a feed for us both and +further directions. The rest of the day's ride was awful enough. The +snow was thirteen inches deep, and grew deeper as I ascended in silence +and loneliness, but just as the sun sank behind a snowy peak I reached +the top of the Divide, 7,975 feet above the sea level. There, in +unspeakable solitude, lay a frozen lake. Owls hooted among the pines, +the trail was obscure, the country was not settled, the mercury was 9 +degrees below zero, my feet had lost all sensation, and one of them was +frozen to the wooden stirrup. I found that owing to the depth of the +snow I had only ridden fifteen miles in eight and a half hours, and +must look about for a place to sleep in. The eastern sky was unlike +anything I ever saw before. It had been chrysoprase, then it turned to +aquamarine, and that to the bright full green of an emerald. Unless I +am color-blind, this is true. Then suddenly the whole changed, and +flushed with the pure, bright, rose color of the afterglow. Birdie was +sliding at every step, and I was nearly paralyzed with the cold when I +reached a cabin which had been mentioned to me, but they said that +seventeen snow-bound men were lying on the floor, and they advised me +to ride half a mile farther, which I did, and reached the house of a +German from Eisenau, with a sweet young wife and a venerable +mother-in-law. Though the house was very poor, it was made attractive +by ornaments, and the simple, loving, German ways gave it a sweet home +atmosphere. My room was reached by a ladder, but I had it to myself +and had the luxury of a basin to wash in. Under the kindly treatment +of the two women my feet came to themselves, but with an amount of pain +that almost deserved the name of torture. + +The next morning was gray and sour, but brightened and warmed as the +day went on. After riding twelve miles I got bread and milk for myself +and a feed for Birdie at a large house where there were eight boarders, +each one looking nearer the grave than the other, and on remounting was +directed to leave the main road and diverge through Monument Park, a +ride of twelve miles among fantastic rocks, but I lost my way, and came +to an end of all tracks in a wild canyon. Returning about six miles, I +took another track, and rode about eight miles without seeing a +creature. I then came to strange gorges with wonderful upright rocks +of all shapes and colors, and turning through a gate of rock, came upon +what I knew must be Glen Eyrie, as wild and romantic a glen as +imagination ever pictured. The track then passed down a valley close +under some ghastly peaks, wild, cold, awe-inspiring scenery. After +fording a creek several times, I came upon a decayed-looking cluster of +houses bearing the arrogant name of Colorado City, and two miles +farther on, from the top of one of the Foot Hill ridges, I saw the +bleak-looking scattered houses of the ambitious watering place of +Colorado Springs, the goal of my journey of 150 miles. I got off, put +on a long skirt, and rode sidewise, though the settlement scarcely +looked like a place where any deference to prejudices was necessary. A +queer embryo-looking place it is, out on the bare Plains, yet it is +rising and likely to rise, and has some big hotels much resorted to. +It has a fine view of the mountains, specially of Pike's Peak, but the +celebrated springs are at Manitou, three miles off, in really fine +scenery. To me no place could be more unattractive than Colorado +Springs, from its utter treelessness. + +I found the -----s living in a small room which served for parlor, +bedroom, and kitchen, and combined the comforts of all. It is +inhabited also by two prairie dogs, a kitten, and a deerhound. It was +truly homelike. Mrs. ----- walked with me to the boarding-house where +I slept, and we sat some time in the parlor talking with the landlady. +Opposite to me there was a door wide open into a bed room, and on a bed +opposite to the door a very sick-looking young man was half-lying, +half-sitting, fully dressed, supported by another, and a very +sick-looking young man much resembling him passed in and out +occasionally, or leaned on the chimney piece in an attitude of extreme +dejection. Soon the door was half-closed, and some one came to it, +saying rapidly, "Shields, quick, a candle!" and then there were movings +about in the room. All this time the seven or eight people in the room +in which I was were talking, laughing, and playing backgammon, and none +laughed louder than the landlady, who was sitting where she saw that +mysterious door as plainly as I did. All this time, and during the +movings in the room, I saw two large white feet sticking up at the end +of the bed. I watched and watched, hoping those feet would move, but +they did not; and somehow, to my thinking, they grew stiffer and +whiter, and then my horrible suspicion deepened, and while we were +sitting there a human spirit untended and desolate had passed forth +into the night. Then a man came out with a bundle of clothes, and then +the sick young man, groaning and sobbing, and then a third, who said to +me, with some feeling, that the man who had just died was the sick +young man's only brother. And still the landlady laughed and talked, +and afterwards said to me, "It turns the house upside down when they +just come here and die; we shall be half the night laying him out." I +could not sleep for the bitter cold and the sound of the sobs and +groans of the bereaved brother. The next day the landlady, in a +fashionably-made black dress, was bustling about, proud of the +prospective arrival of a handsome coffin. I went into the parlor to +get a needle, and the door of THAT room was open, and children were +running in and out, and the landlady, who was sweeping there, called +cheerily to me to come in for the needle, and there, to my horror, not +even covered with a face cloth, and with the sun blazing in through the +unblinded window, lay that thing of terror, a corpse, on some chairs +which were not even placed straight. It was buried in the afternoon, +and from the looks of the brother, who continued to sob and moan, his +end cannot be far off. + +The -----s say that many go to the Springs in the last stage of +consumption, thinking that the Colorado climate will cure them, without +money enough to pay for even the coarsest board. We talked most of +that day, and I equipped myself with arctics and warm gloves for the +mountain tour which has been planned for me, and I gave Birdie the +Sabbath she was entitled to on Tuesday, for I found, on arriving at the +Springs, that the day I crossed the Arkansas Divide was Sunday, though +I did not know it. Several friends of Miss Kingsley called on me; she +is much remembered and beloved. This is not an expensive tour; we cost +about ten shillings a day, and the five days which I have spent en +route from Denver have cost something less than the fare for the few +hours' journey by the cars. There are no real difficulties. It is a +splendid life for health and enjoyment. All my luggage being in a +pack, and my conveyance being a horse, we can go anywhere where we can +get food and shelter. + + +GREAT GORGE OF THE MANITOU, October 29. + +This is a highly picturesque place, with several springs, still and +effervescing, the virtues of which were well known to the Indians. +Near it are places, the names of which are familiar to every one--the +Garden of the Gods, Glen Eyrie, Pike's Peak, Monument Park, and the Ute +Pass. It has two or three immense hotels, and a few houses +picturesquely situated. It is thronged by thousands of people in the +summer who come to drink the waters, try the camp cure, and make +mountain excursions; but it is all quiet now, and there are only a few +lingerers in this immense hotel. There is a rushing torrent in a +valley, with mountains, covered with snow and rising to a height of +nearly 15,000 feet, overhanging it. It is grand and awful, and has a +strange, solemn beauty like death. And the Snowy Mountains are pierced +by the torrent which has excavated the Ute Pass, by which, to-morrow, I +hope to go into the higher regions. But all may be "lost for want of a +horseshoe nail." One of Birdie's shoes is loose, and not a nail is to +be got here, or can be got till I have ridden for ten miles up the +Pass. Birdie amuses every one with her funny ways. She always follows +me closely, and to-day got quite into a house and pushed the parlor +door open. She walks after me with her head laid on my shoulder, +licking my face and teasing me for sugar, and sometimes, when any one +else takes hold of her, she rears and kicks, and the vicious bronco +soul comes into her eyes. Her face is cunning and pretty, and she +makes a funny, blarneying noise when I go up to her. The men at all +the stables make a fuss with her, and call her "Pet." She gallops up +and down hill, and never stumbles even on the roughest ground, or +requires even a touch with a whip. + +The weather is again perfect, with a cloudless sky and a hot sun, and +the snow is all off the plains and lower valleys. After lunch, the +-----s in a buggy, and I on Birdie, left Colorado Springs, crossing the +Mesa, a high hill with a table top, with a view of extraordinary +laminated rocks, LEAVES of rock a bright vermilion color, against a +background of snowy mountains, surmounted by Pike's Peak. Then we +plunged into cavernous Glen Eyrie, with its fantastic needles of +colored rock, and were entertained at General Palmer's "baronial +mansion," a perfect eyrie, the fine hall filled with buffalo, elk, and +deer heads, skins of wild animals, stuffed birds, bear robes, and +numerous Indian and other weapons and trophies. Then through a gate of +huge red rocks, we passed into the valley, called fantastically, Garden +of the Gods, in which, were I a divinity, I certainly would not choose +to dwell. Many places in this neighborhood are also vulgarized by +grotesque names. From this we passed into a ravine, down which the +Fountain River rushed, and there I left my friends with regret, and +rode into this chill and solemn gorge, from which the mountains, +reddening in the sunset, are only seen afar off. I put Birdie up at a +stable, and as there was no place to put myself up but this huge hotel, +I came here to have a last taste of luxury. They charge six dollars a +day in the season, but it is now half-price; and instead of four +hundred fashionable guests there are only fifteen, most of whom are +speaking in the weak, rapid accents of consumption, and are coughing +their hearts out. There are seven medicinal springs. It is strange to +have the luxuries of life in my room. It will be only the fourth night +in Colorado that I have slept on anything better than hay or straw. I +am glad that there are so few inns. As it is, I get a good deal of +insight into the homes and modes of living of the settlers. + + +BERGENS PARK, October 31. + +This cabin was so dark, and I so sleepy last night, that I could not +write; but the frost during the night has been very severe, and I am +detained until the bright, hot sun melts the ice and renders traveling +safe. I left the great Manitou at ten yesterday. Birdie, who was +loose in the stable, came trotting down the middle of it when she saw +me for her sugar and biscuits. No nails could be got, and her shoe was +hanging by two, which doomed me to a foot's pace and the dismal clink +of a loose shoe for three hours. There was not a cloud on the bright +blue sky the whole day, and though it froze hard in the shade, it was +summer heat in the sun. The mineral fountains were sparkling in their +basins and sending up their full perennial jets but the snow-clad, +pine-skirted mountains frowned and darkened over the Ute Pass as I +entered it to ascend it for twenty miles. A narrow pass it is, with +barely room for the torrent and the wagon road which has been blasted +out of its steep sides. All the time I was in sight of the Fountain +River, brighter than any stream, because it tumbles over rose-red +granite, rocky or disintegrated, a truly fair stream, cutting and +forcing its way through hard rocks, under arches of alabaster ice, +through fringes of crystalline ice, thumping with a hollow sound in +cavernous recesses cold and dark, or leaping in foam from heights with +rush and swish; always bright and riotous, never pausing in still pools +to rest, dashing through gates of rock, pine hung, pine bridged, pine +buried; twinkling and laughing in the sunshine, or frowning in "dowie +dens" in the blue pine gloom. And there, for a mile or two in a +sheltered spot, owing to the more southern latitude, the everlasting +northern pine met the trees of other climates. There were dwarf oaks, +willows, hazel, and spruce; the white cedar and the trailing juniper +jostled each other for a precarious foothold; the majestic redwood tree +of the Pacific met the exquisite balsam pine of the Atlantic slopes, +and among them all the pale gold foliage of the large aspen trembled +(as the legend goes) in endless remorse. And above them towered the +toothy peaks of the glittering mountains, rising in pure white against +the sunny blue. Grand! glorious! sublime! but not lovable. I would +give all for the luxurious redundance of one Hilo gulch, or for one day +of those soft dreamy "skies whose very tears are balm." + + +Bergens Park + +Up ever! the road being blasted out of the red rock which often +overhung it, the canyon only from fifteen to twenty feet wide, the +thunder of the Fountain, which is crossed eight times, nearly +deafening. Sometimes the sun struck the road, and then it was +absolutely hot; then one entered unsunned gorges where the snow lay +deep, and the crowded pines made dark twilight, and the river roared +under ice bridges fringed by icicles. At last the Pass opened out upon +a sunlit upland park, where there was a forge, and with Birdie's shoe +put on, and some shoe nails in my purse, I rode on cheerfully, getting +food for us both at a ranch belonging to some very pleasant people, +who, like all Western folk, when they are not taciturn, asked a legion +of questions. There I met a Colonel Kittridge, who said that he +believed his valley, twelve miles off the track, to be the loveliest +valley in Colorado, and invited me to his house. Leaving the road, I +went up a long ascent deep in snow, but as it did not seem to be the +way, I tied up the pony, and walked on to a cabin at some distance, +which I had hardly reached when I found her trotting like a dog by my +side, pulling my sleeve and laying her soft gray nose on my shoulder. +Does it all mean sugar? We had eight miles farther to go--most of the +way through a forest, which I always dislike when alone, from the fear +of being frightened by something which may appear from behind a tree. +I saw a beautiful white fox, several skunks, some chipmunks and gray +squirrels, owls, crows, and crested blue-jays. As the sun was getting +low I reached Bergens Park, which was to put me out of conceit with +Estes Park. Never! It is long and featureless, and its immediate +surroundings are mean. It reminded me in itself of some dismal +Highland strath--Glenshee, possibly. I looked at it with special +interest, as it was the place at which Miss Kingsley had suggested that +I might remain. The evening was glorious, and the distant views were +very fine. A stream fringed with cotton-wood runs through the park; +low ranges come down upon it. The south end is completely closed up, +but at a considerable distance, by the great mass of Pike's Peak, while +far beyond the other end are peaks and towers, wonderful in blue and +violet in the lovely evening, and beyond these, sharply defined against +the clear green sky, was the serrated ridge of the Snowy Range, said to +be 200 miles away. Bergens Park had been bought by Dr. Bell, of +London, but its present occupant is Mr. Thornton, an English gentleman, +who has a worthy married Englishman as his manager. Mr. Thornton is +building a good house, and purposes to build other cabins, with the +intention of making the park a resort for strangers. I thought of the +blue hollow lying solitary at the foot of Long's Peak, and rejoiced +that I had "happened into it." + +The cabin is long, low, mud roofed, and very dark. The middle place is +full of raw meat, fowls, and gear. One end, almost dark, contains the +cooking-stove, milk, crockery, a long deal table, two benches, and some +wooden stools; the other end houses the English manager or partner, his +wife, and three children, another cooking-stove, gear of all kinds, and +sacks of beans and flour. They put up a sheet for a partition, and +made me a shake-down on the gravel floor of this room. Ten hired men +sat down to meals with us. It was all very rough, dark, and +comfortless, but Mr. T., who is not only a gentleman by birth, but an +M.A. of Cambridge, seems to like it. Much in this way (a little +smoother if a lady is in the case) every man must begin life here. +Seven large dogs--three of them with cats upon their backs--are usually +warming themselves at the fire. + + +TWIN ROCK, SOUTH FORK OF THE PLATTE, November 1. + +I did not leave Mr. Thornton's till ten, because of the slipperiness. +I rode four miles along a back trail, and then was so tired that I +stayed for two hours at a ranch, where I heard, to my dismay, that I +must ride twenty-four miles farther before I could find any place to +sleep at. I did not enjoy yesterday's ride. I was both tired and +rheumatic, and Birdie was not so sprightly as usual. After starting +again I came on a hideous place, of which I had not heard before, +Hayden's Divide, one of the great back-bones of the region, a weary +expanse of deep snow eleven miles across, and fearfully lonely. I saw +nothing the whole way but a mule lately dead lying by the road. I was +very nervous somehow, and towards evening believed that I had lost the +road, for I came upon wild pine forests, with huge masses of rock from +100 to 700 feet high, cast here and there among them; beyond these +pine-sprinkled grass hills; these, in their turn, were bounded by +interminable ranges, ghastly in the lurid evening, with the Spanish +Peaks quite clear, and the colossal summit of Mount Lincoln, the King +of the Rocky Mountains, distinctly visible, though seventy miles away. +It seemed awful to be alone on that ghastly ridge, surrounded by +interminable mountains, in the deep snow, knowing that a party of +thirty had been lost here a month ago. Just at nightfall the descent +of a steep hill took me out of the forest and upon a clean log cabin, +where, finding that the proper halting place was two miles farther on, +I remained. A truly pleasing, superior-looking woman placed me in a +rocking chair; would not let me help her otherwise than by rocking the +cradle, and made me "feel at home." The room, though it serves them +and their two children for kitchen, parlor, and bed room, is the +pattern of brightness, cleanliness, and comfort. At supper there were +canned raspberries, rolls, butter, tea, venison, and fried rabbit, and +at seven I went to bed in a carpeted log room, with a thick feather bed +on a mattress, sheets, ruffled pillow slips, and a pile of warm white +blankets! I slept for eleven hours. They discourage me much about the +route which Governor Hunt has projected for me. They think that it is +impassable, owing to snow, and that another storm is brewing. + + +HALL'S GULCH, November 6. + +I have ridden 150 miles since I wrote last. On leaving Twin Rock on +Saturday I had a short day's ride to Colonel Kittridge's cabin at Oil +Creek, where I spent a quiet Sunday with agreeable people. The ride +was all through parks and gorges, and among pine-clothed hills, about +9,000 feet high, with Pike's Peak always in sight. I have developed +much sagacity in finding a trail, or I should not be able to make use +of such directions as these: "Keep along a gulch four or five miles +till you get Pike's Peak on your left, then follow some wheel-marks +till you get to some timber, and keep to the north till you come to a +creek, where you'll find a great many elk tracks; then go to your right +and cross the creek three times, then you'll see a red rock to your +left," etc., etc. The K's cabin was very small and lonely, and the +life seemed a hard grind for an educated and refined woman. There were +snow flurries after I arrived, but the first Sunday of November was as +bright and warm as June, and the atmosphere had resumed its exquisite +purity. Three peaks of Pike's Peak are seen from Oil Creek, above the +nearer hills, and by them they tell the time. We had been in the +evening shadows for half an hour before those peaks ceased to be +transparent gold. + +On leaving Colonel Kittridge's hospitable cabin I dismounted, as I had +often done before, to lower a bar, and, on looking round, Birdie was +gone! I spent an hour in trying to catch her, but she had taken an +"ugly fit," and would not let me go near her; and I was getting tired +and vexed, when two passing trappers, on mules, circumvented and caught +her. I rode the twelve miles back to Twin Rock, and then went on, a +kindly teamster, who was going in the same direction, taking my pack. +I must explain that every mile I have traveled since leaving Colorado +Springs has taken me farther and higher into the mountains. That +afternoon I rode through lawnlike upland parks, with the great snow +mass of Pike's Peak behind, and in front mountains bathed in rich +atmospheric coloring of blue and violet, all very fine, but threatening +to become monotonous, when the wagon road turned abruptly to the left, +and crossed a broad, swift, mountain river, the head-waters of the +Platte. There I found the ranch to which I had been recommended, the +quarters of a great hunter named Link, which much resembled a good +country inn. There was a pleasant, friendly woman, but the men were +all away, a thing I always regret, as it gives me half an hour's work +at the horse before I can write to you. I had hardly come in when a +very pleasant German lady, whom I met at Manitou, with three gentlemen, +arrived, and we were as sociable as people could be. We had a splendid +though rude supper. While Mrs. Link was serving us, and urging her +good things upon us, she was orating on the greediness of English +people, saying that "you would think they traveled through the country +only to gratify their palates"; and addressed me, asking me if I had +not observed it! I am nearly always taken for a Dane or a Swede, never +for an Englishwoman, so I often hear a good deal of outspoken criticism. + +In the evening Mr. Link returned, and there was a most vehement +discussion between him, an old hunter, a miner, and the teamster who +brought my pack, as to the route by which I should ride through the +mountains for the next three or four days--because at that point I was +to leave the wagon road--and it was renewed with increased violence the +next morning, so that if my nerves had not been of steel I should have +been appalled. The old hunter acrimoniously said he "must speak the +truth," the miner was directing me over a track where for twenty-five +miles there was not a house, and where, if snow came on, I should never +be heard of again. The miner said he "must speak the truth," the +hunter was directing me over a pass where there were five feet of snow, +and no trail. The teamster said that the only road possible for a +horse was so-and-so, and advised me to take the wagon road into South +Park, which I was determined not to do. Mr. Link said he was the +oldest hunter and settler in the district, and he could not cross any +of the trails in snow. And so they went on. At last they partially +agreed on a route--"the worst road in the Rocky Mountains," the old +hunter said, with two feet of snow upon it, but a hunter had hauled an +elk over part of it, at any rate. The upshot of the whole you shall +have in my next letter. + + I. L. B. + + + + +Letter XI + +Tarryall Creek--The Red Range--Excelsior--Importunate pedlars--Snow and +heat--A bison calf--Deep drifts--South Park--The Great Divide--Comanche +Bill--Difficulties--Hall's Gulch--A Lord Dundreary--Ridiculous fears. + +HALL'S GULCH, COLORADO, November 6. + +It was another cloudless morning, one of the many here on which one +awakes early, refreshed, and ready to enjoy the fatigues of another +day. In our sunless, misty climate you do not know the influence which +persistent fine weather exercises on the spirits. I have been ten +months in almost perpetual sunshine, and now a single cloudy day makes +me feel quite depressed. I did not leave till 9:30, because of the +slipperiness, and shortly after starting turned off into the wilderness +on a very dim trail. Soon seeing a man riding a mile ahead, I rode on +and overtook him, and we rode eight miles together, which was +convenient to me, as without him I should several times have lost the +trail altogether. Then his fine American horse, on which he had only +ridden two days, broke down, while my "mad, bad bronco," on which I had +been traveling for a fortnight, cantered lightly over the snow. He was +the only traveler I saw in a day of nearly twelve hours. I thoroughly +enjoyed every minute of that ride. I concentrated all my faculties of +admiration and of locality, for truly the track was a difficult one. I +sometimes thought it deserved the bad name given to it at Link's. For +the most part it keeps in sight of Tarryall Creek, one of the large +affluents of the Platte, and is walled in on both sides by mountains, +which are sometimes so close together as to leave only the narrowest +canyon between them, at others breaking wide apart, till, after winding +and climbing up and down for twenty-five miles, it lands one on a +barren rock-girdled park, watered by a rapid fordable stream as broad +as the Ouse at Huntingdon, snow fed and ice fringed, the park bordered +by fantastic rocky hills, snow covered and brightened only by a dwarf +growth of the beautiful silver spruce. I have not seen anything +hitherto so thoroughly wild and unlike the rest of these parts. + +I rode up one great ascent where hills were tumbled about confusedly; +and suddenly across the broad ravine, rising above the sunny grass and +the deep green pines, rose in glowing and shaded red against the +glittering blue heaven a magnificent and unearthly range of mountains, +as shapely as could be seen, rising into colossal points, cleft by deep +blue ravines, broken up into sharks' teeth, with gigantic knobs and +pinnacles rising from their inaccessible sides, very fair to look +upon--a glowing, heavenly, unforgettable sight, and only four miles +off. Mountains they looked not of this earth, but such as one sees in +dreams alone, the blessed ranges of "the land which is very far off." +They were more brilliant than those incredible colors in which painters +array the fiery hills of Moab and the Desert, and one could not believe +them for ever uninhabited, for on them rose, as in the East, the +similitude of stately fortresses, not the gray castellated towers of +feudal Europe, but gay, massive, Saracenic architecture, the outgrowth +of the solid rock. They were vast ranges, apparently of enormous +height, their color indescribable, deepest and reddest near the +pine-draped bases, then gradually softening into wonderful tenderness, +till the highest summits rose all flushed, and with an illusion of +transparency, so that one might believe that they were taking on the +hue of sunset. Below them lay broken ravines of fantastic rocks, cleft +and canyoned by the river, with a tender unearthly light over all, the +apparent warmth of a glowing clime, while I on the north side was in +the shadow among the pure unsullied snow. + + With us the damp, the chill, the gloom; + With them the sunset's rosy bloom. + +The dimness of earth with me, the light of heaven with them. Here, +again, worship seemed the only attitude for a human spirit, and the +question was ever present, "Lord, what is man, that Thou art mindful of +him; or the son of man, that Thou visitest him?" I rode up and down +hills laboriously in snow-drifts, getting off often to ease my faithful +Birdie by walking down ice-clad slopes, stopping constantly to feast my +eyes upon that changeless glory, always seeing some new ravine, with +its depths of color or miraculous brilliancy of red, or phantasy of +form. Then below, where the trail was locked into a deep canyon where +there was scarcely room for it and the river, there was a beauty of +another kind in solemn gloom. There the stream curved and twisted +marvellously, widening into shallows, narrowing into deep boiling +eddies, with pyramidal firs and the beautiful silver spruce fringing +its banks, and often falling across it in artistic grace, the gloom +chill and deep, with only now and then a light trickling through the +pines upon the cold snow, when suddenly turning round I saw behind, as +if in the glory of an eternal sunset, those flaming and fantastic +peaks. The effect of the combination of winter and summer was +singular. The trail ran on the north side the whole time, and the snow +lay deep and pure white, while not a wreath of it lay on the south +side, where abundant lawns basked in the warm sun. + +The pitch pine, with its monotonous and somewhat rigid form, had +disappeared; the white pine became scarce, both being displayed by the +slim spires and silvery green of the miniature silver spruce. Valley +and canyon were passed, the flaming ranges were left behind, the upper +altitudes became grim and mysterious. I crossed a lake on the ice, and +then came on a park surrounded by barren contorted hills, overtopped by +snow mountains. There, in some brushwood, we crossed a deepish stream +on the ice, which gave way, and the fearful cold of the water stiffened +my limbs for the rest of the ride. All these streams become bigger as +you draw nearer to their source, and shortly the trail disappeared in a +broad rapid river, which we forded twice. The trail was very difficult +to recover. It ascended ever in frost and snow, amidst scanty timber +dwarfed by cold and twisted by storms, amidst solitudes such as one +reads of in the High Alps; there were no sounds to be heard but the +crackle of ice and snow, the pitiful howling of wolves, and the hoot of +owls. The sun to me had long set; the peaks which had blushed were +pale and sad; the twilight deepened into green; but still "Excelsior!" +There were no happy homes with light of household fires; above, the +spectral mountains lifted their cold summits. As darkness came on I +began to fear that I had confused the cabin to which I had been +directed with the rocks. To confess the truth, I was cold, for my +boots and stockings had frozen on my feet, and I was hungry too, having +eaten nothing but raisins for fourteen hours. After riding thirty +miles I saw a light a little way from the track, and found it to be the +cabin of the daughter of the pleasant people with whom I had spent the +previous night. Her husband had gone to the Plains, yet she, with two +infant children, was living there in perfect security. Two pedlars, +who were peddling their way down from the mines, came in for a night's +shelter soon after I arrived--ill-looking fellows enough. They admired +Birdie in a suspicious fashion, and offered to "swop" their pack horse +for her. I went out the last thing at night and the first thing in the +morning to see that "the powny" was safe, for they were very +importunate on the subject of the "swop." I had before been offered +150 dollars for her. I was obliged to sleep with the mother and +children, and the pedlars occupied a room within ours. It was hot and +airless. The cabin was papered with the Phrenological Journal, and in +the morning I opened my eyes on the very best portrait of Dr. Candlish +I ever saw, and grieved truly that I should never see that massive brow +and fantastic face again. + +Mrs. Link was an educated and very intelligent young woman. The +pedlars were Irish Yankees, and the way in which they "traded" was as +amusing as "Sam Slick." They not only wanted to "swop" my pony, but to +"trade" my watch. They trade their souls, I know. They displayed +their wares for an hour with much dexterous flattery and +persuasiveness, but Mrs. Link was untemptable, and I was only tempted +into buying a handkerchief to keep the sun off. There was another +dispute about my route. It was the most critical day of my journey. +If a snowstorm came on, I might be detained in the mountains for many +weeks; but if I got through the snow and reached the Denver wagon road, +no detention would signify much. The pedlars insisted that I could not +get through, for the road was not broken. Mrs. L. thought I could, and +advised me to try, so I saddled Birdie and rode away. + +More than half of the day was far from enjoyable. The morning was +magnificent, but the light too dazzling, the sun too fierce. As soon +as I got out I felt as if I should drop off the horse. My large +handkerchief kept the sun from my neck, but the fierce heat caused soul +and sense, brain and eye, to reel. I never saw or felt the like of it. +I was at a height of 12,000 feet, where, of course, the air was highly +rarefied, and the snow was so pure and dazzling that I was obliged to +keep my eyes shut as much as possible to avoid snow blindness. The sky +was a different and terribly fierce color; and when I caught a glimpse +of the sun, he was white and unwinking like a lime-ball light, yet +threw off wicked scintillations. I suffered so from nausea, +exhaustion, and pains from head to foot, that I felt as if I must lie +down in the snow. It may have been partly the early stage of soroche, +or mountain sickness. We plodded on for four hours, snow all round, +and nothing else to be seen but an ocean of glistening peaks against +that sky of infuriated blue. How I found my way I shall never know, +for the only marks on the snow were occasional footprints of a man, and +I had no means of knowing whether they led in the direction I ought to +take. Earlier, before the snow became so deep, I passed the last great +haunt of the magnificent mountain bison, but, unfortunately, saw +nothing but horns and bones. Two months ago Mr. Link succeeded in +separating a calf from the herd, and has partially domesticated it. It +is a very ugly thing at seven months old, with a thick beard, and a +short, thick, dark mane on its heavy shoulders. It makes a loud grunt +like a pig. It can outrun their fastest horse, and it sometimes leaps +over the high fence of the corral, and takes all the milk of five cows. + +The snow grew seriously deep. Birdie fell thirty times, I am sure. +She seemed unable to keep up at all, so I was obliged to get off and +stumble along in her footmarks. By that time my spirit for overcoming +difficulties had somewhat returned, for I saw a lie of country which I +knew must contain South Park, and we had got under cover of a hill +which kept off the sun. The trail had ceased; it was only one of those +hunter's tracks which continually mislead one. The getting through the +snow was awful work. I think we accomplished a mile in something over +two hours. The snow was two feet eight inches deep, and once we went +down in a drift the surface of which was rippled like sea sand, Birdie +up to her back, and I up to my shoulders! + +At last we got through, and I beheld, with some sadness, the goal of my +journey, "The Great Divide," the Snowy Range, and between me and it +South Park, a rolling prairie seventy-five miles long and over 10,000 +feet high, treeless, bounded by mountains, and so rich in sun-cured hay +that one might fancy that all the herds of Colorado could find pasture +there. Its chief center is the rough mining town of Fairplay, but +there are rumors of great mineral wealth in various quarters. The +region has been "rushed," and mining camps have risen at Alma and +elsewhere, so lawless and brutal that vigilance committees are forming +as a matter of necessity. South Park is closed, or nearly so, by snow +during an ordinary winter; and just now the great freight wagons are +carrying up the last supplies of the season, and taking down women and +other temporary inhabitants. A great many people come up here in the +summer. The rarefied air produces great oppression on the lungs, +accompanied with bleeding. It is said that you can tell a new arrival +by seeing him go about holding a blood-stained handkerchief to his +mouth. But I came down upon it from regions of ice and snow; and as +the snow which had fallen on it had all disappeared by evaporation and +drifting, it looked to me quite lowland and livable, though lonely and +indescribably mournful, "a silent sea," suggestive of "the muffled +oar." I cantered across the narrow end of it, delighted to have got +through the snow; and when I struck the "Denver stage road" I supposed +that all the difficulties of mountain travel were at an end, but this +has not turned out to be exactly the case. + +A horseman shortly joined me and rode with me, got me a fresh horse, +and accompanied me for ten miles. He was a picturesque figure and rode +a very good horse. He wore a big slouch hat, from under which a number +of fair curls hung nearly to his waist. His beard was fair, his eyes +blue, and his complexion ruddy. There was nothing sinister in his +expression, and his manner was respectful and frank. He was dressed in +a hunter's buckskin suit ornamented with beads, and wore a pair of +exceptionally big brass spurs. His saddle was very highly ornamented. +What was unusual was the number of weapons he carried. Besides a rifle +laid across his saddle and a pair of pistols in the holsters, he +carried two revolvers and a knife in his belt, and a carbine slung +behind him. I found him what is termed "good company." He told me a +great deal about the country and its wild animals, with some hunting +adventures, and a great deal about Indians and their cruelty and +treachery. All this time, having crossed South Park, we were ascending +the Continental Divide by what I think is termed the Breckenridge Pass, +on a fairly good wagon road. We stopped at a cabin, where the woman +seemed to know my companion, and, in addition to bread and milk, +produced some venison steaks. We rode on again, and reached the crest +of the Divide (see engraving), and saw snow-born streams starting +within a quarter of a mile from each other, one for the Colorado and +the Pacific, the other for the Platte and the Atlantic. Here I wished +the hunter good-bye, and reluctantly turned north-east. It was not +wise to go up the Divide at all, and it was necessary to do it in +haste. On my way down I spoke to the woman at whose cabin I had dined, +and she said, "I am sure you found Comanche Bill a real gentleman"; and +I then knew that, if she gave me correct information, my intelligent, +courteous companion was one of the most notorious desperadoes of the +Rocky Mountains, and the greatest Indian exterminator on the +frontier--a man whose father and family fell in a massacre at Spirit +Lake by the hands of Indians, who carried away his sister, then a child +of eleven. His life has since been mainly devoted to a search for this +child, and to killing Indians wherever he can find them. + +After riding twenty miles, which made the distance for that day fifty, +I remounted Birdie to ride six miles farther, to a house which had been +mentioned to me as a stopping place. The road ascended to a height of +11,000 feet, and from thence I looked my last at the lonely, uplifted +prairie sea. "Denver stage road!" The worst, rudest, dismallest, +darkest road I have yet traveled on, nothing but a winding ravine, the +Platte canyon, pine crowded and pine darkened, walled in on both sides +for six miles by pine-skirted mountains 12,000 feet high! Along this +abyss for fifty miles there are said to be only five houses, and were +it not for miners going down, and freight wagons going up, the solitude +would be awful. As it was, I did not see a creature. It was four when +I left South Park, and between those mountain walls and under the pines +it soon became quite dark, a darkness which could be felt. The snow +which had melted in the sun had re-frozen, and was one sheet of smooth +ice. Birdie slipped so alarmingly that I got off and walked, but then +neither of us could keep our feet, and in the darkness she seemed so +likely to fall upon me, that I took out of my pack the man's socks +which had been given me at Perry's Park, and drew them on over her +fore-feet--an expedient which for a time succeeded admirably, and which +I commend to all travelers similarly circumstanced. It was unutterably +dark, and all these operations had to be performed by the sense of +touch only. I remounted, allowed her to take her own way, as I could +not see even her ears, and though her hind legs slipped badly, we +contrived to get along through the narrowest part of the canyon, with a +tumbling river close to the road. The pines were very dense, and +sighed and creaked mournfully in the severe frost, and there were other +EERIE noises not easy to explain. At last, when the socks were nearly +worn out, I saw the blaze of a camp-fire, with two hunters sitting by +it, on the hill side, and at the mouth of a gulch something which +looked like buildings. We got across the river partly on ice and +partly by fording, and I found that this was the place where, in spite +of its somewhat dubious reputation, I had been told that I could put up. + +A man came out in the sapient and good-natured stage of intoxication, +and, the door being opened, I was confronted by a rough bar and a +smoking, blazing kerosene lamp without a chimney. This is the worst +place I have put up at as to food, lodging, and general character; an +old and very dirty log cabin, not chinked, with one dingy room used for +cooking and feeding, in which a miner was lying very ill of fever; then +a large roofless shed with a canvas side, which is to be an addition, +and then the bar. They accounted for the disorder by the building +operations. They asked me if I were the English lady written of in the +Denver News, and for once I was glad that my fame had preceded me, as +it seemed to secure me against being quietly "put out of the way." A +horrible meal was served--dirty, greasy, disgusting. A celebrated +hunter, Bob Craik, came in to supper with a young man in tow, whom, in +spite of his rough hunter's or miner's dress, I at once recognized as +an English gentleman. It was their camp-fire which I had seen on the +hill side. This gentleman was lording it in true caricature fashion, +with a Lord Dundreary drawl and a general execration of everything; +while I sat in the chimney corner, speculating on the reason why many +of the upper class of my countrymen--"High Toners," as they are called +out here--make themselves so ludicrously absurd. They neither know how +to hold their tongues or to carry their personal pretensions. An +American is nationally assumptive, an Englishman personally so. He +took no notice of me till something passed which showed him I was +English, when his manner at once changed into courtesy, and his drawl +was shortened by a half. He took pains to let me know that he was an +officer in the Guards, of good family, on four months' leave, which he +was spending in slaying buffalo and elk, and also that he had a +profound contempt for everything American. I cannot think why +Englishmen put on these broad, mouthing tones, and give so many +personal details. They retired to their camp, and the landlord having +passed into the sodden, sleepy stage of drunkenness, his wife asked if +I should be afraid to sleep in the large canvas-sided, unceiled, +doorless shed, as they could not move the sick miner. So, I slept +there on a shake-down, with the stars winking overhead through the +roof, and the mercury showing 30 degrees of frost. + +I never told you that I once gave an unwary promise that I would not +travel alone in Colorado unarmed, and that in consequence I left Estes +Park with a Sharp's revolver loaded with ball cartridge in my pocket, +which has been the plague of my life. Its bright ominous barrel peeped +out in quiet Denver shops, children pulled it out to play with, or when +my riding dress hung up with it in the pocket, pulled the whole from +the peg to the floor; and I cannot conceive of any circumstances in +which I could feel it right to make any use of it, or in which it could +do me any possible good. Last night, however, I took it out, cleaned +and oiled it, and laid it under my pillow, resolving to keep awake all +night. I slept as soon as I lay down, and never woke till the bright +morning sun shone through the roof, making me ridicule my own fears and +abjure pistols for ever. + + I. L. B. + + + + +Letter XII + +Deer Valley--Lynch law--Vigilance committees--The silver spruce--Taste +and abstinence--The whisky fiend--Smartness--Turkey creek Canyon--The +Indian problem--Public rascality--Friendly meetings--The way to the +Golden City--A rising settlement--Clear Creek +Canyon--Staging--Swearing--A mountain town. + +DEER VALLEY, November. + +To-night I am in a beautiful place like a Dutch farm--large, warm, +bright, clean, with abundance of clean food, and a clean, cold little +bedroom to myself. But it is very hard to write, for two free-tongued, +noisy Irish women, who keep a miners' boarding-house in South Park, and +are going to winter quarters in a freight wagon, are telling the most +fearful stories of violence, vigilance committees, Lynch law, and +"stringing," that I ever heard. It turns one's blood cold only to +think that where I travel in perfect security, only a short time ago +men were being shot like skunks. At the mining towns up above this +nobody is thought anything of who has not killed a man--i.e. in a +certain set. These women had a boarder, only fifteen, who thought he +could not be anything till he had shot somebody, and they gave an +absurd account of the lad dodging about with a revolver, and not +getting up courage enough to insult any one, till at last he hid +himself in the stable and shot the first Chinaman who entered. Things +up there are just in that initial state which desperadoes love. A man +accidentally shoves another in a saloon, or says a rough word at meals, +and the challenge, "first finger on the trigger," warrants either in +shooting the other at any subsequent time without the formality of a +duel. Nearly all the shooting affrays arise from the most trivial +causes in saloons and bar-rooms. The deeper quarrels, arising from +jealousy or revenge, are few, and are usually about some woman not +worth fighting for. At Alma and Fairplay vigilance committees have +been lately formed, and when men act outrageously and make themselves +generally obnoxious they receive a letter with a drawing of a tree, a +man hanging from it, and a coffin below, on which is written +"Forewarned." They "git" in a few hours. + +When I said I spent last night at Hall's Gulch there was quite a chorus +of exclamations. My host there, they all said, would be "strung" +before long. Did I know that a man was "strung" there yesterday? Had +I not seen him hanging? He was on the big tree by the house, they +said. Certainly, had I known what a ghastly burden that tree bore, I +would have encountered the ice and gloom of the gulch rather than have +slept there. They then told me a horrid tale of crime and violence. +This man had even shocked the morals of the Alma crowd, and had a +notice served on him by the vigilants, which had the desired effect, +and he migrated to Hall's Gulch. As the tale runs, the Hall's Gulch +miners were resolved either not to have a groggery or to limit the +number of such places, and when this ruffian set one up he was +"forewarned." It seems, however, to have been merely a pretext for +getting rid of him, for it was hardly a crime of which even Lynch law +could take cognizance. He was overpowered by numbers, and, with +circumstances of great horror, was tried and strung on that tree within +an hour.[19] + +[19] Public opinion approved this execution, regarding it as a fitting +retribution for a series of crimes. + + +I left the place this morning at ten, and have had a very pleasant day, +for the hills shut out the hot sun. I only rode twenty-two miles, for +the difficulty of riding on ice was great, and there is no blacksmith +within thirty-five miles of Hall's Gulch. I met two freighters just +after I left, who gave me the unwelcome news that there were +thirty-miles of ice between that and Denver. "You'll have a tough +trip," they said. The road runs up and down hill, walled in along with +a rushing river by high mountains. The scenery is very grand, but I +hate being shut into these deep gorges, and always expect to see some +startling object moving among the trees. I met no one the whole day +after passing the teams except two men with a "pack-jack," Birdie hates +jacks, and rears and shies as soon as she sees one. It was a bad road, +one shelving sheet of ice, and awfully lonely, and between the peril of +the mare breaking her leg on the ice and that of being crushed by +windfalls of timber, I had to look out all day. Towards sunset I came +to a cabin where they "keep travelers," but the woman looked so vinegar +faced that I preferred to ride four miles farther, up a beautiful road +winding along a sunny gulch filled with silver spruce, bluer and more +silvery than any I have yet seen, and then crossed a divide, from which +the view in all the ecstasy of sunset color was perfectly glorious. It +was enjoyment also in itself to get out of the deep chasm in which I +had been immured all day. There is a train of twelve freight wagons +here, each wagon with six horses, but the teamsters carry their own +camping blankets and sleep either in their wagons or on the floor, so +the house is not crowded. + +It is a pleasant two-story log house, not only chinked but lined with +planed timber. Each room has a great open chimney with logs burning in +it; there are pretty engravings on the walls, and baskets full of +creepers hanging from the ceiling. This is the first settler's house I +have been in in which the ornamental has had any place. There is a +door to each room, the oak chairs are bright with rubbing, and the +floor, though unplaned, is so clean that one might eat off it. The +table is clean and abundant, and the mother and daughter, though they +do all the work, look as trim as if they did none, and actually laugh +heartily. The ranchman neither allows drink to be brought into the +house nor to be drunk outside, and on this condition only he "keeps +travelers." The freighters come in to supper quite well washed, and +though twelve of them slept in the kitchen, by nine o'clock there was +not a sound. This freighting business is most profitable. I think +that the charge is three cents per pound from Denver to South Park, and +there much of the freight is transferred to "pack-jacks" and carried up +to the mines. A railroad, however, is contemplated. I breakfasted +with the family after the freight train left, and instead of sitting +down to gobble up the remains of a meal, they had a fresh table-cloth +and hot food. The buckets are all polished oak, with polished brass +bands; the kitchen utensils are bright as rubbing can make them; and, +more wonderful still, the girls black their boots. Blacking usually is +an unused luxury, and frequently is not kept in houses. My boots have +only been blacked once during the last two months. + + +DENVER, November 9. + +I could not make out whether the superiority of the Deer Valley +settlers extended beyond material things, but a teamster I met in the +evening said it "made him more of a man to spend a night in such a +house." In Colorado whisky is significant of all evil and violence and +is the cause of most of the shooting affrays in the mining camps. +There are few moderate drinkers; it is seldom taken except to excess. +The great local question in the Territory, and just now the great +electoral issue, is drink or no drink, and some of the papers are +openly advocating a prohibitive liquor law. Some of the districts, +such as Greeley, in which liquor is prohibited, are without crime, and +in several of the stock-raising and agricultural regions through which +I have traveled where it is practically excluded the doors are never +locked, and the miners leave their silver bricks in their wagons +unprotected at night. People say that on coming from the Eastern +States they hardly realize at first the security in which they live. +There is no danger and no fear. But the truth of the proverbial +saying, "There is no God west of the Missouri" is everywhere manifest. +The "almighty dollar" is the true divinity, and its worship is +universal. "Smartness" is the quality thought most of. The boy who +"gets on" by cheating at his lessons is praised for being a "smart +boy," and his satisfied parents foretell that he will make a "smart +man." A man who overreaches his neighbor, but who does it so cleverly +that the law cannot take hold of him, wins an envied reputation as a +"smart man," and stories of this species of smartness are told +admiringly round every stove. Smartness is but the initial stage of +swindling, and the clever swindler who evades or defines the weak and +often corruptly administered laws of the States excites unmeasured +admiration among the masses.[20] + +[20] May, 1878.--I am copying this letter in the city of San Francisco, +and regretfully add a strong emphasis to what I have written above. +The best and most thoughtful among Americans would endorse these +remarks with shame and pain.--I. L. B. + + +I left Deer Valley at ten the next morning on a glorious day, with rich +atmospheric coloring, had to spend three hours sitting on a barrel in a +forge after I had ridden twelve miles, waiting while twenty-four oxen +were shod, and then rode on twenty-three miles through streams and +canyons of great beauty till I reached a grocery store, where I had to +share a room with a large family and three teamsters; and being almost +suffocated by the curtain partition, got up at four, before any one was +stirring, saddled Birdie, and rode away in the darkness, leaving my +money on the table! It was a short eighteen miles' ride to Denver down +the Turkey Creek Canyon, which contains some magnificent scenery, and +then the road ascends and hangs on the ledge of a precipice 600 feet in +depth, such a narrow road that on meeting a wagon I had to dismount for +fear of hurting my feet with the wheels. From thence there was a +wonderful view through the rolling Foot Hills and over the gray-brown +plains to Denver. Not a tree or shrub was to be seen, everything was +rioting in summer heat and drought, while behind lay the last grand +canyon of the mountains, dark with pines and cool with snow. I left +the track and took a short cut over the prairie to Denver, passing +through an encampment of the Ute Indians about 500 strong, a disorderly +and dirty huddle of lodges, ponies, men, squaws, children, skins, +bones, and raw meat. + +The Americans will never solve the Indian problem till the Indian is +extinct. They have treated them after a fashion which has intensified +their treachery and "devilry" as enemies, and as friends reduces them +to a degraded pauperism, devoid of the very first elements of +civilization. The only difference between the savage and the civilized +Indian is that the latter carries firearms and gets drunk on whisky. +The Indian Agency has been a sink of fraud and corruption; it is said +that barely thirty per cent of the allowance ever reaches those for +whom it is voted; and the complaints of shoddy blankets, damaged flour, +and worthless firearms are universal. "To get rid of the Injuns" is +the phrase used everywhere. Even their "reservations" do not escape +seizure practically; for if gold "breaks out" on them they are +"rushed," and their possessors are either compelled to accept land +farther west or are shot off and driven off. One of the surest agents +in their destruction is vitriolized whisky. An attempt has recently +been made to cleanse the Augean stable of the Indian Department, but it +has met with signal failure, the usual result in America of every +effort to purify the official atmosphere. Americans specially love +superlatives. The phrases "biggest in the world," "finest in the +world," are on all lips. Unless President Hayes is a strong man they +will soon come to boast that their government is composed of the +"biggest scoundrels" in the world. + +As I rode into Denver and away from the mountains the view became +glorious, as range above range crowned with snow came into sight. I +was sure that three glistening peaks seventy miles north were the +peerless shapeliness of Long's Peak, the king of the Rocky Mountains, +and the "mountain fever" returned so severely that I grudged every hour +spent on the dry, hot plains. The Range looked lovelier and sublimer +than when I first saw it from Greeley, all spiritualized in the +wonderful atmosphere. I went direct to Evans's house, where I found a +hearty welcome, as they had been anxious about my safety, and Evans +almost at once arrived from Estes Park with three elk, one grizzly, and +one bighorn in his wagon. Regarding a place and life one likes (in +spite of all lessons) one is sure to think, "To-morrow shall be as this +day, and much more abundant"; and all through my tour I had thought of +returning to Estes Park and finding everything just as it was. Evans +brought the unwelcome news that the goodly fellowship was broken up. +The Dewys and Mr. Waller were in Denver, and the house was dismantled, +Mr. and Mrs. Edwards alone remaining, who were, however, expecting me +back. Saturday, though like a blazing summer day, was wonderful in its +beauty, and after sunset the afterglow was richer and redder than I +have ever seen it, but the heavy crimson betokened severe heat, which +came on yesterday, and was hardly bearable. + +I attended service twice at the Episcopal church, where the service was +beautifully read and sung; but in a city in which men preponderate the +congregation was mainly composed of women, who fluttered their fans in +a truly distracting way. Except for the church-going there were few +perceptible signs of Sunday in Denver, which was full of rowdies from +the mountain mining camps. You can hardly imagine the delight of +joining in those grand old prayers after so long a deprivation. The +"Te Deum" sounded heavenly in its magnificence; but the heat was so +tremendous that it was hard to "warstle" through the day. They say +that they have similar outbreaks of solar fury all through the winter. + + +GOLDEN CITY, November 13. + +Pleasant as Denver was, with the Dewys and so many kind friends there, +it was too much of the "wearying world" either for my health or taste, +and I left for my sixteen miles' ride to this place at four on Monday +afternoon with the sun still hot. Passing by a bare, desolate-looking +cemetery, I asked a sad-looking woman who was leaning on the gate if +she could direct me to Golden City. I repeated the question twice +before I got an answer, and then, though easily to be accounted for, it +was wide of the mark. In most doleful tones she said, "Oh, go to the +minister; I might tell you, may be, but it's too great a +responsibility; go to the ministers, they can tell you!" And she +returned to her tears for some one whose spirit she was doubtless +thinking of as in the Golden City of our hopes. That sixteen miles +seemed like one mile, after sunset, in the rapturous freshness of the +Colorado air, and Birdie, after her two days' rest and with a lightened +load, galloped across the prairie as if she enjoyed it. I did not +reach this gorge till late, and it was an hour after dark before I +groped my way into this dark, unlighted mining town, where, however, we +were most fortunate both as to stable and accommodation for myself. + + +BOULDER, November 16. + +I fear you will grow tired of the details of these journal letters. To +a person sitting quietly at home, Rocky Mountain traveling, like Rocky +Mountain scenery, must seem very monotonous; but not so to me, to whom +the pure, dry mountain air is the elixir of life. At Golden City I +parted for a time from my faithful pony, as Clear Creek Canyon, which +leads from it to Idaho, is entirely monopolized by a narrow-gauge +railroad, and is inaccessible for horses or mules. To be without a +horse in these mountains is to be reduced to complete helplessness. My +great wish was to see Green Lake, situated near the timber line above +Georgetown (said to be the highest town in the United States), at a +height of 9,000 feet. A single day took me from the heat of summer +into the intense cold of winter. + +Golden City by daylight showed its meanness and belied its name. It is +ungraded, with here and there a piece of wooden sidewalk, supported on +posts, up to which you ascend by planks. Brick, pine, and log houses +are huddled together, every other house is a saloon, and hardly a woman +is to be seen. My landlady apologized for the very exquisite little +bedroom which she gave me by saying "it was not quite as she would like +it, but she had never had a lady in her house before." The young +"lady" who waited at breakfast said, "I've been thinking about you, and +I'm certain sure you're an authoress." The day, as usual, was +glorious. Think of November half through and scarcely even a cloud in +the sky, except the vermilion cloudlets which accompany the sun at his +rising and setting! They say that winter never "sets in" there in the +Foot Hills, but that there are spells of cold, alternating with bright, +hot weather, and that the snow never lies on the ground so as to +interfere with the feed of cattle. Golden City rang with oaths and +curses, especially at the depot. Americans are given over to the most +atrocious swearing, and the blasphemous use of our Savior's name is +peculiarly revolting. + +Golden City stands at the mouth of Toughcuss, otherwise Clear Creek +Canyon, which many people think the grandest scenery in the mountains, +as it twists and turns marvellously, and its stupendous sides are +nearly perpendicular, while farther progress is to all appearance +continually blocked by great masses of rock and piles of snow-covered +mountains. Unfortunately, its sides have been almost entirely denuded +of timber, mining operations consuming any quantity of it. The +narrow-gauge, steel-grade railroad, which runs up the canyon for the +convenience of the rich mining districts of Georgetown, Black Hawk, and +Central City, is a curiosity of engineering. The track has partly been +blasted out of the sides of the canyon, and has partly been "built" by +making a bed of stones in the creek itself, and laying the track across +them. I have never seen such churlishness and incivility as in the +officials of that railroad and the state lines which connect with it, +or met with such preposterous charges. They have handsome little cars +on the route, but though the passengers paid full fare, they put us +into a baggage car because the season was over, and in order to see +anything I was obliged to sit on the floor at the door. The singular +grandeur cannot be described. It is a mere gash cut by the torrent, +twisted, walled, chasmed, weather stained with the most brilliant +coloring, generally dark with shadow, but its utter desolation +occasionally revealed by a beam of intense sunshine. A few stunted +pines and cedars, spared because of their inaccessiblity, hung here and +there out of the rifts. Sometimes the walls of the abyss seemed to +meet overhead, and then widening out, the rocks assumed fantastic +forms, all grandeur, sublimity, and almost terror. After two hours of +this, the track came to an end, and the canyon widened sufficiently for +a road, all stones, holes, and sidings. There a great "Concord coach" +waited for us, intended for twenty passengers, and a mountain of +luggage in addition, and the four passengers without any luggage sat on +the seat behind the driver, so that the huge thing bounced and swung +upon the straps on which it was hung so as to recall the worst horrors +of New Zealand staging. The driver never spoke without an oath, and +though two ladies were passengers, cursed his splendid horses the whole +time. Formerly, even the most profane men intermitted their profanity +in the presence of women, but they "have changed all that." Every one +I saw up there seemed in a bad temper. I suspect that all their "smart +tricks" in mining shares had gone wrong. + +The road pursued the canyon to Idaho Springs, a fashionable mountain +resort in the summer, but deserted now, where we took a superb team of +six horses, with which we attained a height of 10,000 feet, and then a +descent of 1,000 took us into Georgetown, crowded into as remarkable a +gorge as was ever selected for the site of a town, the canyon beyond +APPARENTLY terminating in precipitous and inaccessible mountains, +sprinkled with pines up to the timber line, and thinly covered with +snow. The area on which it is possible to build is so circumcised and +steep, and the unpainted gable-ended houses are so perched here and +there, and the water rushes so impetuously among them, that it reminded +me slightly of a Swiss town. All the smaller houses are shored up with +young pines on one side, to prevent them from being blown away by the +fierce gusts which sweep the canyon. It is the only town I have seen +in America to which the epithet picturesque could be applied. But +truly, seated in that deep hollow in the cold and darkness, it is in a +terrible situation, with the alpine heights towering round it. I +arrived at three, but its sun had set, and it lay in deep shadow. In +fact, twilight seemed coming on, and as I had been unable to get my +circular notes cashed at Denver, I had no money to stay over the next +day, and much feared that I should lose Green Lake, the goal of my +journey. We drove through the narrow, piled-up, irregular street, +crowded with miners standing in groups, or drinking and gaming under +the verandas, to a good hotel declivitously situated, where I at once +inquired if I could get to Green Lake. The landlord said he thought +not; the snow was very deep, and no one had been up for five weeks, but +for my satisfaction he would send to a stable and inquire. The amusing +answer came back, "If it's the English lady traveling in the mountains, +she can have a horse, but not any one else." + + + + +Letter XIII + +The blight of mining--Green Lake--Golden +City--Benighted--Vertigo--Boulder Canyon--Financial straits--A hard +ride--The last cent--A bachelor's home--"Mountain Jim"--A surprise--A +night arrival--Making the best of it--Scanty fare. + +BOULDER, November. + +The answer regarding a horse (at the end of my former letter) was given +to the landlord outside the hotel, and presently he came in and asked +my name and if I were the lady who had crossed from Link's to South +Park by Tarryall Creek; so news travels fast. In five minutes the +horse was at the door, with a clumsy two-horned side-saddle, and I +started at once for the upper regions. It was an exciting ride, much +spiced with apprehension. The evening shadows had darkened over +Georgetown, and I had 2,000 feet to climb, or give up Green Lake. I +shall forget many things, but never the awfulness and hugeness of the +scenery. I went up a steep track by Clear Creek, then a succession of +frozen waterfalls in a widened and then narrowed valley, whose frozen +sides looked 5,000 feet high. That is the region of enormous mineral +wealth in silver. There are the "Terrible" and other mines whose +shares you can see quoted daily in the share lists in the Times, +sometimes at cent per cent premium, and then down to 25 discount. + +These mines, with their prolonged subterranean workings, their stamping +and crushing mills, and the smelting works which have been established +near them, fill the district with noise, hubbub, and smoke by night and +day; but I had turned altogether aside from them into a still region, +where each miner in solitude was grubbing for himself, and confiding to +none his finds or disappointments. Agriculture restores and +beautifies, mining destroys and devastates, turning the earth inside +out, making it hideous, and blighting every green thing, as it usually +blights man's heart and soul. There was mining everywhere along that +grand road, with all its destruction and devastation, its digging, +burrowing, gulching, and sluicing; and up all along the seemingly +inaccessible heights were holes with their roofs log supported, in +which solitary and patient men were selling their lives for treasure. +Down by the stream, all among the icicles, men were sluicing and +washing, and everywhere along the heights were the scars of +hardly-passable trails, too steep even for pack-jacks, leading to the +holes, and down which the miner packs the ore on his back. Many a +heart has been broken for the few finds which have been made along +those hill sides. All the ledges are covered with charred stumps, a +picture of desolation, where nature had made everything grand and fair. +But even from all this I turned. The last miner I saw gave me explicit +directions, and I left the track and struck upwards into the icy +solitudes--sheets of ice at first, then snow, over a foot deep, pure +and powdery, then a very difficult ascent through a pine forest, where +it was nearly dark, the horse tumbling about in deep snowdrifts. But +the goal was reached, and none too soon. + +At a height of nearly 12,000 feet I halted on a steep declivity, and +below me, completely girdled by dense forests of pines, with mountains +red and glorified in the sunset rising above them, was Green Lake, +looking like water, but in reality a sheet of ice two feet thick. From +the gloom and chill below I had come up into the pure air and sunset +light, and the glory of the unprofaned works of God. It brought to my +mind the verse, "The darkness is past, and the true light now shineth"; +and, as if in commentary upon it, were the hundreds and thousands of +men delving in dark holes in the gloom of the twilight below. + + O earth, so full of dreary noises! + O men, with wailing in your voices, + O delved gold, the wailer's heap, + God strikes a silence through you all, + He giveth His beloved sleep. + + +It was something to reach that height and see the far off glory of the +sunset, and by it to be reminded that neither God nor His sun had yet +deserted the world. But the sun was fast going down, and even as I +gazed upon the wonderful vision the glory vanished, and the peaks +became sad and grey. It was strange to be the only human being at that +glacial altitude, and to descend again through a foot of untrodden snow +and over sloping sheets of ice into the darkness, and to see the hill +sides like a firmament of stars, each showing the place where a +solitary man in his hole was delving for silver. The view, as long as +I could see it, was quite awful. It looked as if one could not reach +Georgetown without tumbling down a precipice. Precipices there were in +plenty along the road, skirted with ice to their verge. It was the +only ride which required nerve that I have taken in Colorado, and it +was long after dark when I returned from my exploit. + +I left Georgetown at eight the next morning on the Idaho stage, in +glorious cold. In this dry air it is quite warm if there are only a +few degrees of frost. The sun does not rise in Georgetown till eleven +now; I doubt if it rises there at all in the winter! After four hours' +fearful bouncing, the baggage car again received us, but this time the +conductor, remarking that he supposed I was just traveling to see the +country, gave me his chair and put it on the platform, so that I had an +excellent view of that truly sublime canyon. For economy I dined in a +restaurant in Golden City, and at three remounted my trusty Birdie, +intending to arrive here that night. The adventure I met with is +almost too silly to tell. + +When I left Golden City it was a brilliant summer afternoon, and not +too hot. They could not give any directions at the stable, and told me +to go out on the Denver track till I met some one who could direct me, +which started me off wrong from the first. After riding about two +miles I met a man who told me I was all wrong, and directed me across +the prairie till I met another, who gave me so many directions that I +forgot them, and was irretrievably lost. The afterglow, seen to +perfection on the open plain, was wonderful. Just as it grew dark I +rode after a teamster who said I was then four miles farther from +Boulder than when I left Golden, and directed me to a house seven miles +off. I suppose he thought I should know, for he told me to cross the +prairie till I came to a place where three tracks are seen, and there +to take the best-traveled one, steering all the time by the north star. +His directions did bring me to tracks, but it was then so dark that I +could see nothing, and soon became so dark that I could not even see +Birdie's ears, and was lost and benighted. I rode on, hour after hour, +in the darkness and solitude, the prairie all round and a firmament of +frosty stars overhead. The prairie wolf howled now and then, and +occasionally the lowing of cattle gave me hope of human proximity. But +there was nothing but the lone wild plain. You can hardly imagine the +longing to see a light, to hear a voice, the intensely eerie feeling of +being alone in that vast solitude. It was freezing very sharply and +was very cold, and I was making up my mind to steer all night for the +pole-star, much fearing that I should be brought up by one of the +affluents of the Platte, or that Birdie would tire, when I heard the +undertoned bellowing of a bull, which, from the snorting rooting up of +earth, seemed to be disputing the right of way, and the pony was afraid +to pass. While she was scuffling about, I heard a dog bark and a man +swear; then I saw a light, and in another minute found myself at a +large house, where I knew the people, only eleven miles from Denver! +It was nearly midnight, and light, warmth, and a good bed were truly +welcome. + +You can form no idea of what the glory on the Plains is just before +sunrise. Like the afterglow, for a great height above the horizon +there is a shaded band of the most intense and glowing orange, while +the mountains which reflect the yet unrisen sun have the purple light +of amethysts. I left early, but soon lost the track and was lost; but +knowing that a sublime gash in the mountains was Bear Canyon, quite +near Boulder, I struck across the prairie for it, and then found the +Boulder track. "The best-laid schemes of men and mice gang aft agley," +and my exploits came to an untimely end to-day. On arriving here, +instead of going into the mountains, I was obliged to go to bed in +consequence of vertigo, headache, and faintness, produced by the +intense heat of the sun. In all that weary land there was no "shadow +of a great rock" under which to rest. The gravelly, baked soil +reflected the fiery sun, and it was nearly maddening to look up at the +cool blue of the mountains, with their stretches of pines and their +deep indigo shadows. Boulder is a hideous collection of frame houses +on the burning plain, but it aspires to be a "city" in virtue of being +a "distributing point" for the settlements up the Boulder Canyon, and +of the discovery of a coal seam. + + +LONGMOUNT, November. + +I got up very early this morning, and on a hired horse went nine miles +up the Boulder Canyon, which is much extolled, but I was greatly +disappointed with everything except its superb wagon road, and much +disgusted with the laziness of the horse. A ride of fifteen miles +across the prairie brought me here early in the afternoon, but of the +budget of letters which I expected there is not one. Birdie looks in +such capital condition that my host here can hardly believe that she +has traveled over 500 miles. I am feeling "the pinch of poverty" +rather severely. When I have paid my bill here I shall have exactly +twenty-six cents left. Evans was quite unable to pay the hundred +dollars which he owed me, and, to save themselves, the Denver banks, +though they remain open, have suspended payment, and would not cash my +circular notes. The financial straits are very serious, and the +unreasoning panic which has set in makes them worse. The present state +of matters is--nobody has any money, so nothing is worth anything. The +result to me is that, nolens volens, I must go up to Estes Park, where +I can live without ready money, and remain there till things change for +the better. It does not seem a very hard fate! Long's Peak rises in +purple gloom, and I long for the cool air and unfettered life of the +solitary blue hollow at its base. + + +ESTES PARK, November 20. + +Would that three notes of admiration were all I need give to my grand, +solitary, uplifted, sublime, remote, beast-haunted lair, which seems +more indescribable than ever; but you will wish to know how I have +sped, and I wish you to know my present singular circumstances. I left +Longmount at eight on Saturday morning, rather heavily loaded, for in +addition to my own luggage I was asked to carry the mail-bag, which was +heavy with newspapers. Edwards, with his wife and family, were still +believed to be here. A heavy snow-storm was expected, and all the +sky--that vast dome which spans the Plains--was overcast; but over the +mountains it was a deep, still, sad blue, into which snowy peaks rose +sunlighted. It was a lonely, mournful-looking morning, but when I +reached the beautiful canyon of the St. Vrain, the sad blue became +brilliant, and the sun warm and scintillating. Ah, how beautiful and +incomparable the ride up here is, infinitely more beautiful than the +much-vaunted parts I have seen elsewhere. + +There is, first, this beautiful hill-girdled valley of fair savannas, +through which the bright St. Vrain curves in and out amidst a tangle of +cotton-wood and withered clematis and Virginia creeper, which two +months ago made the valley gay with their scarlet and gold. Then the +canyon, with its fantastically-stained walls; then the long ascent +through sweeping foot hills to the gates of rock at a height of 9,000 +feet; then the wildest and most wonderful scenery for twenty miles, in +which you cross thirteen ranges from 9,000 to 11,000 feet high, pass +through countless canyons and gulches, cross thirteen dark fords, and +finally descend, through M'Ginn's Gulch, upon this, the gem of the +Rocky Mountains. It was a weird ride. I got on very slowly. The road +is a hard one for any horse, specially for a heavily-loaded one, and at +the end of several weeks of severe travel. When I had ridden fifteen +miles I stopped at the ranch where people usually get food, but it was +empty, and the next was also deserted. So I was compelled to go to the +last house, where two young men are "baching." + +There I had to decide between getting a meal for myself or a feed for +the pony; but the young man, on hearing of my sore poverty, trusted me +"till next time." His house, for order and neatness, and a sort of +sprightliness of cleanliness--the comfort of cleanliness without its +severity--is a pattern to all women, while the clear eyes and manly +self-respect which the habit of total abstinence gives in this country +are a pattern to all men. He cooked me a splendid dinner, with good +tea. After dinner I opened the mail-bag, and was delighted to find an +accumulation of letters from you; but I sat much too long there, +forgetting that I had twenty miles to ride, which could hardly be done +in less than six hours. It was then brilliant. I had not realized the +magnificence of that ride when I took it before, but the pony was +tired, and I could not hurry her, and the distance seemed interminable, +as after every range I crossed another range. Then came a region of +deep, dark, densely-wooded gulches, only a few feet wide, and many +fords, and from their cold depths I saw the last sunlight fade from the +brows of precipices 4,000 feet high. It was eerie, as darkness came +on, to wind in and out in the pine-shadowed gloom, sometimes on ice, +sometimes in snow, at the bottom of these tremendous chasms. Wolves +howled in all directions. This is said to denote the approach of a +storm. During this twenty-mile ride I met a hunter with an elk packed +on his horse, and he told me not only that the Edwardses were at the +cabin yesterday, but that they were going to remain for two weeks +longer, no matter how uncongenial. The ride did seem endless after +darkness came on. Finally the last huge range was conquered, the last +deep chasm passed, and with an eeriness which craved for human +companionship, I rode up to "Mountain Jim's" den, but no light shone +through the chinks, and all was silent. So I rode tediously down +M'Ginn's Gulch, which was full of crackings and other strange mountain +noises, and was pitch dark, though the stars were bright overhead. + +Soon I heard the welcome sound of a barking dog. I supposed it to +denote strange hunters, but calling "Ring" at a venture, the noble +dog's large paws and grand head were in a moment on my saddle, and he +greeted me with all those inarticulate but perfectly comprehensible +noises with which dogs welcome their human friends. Of the two men on +horses who accompanied him, one was his master, as I knew by the +musical voice and grace of manner, but it was too dark to see anyone, +though he struck a light to show me the valuable furs with which one of +the horses was loaded. The desperado was heartily glad to see me, and +sending the man and fur-laden horse on to his cabin, he turned with me +to Evans's; and as the cold was very severe, and Birdie was very tired, +we dismounted and walked the remaining three miles. All my visions of +a comfortable reception and good meal after my long ride vanished with +his first words. The Edwardses had left for the winter on the previous +morning, but had not passed through Longmount; the cabin was +dismantled, the stores were low, and two young men, Mr. Kavan, a miner, +and Mr. Buchan, whom I was slightly acquainted with before, were +"baching" there to look after the stock until Evans, who was daily +expected, returned. The other settler and his wife had left the park, +so there was not a woman within twenty-five miles. A fierce wind had +arisen, and the cold was awful, which seemed to make matters darker. I +did not care in the least about myself. I could rough it, and enjoy +doing so, but I was very sorry for the young men, who, I knew, would be +much embarrassed by the sudden appearance of a lady for an indefinite +time. But the difficulty had to be faced, and I walked in and took +them by surprise as they were sitting smoking by the fire in the living +room, which was dismantled, unswept, and wretched looking. + +The young men did not show any annoyance, but exerted themselves to +prepare a meal, and courteously made Jim share it. After he had gone, +I boldly confessed my impecunious circumstances, and told them that I +must stay there till things changed, that I hoped not to inconvenience +them in any way, and that by dividing the work among us they would be +free to be out hunting. So we agreed to make the best of it. (Our +arrangements, which we supposed would last only two or three days, +extended over nearly a month. Nothing could exceed the courtesy and +good feeling which these young men showed. It was a very pleasant time +on the whole and when we separated they told me that though they were +much "taken aback" at first, they felt at last that we could get on in +the same way for a year, in which I cordially agreed.) Sundry practical +difficulties had to be faced and overcome. There was one of the common +spring mattresses of the country in the little room which opened from +the living room, but nothing upon it. This was remedied by making a +large bag and filling it with hay. Then there were neither sheets, +towels, nor table-clothes. This was irremediable, and I never missed +the first or last. Candles were another loss, and we had only one +paraffin lamp. I slept all night in spite of a gale which blew all +Sunday and into Monday afternoon, threatening to lift the cabin from +the ground, and actually removing part of the roof from the little room +between the kitchen and living room, in which we used to dine. Sunday +was brilliant, but nearly a hurricane, and I dared not stir outside the +cabin. The parlor was two inches deep in the mud from the roof. We +nominally divide the cooking. Mr. Kavan makes the best bread I ever +ate; they bring in wood and water, and wash the supper things, and I +"do" my room and the parlor, wash the breakfast things, and number of +etceteras. My room is easily "done," but the parlor is a never-ending +business. I have swept shovelfuls of mud out of it three times to-day. +There is nothing to dust it with but a buffalo's tail, and every now +and then a gust descends the open chimney and drives the wood ashes all +over the room. However, I have found an old shawl which answers for a +table-cloth, and have made our "parlor" look a little more habitable. +Jim came in yesterday in a silent mood, and sat looking vacantly into +the fire. The young men said that this mood was the usual precursor of +an "ugly fit." + +Food is a great difficulty. Of thirty milch cows only one is left, and +she does not give milk enough for us to drink. The only meat is some +pickled pork, very salt and hard, which I cannot eat, and the hens lay +less than one egg a day. Yesterday morning I made some rolls, and made +the last bread into a bread-and-butter pudding, which we all enjoyed. +To-day I found part of a leg of beef hanging in the wagon shed, and we +were elated with the prospect of fresh meat, but on cutting into it we +found it green and uneatable. Had it not been for some tea which was +bestowed upon me at the inn at Longmount we should have had none. In +this superb air and physically active life I can eat everything but +pickled pork. We breakfast about nine, dine at two, and have supper at +seven, but our MENU never varies. + +To-day I have been all alone in the park, as the men left to hunt elk +after breakfast, after bringing in wood and water. The sky is +brilliant and the light intense, or else the solitude would be +oppressive. I keep two horses in the corral so as to be able to +explore, but except Birdie, who is turned out, none of the animals are +worth much now from want of shoes, and tender feet. + + + + +Letter XIV + +A dismal ride--A desperado's tale--"Lost! Lost! Lost!"--Winter +glories--Solitude--Hard times--Intense cold--A pack of wolves--The +beaver dams--Ghastly scenes--Venison steaks--Our evenings. + +ESTES PARK. + +I must attempt to put down the trifling events of each day just as they +occur. The second time that I was left alone Mr. Nugent came in +looking very black, and asked me to ride with him to see the beaver +dams on the Black Canyon. No more whistling or singing, or talking to +his beautiful mare, or sparkling repartee. + +His mood was as dark as the sky overhead, which was black with an +impending snowstorm. He was quite silent, struck his horse often, +started off on a furious gallop, and then throwing his mare on her +haunches close to me, said, "You're the first man or woman who's +treated me like a human being for many a year." So he said in this +dark mood, but Mr. and Mrs. Dewy, who took a very deep interest in his +welfare, always treated him as a rational, intelligent gentleman, and +in his better moments he spoke of them with the warmest appreciation. +"If you want to know," he continued, "how nearly a man can become a +devil, I'll tell you now." There was no choice, and we rode up the +canyon, and I listened to one of the darkest tales of ruin I have ever +heard or read. + +Its early features were very simple. His father was a British officer +quartered at Montreal, of a good old Irish family. From his account he +was an ungovernable boy, imperfectly educated, and tyrannizing over a +loving but weak mother. When seventeen years old he saw a young girl +at church whose appearance he described as being of angelic beauty, and +fell in love with her with all the intensity of an uncontrolled nature. +He saw her three times, but scarcely spoke to her. On his mother +opposing his wish and treating it as a boyish folly, he took to drink +"to spite her," and almost as soon as he was eighteen, maddened by the +girl's death, he ran away from home, entered the service of the +Hudson's Bay Company, and remained in it for several years, only +leaving it because he found even that lawless life too strict for him. +Then, being as I suppose about twenty-seven, he entered the service of +the United States Government, and became one of the famous Indian +scouts of the Plains, distinguishing himself by some of the most daring +deeds on record, and some of the bloodiest crimes. Some of these tales +I have heard before, but never so terribly told. Years must have +passed in that service, till he became a character known through all +the West, and much dreaded for his readiness to take offence, and his +equal readiness with his revolver. Vain, even in his dark mood, he +told me that he was idolized by women, and that in his worst hours he +was always chivalrous to good women. He described himself as riding +through camps in his scout's dress with a red scarf round his waist, +and sixteen golden curls, eighteen inches long, hanging over his +shoulders. The handsome, even superbly handsome, side of his face was +towards me as he spoke. As a scout and as an armed escort of emigrant +parties he was evidently implicated in all the blood and broil of a +lawless region and period, and went from bad to worse, varying his life +by drunken sprees, which brought nothing but violence and loss. + +The narrative seemed to lack some link, for I next found him on a +homestead in Missouri, from whence he came to Colorado a few years ago. +There, again, something was dropped out, but I suspect, and not without +reason, that he joined one or more of those gangs of "border ruffians" +which for so long raided through Kansas, perpetrating such massacres +and outrages as that of the Marais du Cygne. His fame for violence and +ruffianism preceded him into Colorado, where his knowledge of and love +of the mountains have earned him the sobriquet he now bears. He has a +squatter's claim and forty head of cattle, and is a successful trapper +besides, but envy and vindictiveness are raging within him. He gets +money, goes to Denver, and spends large sums in the maddest +dissipation, making himself a terror, and going beyond even such +desperadoes as "Texas Jack" and "Wild Bill"; and when the money is done +returns to his mountain den, full of hatred and self-scorn, till the +next time. Of course I cannot give details. + +The story took three hours to tell, and was crowded with terrific +illustrations of a desperado's career, told with a rush of wild +eloquence that was truly thrilling. + +When the snow, which for some time had been falling, compelled him to +break off and guide me to a sheltered place from which I could make my +own way back again, he stopped his horse and said, "Now you see a man +who has made a devil of himself! Lost! Lost! Lost! I believe in +God. I've given Him no choice but to put me with 'the devil and his +angel.' I'm afraid to die. You've stirred the better nature in me too +late. I can't change. If ever a man were a slave, I am. Don't speak +to me of repentance and reformation. I can't reform. Your voice +reminded me of -----." Then in feverish tones, "How dare you ride with +me? You won't speak to me again, will you?" He made me promise to +keep one or two things secret whether he were living or dead, and I +promised, for I had no choice; but they come between me and the +sunshine sometimes, and I wake at night to think of them. I wish I had +been spared the regret and excitement of that afternoon. A less +ungovernable nature would never have spoken as he did, nor told me what +he did; but his proud, fierce soul all poured itself out then, with +hatred and self-loathing, blood on his hands and murder in his heart, +though even then he could not be altogether other than a gentleman, or +altogether divest himself of fascination, even when so tempestuously +revealing the darkest points of his character. My soul dissolved in +pity for his dark, lost, self-ruined life, as he left me and turned +away in the blinding storm to the Snowy Range, where he said he was +going to camp out for a fortnight; a man of great abilities, real +genius, singular gifts, and with all the chances in life which other +men have had. How far more terrible than the "Actum est: periisti" of +Cowper is his exclamation, "Lost! Lost! Lost!" + +The storm was very severe, and the landmarks being blotted out, I lost +my way in the snow, and when I reached the cabin after dark I found it +still empty, for the two hunters, on returning, finding that I had gone +out, had gone in search of me. The snow cleared off late, and intense +frost set in. My room is nearly the open air, being built of unchinked +logs, and, as in the open air, one requires to sleep with the head +buried in blankets, or the eyelids and breath freeze. The sunshine has +been brilliant to-day. I took a most beautiful ride to Black Canyon to +look for the horses. Every day some new beauty, or effect of snow and +light, is to be seen. Nothing that I have seen in Colorado compares +with Estes Park; and now that the weather is magnificent, and the +mountain tops above the pine woods are pure white, there is nothing of +beauty or grandeur for which the heart can wish that is not here; and +it is health giving, with pure air, pure water, and absolute dryness. +But there is something very solemn, at times almost overwhelming, in +the winter solitude. I have never experienced anything like it even +when I lived on the slopes of Hualalai. When the men are out hunting I +know not where, or at night, when storms sweep down from Long's Peak, +and the air is full of stinging, tempest-driven snow, and there is +barely a probability of any one coming, or of my communication with the +world at all, then the stupendous mountain ranges which lie between us +and the Plains grow in height till they become impassable barriers, and +the bridgeless rivers grow in depth, and I wonder if all my life is to +be spent here in washing and sweeping and baking. + +To-day has been one of manual labor. We did not breakfast till 9:30, +then the men went out, and I never sat down till two. I cleaned the +living room and the kitchen, swept a path through the rubbish in the +passage room, washed up, made and baked a batch of rolls and four +pounds of sweet biscuits, cleaned some tins and pans, washed some +clothes, and gave things generally a "redding up." There is a little +thick buttermilk, fully six weeks old, at the bottom of a churn, which +I use for raising the rolls; but Mr. Kavan, who makes "lovely" bread, +puts some flour and water to turn sour near the stove, and this +succeeds admirably. + +I also made a most unsatisfactory investigation into the state of my +apparel. I came to Colorado now nearly three months ago, with a small +carpet-bag containing clothes, none of them new; and these, by +legitimate wear, the depredations of calves, and the necessity of +tearing some of them up for dish-cloths, are reduced to a single +change! I have a solitary pocket handkerchief and one pair of +stockings, such a mass of darns that hardly a trace of the original +wool remains. Owing to my inability to get money in Denver I am almost +without shoes, have nothing but a pair of slippers and some "arctics." +For outer garments--well, I have a trained black silk dress, with a +black silk polonaise! and nothing else but my old flannel riding suit, +which is quite threadbare, and requires such frequent mending that I am +sometimes obliged to "dress" for supper, and patch and darn it during +the evening. You will laugh, but it is singular that one can face the +bitter winds with the mercury at zero and below it, in exactly the same +clothing which I wore in the tropics! It is only the extreme dryness +of the air which renders it possible to live in such clothing. We have +arranged the work better. Mr. Buchan was doing too much, and it was +hard for him, as he is very delicate. You will wonder how three people +here in the wilderness can have much to do. There are the horses which +we keep in the corral to feed on sheaf oats and take to water twice a +day, the fowls and dogs to feed, the cow to milk, the bread to make, +and to keep a general knowledge of the whereabouts of the stock in the +event of a severe snow-storm coming on. Then there is all the wood to +cut, as there is no wood pile, and we burn a great deal, and besides +the cooking, washing, and mending, which each one does, the men must +hunt and fish for their living. Then two sick cows have had to be +attended to. + +We were with one when it died yesterday. It suffered terribly, and +looked at us with the pathetically pleading eyes of a creature "made +subject to vanity." The disposal of its carcass was a difficulty. The +wagon horses were in Denver, and when we tried to get the others to +pull the dead beast away, they only kicked and plunged, so we managed +to get it outside the shed, and according to Mr. Kavan's prediction, a +pack of wolves came down, and before daylight nothing was left but the +bones. They were so close to the cabin that their noise was most +disturbing, and on looking out several times I could see them all in a +heap wrangling and tumbling over each other. They are much larger than +the prairie wolf, but equally cowardly, I believe. This morning was +black with clouds, and a snowstorm was threatened, and about 700 cattle +and a number of horses came in long files from the valleys and canyons +where they maraud, their instinct teaching them to seek the open and +the protection of man. + +I was alone in the cabin this afternoon when Mr. Nugent, whom we +believed to be on the Snowy Range, walked in very pale and haggard +looking, and coughing severely. He offered to show me the trail up one +of the grandest of the canyons, and I could not refuse to go. The Fall +River has had its source completely altered by the operations of the +beavers. Their engineering skill is wonderful. In one place they have +made a lake by damming up the stream; in another their works have +created an island, and they have made several falls. Their +storehouses, of course, are carefully concealed. By this time they are +about full for the winter. We saw quantities of young cotton-wood and +aspen trees, with stems about as thick as my arm, lying where these +industrious creatures have felled them ready for their use. They +always work at night and in concert. Their long, sharp teeth are used +for gnawing down the trees, but their mason-work is done entirely with +their flat, trowel-like tails. In its natural state the fur is very +durable, and is as full of long black hairs as that of the sable, but +as sold, all these hairs have been plucked out of it. + +The canyon was glorious, ah! glorious beyond any other, but it was a +dismal and depressing ride. The dead past buried its dead. + +Not an allusion was made to the conversation previously. "Jim's" +manner was courteous, but freezing, and when I left home on my return +he said he hardly thought he should be back from the Snowy Range before +I left. Essentially an actor, was he, I wonder, posing on the previous +day in the attitude of desperate remorse, to impose on my credulity or +frighten me; or was it a genuine and unpremeditated outburst of +passionate regret for the life which he had thrown away? I cannot +tell, but I think it was the last. As I cautiously rode back, the +sunset glories were reddening the mountain tops, and the park lay in +violet gloom. It was wonderfully magnificent, but oh, so solemn, so +lonely! I rode a very large, well-bred mare, with three shoes loose +and one off, and she fell with me twice and was very clumsy in crossing +the Thompson, which was partly ice and partly a deep ford, but when we +reached comparatively level grassy ground I had a gallop of nearly two +miles which I enjoyed thoroughly, her great swinging stride being so +easy and exhilarating after Birdie's short action. + + +Friday. + +This is a piteous day, quite black, freezing hard, and with a fierce +north-east wind. The absence of sunshine here, where it is nearly +perpetual, has a very depressing effect, and all the scenery appears in +its grimness of black and gray. We have lost three horses, including +Birdie, and have nothing to entice them with, and not an animal to go +and drive them in with. I put my great mare in the corral myself, and +Mr. Kavan put his in afterwards and secured the bars, but the wolves +were holding a carnival again last night, and we think that the horses +were scared and stampeded, as otherwise they would not have leaped the +fence. The men are losing their whole day in looking for them. On +their return they said that they had seen Mr. Nugent returning to his +cabin by the other side and the lower ford of the Thompson, and that he +had "an awfully ugly fit on him," so that they were glad that he did +not come near us. The evening is setting in sublime in its blackness. +Late in the afternoon I caught a horse which was snuffing at the sheaf +oats, and had a splendid gallop on the Longmount trail with the two +great hunting dogs. In returning, in the grimness of the coming storm, +I had that view of the park which I saw first in the glories of an +autumn sunset. Life was all dead; the dragon-flies no longer darted in +the sunshine, the cotton-woods had shed their last amber leaves, the +crimson trailers of the wild vines were bare, the stream itself had +ceased its tinkle and was numb in fetters of ice, a few withered flower +stalks only told of the brief bright glory of the summer. The park +never had looked so utterly walled in; it was fearful in its +loneliness, the ghastliest of white peaks lay sharply outlined against +the black snow clouds, the bright river was ice bound, the pines were +all black, the world was absolutely shut out. How can you expect me to +write letters from such a place, from a life "in which nothing +happens"? It really is strange that neither Evans nor Edwards come +back. The young men are grumbling, for they were asked to stay here +for five days, and they have been here five weeks, and they are anxious +to be away camping out for the hunting, on which they depend. There +are two calves dying, and we don't know what to do for them; and if a +very severe snow-storm comes on, we can't bring in and feed eight +hundred head of cattle. + + +Saturday. + +The snow began to fall early this morning, and as it is unaccompanied +by wind we have the novel spectacle of a smooth white world; still it +does not look like anything serious. We have been gradually growing +later at night and later in the morning. To-day we did not breakfast +till ten. We have been becoming so disgusted with the pickled pork, +that we were glad to find it just at an end yesterday, even though we +were left without meat for which in this climate the system craves. +You can fancy my surprise, on going into the kitchen, to find a dish of +smoking steaks of venison on the table. We ate like famished people, +and enjoyed our meal thoroughly. Just before I came the young men had +shot an elk, which they intended to sell in Denver, and the grand +carcass, with great branching antlers, hung outside the shed. Often +while vainly trying to swallow some pickled pork I had looked across to +the tantalizing animal, but it was not to be thought of. However, this +morning, as the young men felt the pinch of hunger even more than I +did, and the prospects of packing it to Denver became worse, they +decided on cutting into one side, so we shall luxuriate in venison +while it lasts. We think that Edwards will surely be up to-night, but +unless he brings supplies our case is looking serious. The flour is +running low, there is only coffee for one week, and I have only a +scanty three ounces of tea left. The baking powder is nearly at an +end. We have agreed to economize by breakfasting very late, and having +two meals a day instead of three. The young men went out hunting as +usual, and I went out and found Birdie, and on her brought in four +other horses, but the snow balled so badly that I went out and walked +across the river on a very passable ice bridge, and got some new views +of the unique grandeur of this place. + +Our evenings are social and pleasant. We finish supper about eight, +and make up a huge fire. The men smoke while I write to you. Then we +draw near the fire and I take my endless mending, and we talk or read +aloud. Both are very intelligent, and Mr. Buchan has very extended +information and a good deal of insight into character. Of course our +circumstances, the likelihood of release, the prospects of snow +blocking us in and of our supplies holding out, the sick calves, +"Jim's" mood, the possible intentions of a man whose footprints we have +found and traced for three miles, are all topics that often recur, and +few of which can be worn threadbare. + + + + +Letter XV + +A whisky slave--The pleasures of monotony--The mountain lion--"Another +mouth to feed"--A tiresome boy--An outcast--Thanksgiving Day--The +newcomer--A literary humbug--Milking a dry cow--Trout-fishing--A +snow-storm--A desperado's den. + +ESTES PARK, Sunday. + +A trapper passing last night brought us the news that Mr. Nugent is +ill; so, after washing up the things after our late breakfast, I rode +to his cabin, but I met him in the gulch coming down to see us. He +said he had caught cold on the Range, and was suffering from an old +arrow wound in the lung. We had a long conversation without adverting +to the former one, and he told me some of the present circumstances of +his ruined life. It is piteous that a man like him, in the prime of +life, should be destitute of home and love, and live a life of darkness +in a den with no companions but guilty memories, and a dog which many +people think is the nobler animal of the two. I urged him to give up +the whisky which at present is his ruin, and his answer had the ring of +a sad truth in it: "I cannot, it binds me hand and foot--I cannot give +up the only pleasure I have." His ideas of right are the queerest +possible. He says that he believes in God, but what he knows or +believes of God's law I know not. To resent insult with your revolver, +to revenge yourself on those who have injured you, to be true to a +comrade and share your last crust with him, to be chivalrous to good +women, to be generous and hospitable, and at the last to die +game--these are the articles of his creed, and I suppose they are +received by men of his stamp. He hates Evans with a bitter hatred, and +Evans returns it, having undergone much provocation from Jim in his +moods of lawlessness and violence, and being not a little envious of +the fascination which his manners and conversation have for the +strangers who come up here. + +On returning down the gulch the view was grander than I have ever seen +it, the gulch in dark shadow, the park below lying in intense sunlight, +with all the majestic canyons which sweep down upon it in depths of +infinite blue gloom, and above, the pearly peaks, dazzling in purity +and glorious in form, cleft the turquoise blue of the sky. How shall I +ever leave this "land which is very far off"? How CAN I ever leave it? +is the real question. We are going on the principle, "Let us eat and +drink, for to-morrow we die," and the stores are melting away. The two +meals are not an economical plan, for we are so much more hungry that +we eat more than when we had three. We had a good deal of sacred music +to-day, to make it as like Sunday as possible. The "faint melancholy" +of this winter loneliness is very fascinating. + +How glorious the amber fires of the winter dawns are, and how +gloriously to-night the crimson clouds descended just to the mountain +tops and were reflected on the pure surface of the snow! + +The door of this room looks due north, and as I write the Pole Star +blazes, and a cold crescent moon hangs over the ghastliness of Long's +Peak. + + +ESTES PARK, COLORADO, November. + +We have lost count of time, and can only agree on the fact that the +date is somewhere near the end of November. Our life has settled down +into serenity, and our singular and enforced partnership is very +pleasant. We might be three men living together, but for the unvarying +courtesy and consideration which they show to me. Our work goes on +like clockwork; the only difficulty which ever arises is that the men +do not like me to do anything that they think hard or unsuitable, such +as saddling a horse or bringing in water. The days go very fast; it +was 3:30 today before I knew that it was 1. It is a calm life without +worries. The men are so easy to live with; they never fuss, or +grumble, or sigh, or make a trouble of anything. It would amuse you to +come into our wretched little kitchen before our disgracefully late +breakfast, and find Mr. Kavan busy at the stove frying venison, myself +washing the supper dishes, and Mr. Buchan drying them, or both the men +busy at the stove while I sweep the floor. Our food is a great object +of interest to us, and we are ravenously hungry now that we have only +two meals a day. About sundown each goes forth to his "chores"--Mr. K. +to chop wood, Mr. B. to haul water, I to wash the milk pans and water +the horses. On Saturday the men shot a deer, and on going for it +to-day they found nothing but the hind legs, and following a track +which they expected would lead them to a beast's hole, they came quite +carelessly upon a large mountain lion, which, however, took itself out +of their reach before they were sufficiently recovered from their +surprise to fire at it. These lions, which are really a species of +puma, are bloodthirsty as well as cowardly. Lately one got into a +sheepfold in the canyon of the St. Vrain, and killed thirty sheep, +sucking the blood from their throats. + + +November ? + +This has been a day of minor events, as well as a busy one. I was so +busy that I never sat down from 10:30 till 1:30. I had washed my one +change of raiment, and though I never iron my clothes, I like to bleach +them till they are as white as snow, and they were whitening on the +line when some furious gusts came down from Long's Peak, against which +I could not stand, and when I did get out all my clothes were blown +into strips from an inch to four inches in width, literally destroyed! +One learns how very little is necessary either for comfort or +happiness. I made a four-pound spiced ginger cake, baked some bread, +mended my riding dress, cleaned up generally, wrote some letters with +the hope that some day they might be posted and took a magnificent +walk, reaching the cabin again in the melancholy glory which now +immediately precedes the darkness. + +We were all busy getting our supper ready when the dogs began to bark +furiously, and we heard the noise of horses. "Evans at last!" we +exclaimed, but we were wrong. Mr. Kavan went out, and returned saying +that it was a young man who had come up with Evans's wagon and team, +and that the wagon had gone over into a gulch seven miles from here. +Mr. Kavan looked very grave. "It's another mouth to feed," he said. +They asked no questions, and brought the lad in, a slangy, assured +fellow of twenty, who, having fallen into delicate health at a +theological college, had been sent up here by Evans to work for his +board. The men were too courteous to ask him what he was doing up +here, but I boldly asked him where he lived, and to our dismay he +replied, "I've come to live here." We discussed the food question +gravely, as it presented a real difficulty. We put him into a +bed-closet opening from the kitchen, and decided to see what he was fit +for before giving him work. We were very much amazed, in truth, at his +coming here. He is evidently a shallow, arrogant youth. + +We have decided that to-day is November 26th; to-morrow is Thanksgiving +Day, and we are planning a feast, though Mr. K. said to me again this +morning, with a doleful face, "You see there's another mouth to feed." +This "mouth" has come up to try the panacea of manual labor, but he is +town bred, and I see that he will do nothing. He is writing poetry, +and while I was busy to-day began to read it aloud to me, asking for my +criticism. He is just at the age when everything literary has a +fascination, and every literary person is a hero, specially Dr. +Holland. Last night was fearful from the lifting of the cabin and the +breaking of the mud from the roof. We sat with fine gravel driving in +our faces, and this morning I carried four shovelfuls of mud out of my +room. After breakfast, Mr. Kavan, Mr. Lyman, and I, with the two wagon +horses, rode the seven miles to the scene of yesterday's disaster in a +perfect gale of wind. I felt like a servant going out for a day's +"pleasuring," hurrying "through my dishes," and leaving my room in +disorder. The wagon lay half-way down the side of a ravine, kept from +destruction by having caught on some trees. + +It was too cold to hang about while the men hauled it up and fixed it, +so I went slowly back, encountering Mr. Nugent in a most bitter +mood--almost in an "ugly fit"--hating everybody, and contrasting his +own generosity and reckless kindness with the selfishness and +carefully-weighed kindnesses of others. People do give him credit for +having "as kind a heart as ever beat." Lately a child in the other +cabin was taken ill, and though there were idle men and horses at hand, +it was only the "desperado" who rode sixty miles in "the shortest time +ever made" to bring the doctor. While we were talking he was sitting +on a stone outside his den mending a saddle, shins, bones, and skulls +lying about him, "Ring" watching him with jealous and idolatrous +affection, the wind lifting his thin curls from as grand a head as was +ever modeled--a ruin of a man. Yet the sun which shines "on the evil +and the good" was lighting up the gold of his hair. May our Father +which is in heaven yet show mercy to His outcast child! + +Mr. Kavan soon overtook me, and we had an exciting race of two miles, +getting home just before the wind fell and the snow began. + +Thanksgiving Day. The thing dreaded has come at last, a snow-storm, +with a north-east wind. It ceased about midnight, but not till it had +covered my bed. Then the mercury fell below zero, and everything +froze. I melted a tin of water for washing by the fire, but it was +hard frozen before I could use it. My hair, which was thoroughly wet +with the thawed snow of yesterday, is hard frozen in plaits. The milk +and treacle are like rock, the eggs have to be kept on the coolest part +of the stove to keep them fluid. Two calves in the shed were frozen to +death. Half our floor is deep in snow, and it is so cold that we +cannot open the door to shovel it out. The snow began again at eight +this morning, very fine and hard. It blows in through the chinks and +dusts this letter while I write. Mr. Kavan keeps my ink bottle close +to the fire, and hands it to me every time that I need to dip my pen. +We have a huge fire, but cannot raise the temperature above 20 degrees. +Ever since I returned the lake has been hard enough to bear a wagon, +but to-day it is difficult to keep the water hole open by the constant +use of the axe. The snow may either melt or block us in. Our only +anxiety is about the supplies. We have tea and coffee enough to last +over to-morrow, the sugar is just done, and the flour is getting low. +It is really serious that we have "another mouth to feed," and the +newcomer is a ravenous creature, eating more than the three of us. It +dismays me to see his hungry eyes gauging the supply at breakfast, and +to see the loaf disappear. He told me this morning that he could eat +the whole of what was on the table. He is mad after food, and I see +that Mr. K. is starving himself to make it hold out. Mr. Buchan is +very far from well, and dreads the prospect of "half rations." All +this sounds laughable, but we shall not laugh if we have to look hunger +in the face! Now in the evening the snow clouds, which have blotted +out all things, are lifting, and the winter scene is wonderful. The +mercury is 5 degrees below zero, and the aurora is glorious. In my +unchinked room the mercury is 1 degrees below zero. Mr. Buchan can +hardly get his breath; the dryness is intense. We spent the afternoon +cooking the Thanksgiving dinner. I made a wonderful pudding, for which +I had saved eggs and cream for days, and dried and stoned cherries +supplied the place of currants. I made a bowl of custard for sauce, +which the men said was "splendid"; also a rolled pudding, with +molasses; and we had venison steak and potatoes, but for tea we were +obliged to use the tea leaves of the morning again. I should think +that few people in America have enjoyed their Thanksgiving dinner more. +We had urged Mr. Nugent to join us, but he refused, almost savagely, +which we regretted. My four-pound cake made yesterday is all gone! +This wretched boy confesses that he was so hungry in the night that he +got up and ate nearly half of it. He is trying to cajole me into +making another. + + +November 29. + +Before the boy came I had mistaken some faded cayenne pepper for +ginger, and had made a cake with it. Last evening I put half of it +into the cupboard and left the door open. During the night we heard a +commotion in the kitchen and much choking, coughing, and groaning, and +at breakfast the boy was unable to swallow food with his usual +ravenousness. After breakfast he came to me whimpering, and asking for +something soothing for his throat, admitting that he had seen the +"gingerbread," and "felt so starved" in the night that he got up to eat +it. + +I tried to make him feel that it was "real mean" to eat so much and be +so useless, and he said he would do anything to help me, but the men +were so "down on him." I never saw men so patient with a lad before. +He is a most vexing addition to our party, yet one cannot help laughing +at him. He is not honorable, though. I dare not leave this letter +lying on the table, as he would read it. He writes for two Western +periodicals (at least he says so), and he shows us long pieces of his +published poetry. + +In one there are twenty lines copied (as Mr. Kavan has shown me) +without alteration from Paradise Lost; in another there are two stanzas +from Resignation, with only the alteration of "stray" for "dead"; and +he has passed the whole of Bonar's Meeting-place off as his own. +Again, he lent me an essay by himself, called The Function of the +Novelist, which is nothing but a mosaic of unacknowledged quotations. +The men tell me that he has "bragged" to them that on his way here he +took shelter in Mr. Nugent's cabin, found out where he hides his key, +opened his box, and read his letters and MSS. He is a perfect plague +with his ignorance and SELF-sufficiency. The first day after he came +while I was washing up the breakfast things he told me that he intended +to do all the dirty work, so I left the knives and forks in the tub and +asked him to wipe and lay them aside. Two hours afterwards I found +them untouched. Again the men went out hunting, and he said he would +chop the wood for several days' use, and after a few strokes, which +were only successful in chipping off some shavings, he came in and +strummed on the harmonium, leaving me without any wood with which to +make the fire for supper. He talked about his skill with the lasso, +but could not even catch one of our quietest horses. Worse than all, +he does not know one cow from another. Two days ago he lost our milch +cow in driving her in to be milked, and Mr. Kavan lost hours of +valuable time in hunting for her without success. To-day he told us +triumphantly that he had found her, and he was sent out to milk her. +After two hours he returned with a rueful face and a few drops of +whitish fluid in the milk pail, saying that that was all he could get. +On Mr. K. going out, he found, instead of our "calico" cow, a brindled +one that had been dry since the spring! Our cow has gone off to the +wild cattle, and we are looking very grim at Lyman, who says that he +expected he should live on milk. I told him to fill up the four-gallon +kettle, and an hour afterwards found it red-hot on the stove. Nothing +can be kept from him unless it is hidden in my room. He has eaten two +pounds of dried cherries from the shelf, half of my second four-pound +spice loaf before it was cold, licked up my custard sauce in the night, +and privately devoured the pudding which was to be for supper. He +confesses to it all, and says, "I suppose you think me a cure." Mr. K. +says that the first thing he said to him this morning was, "Will Miss +B. make us a nice pudding to-day?" This is all harmless, but the +plagiarism and want of honor are disgusting, and quite out of keeping +with his profession of being a theological student. + +This life is in some respects like being on board ship--there are no +mails, and one knows nothing beyond one's little world, a very little +one in this case. We find each other true, and have learnt to esteem +and trust each other. I should, for instance, go out of this room +leaving this book open on the table, knowing that the men would not +read my letter. They are discreet, reticent, observant, and on many +subjects well informed, but they are of a type which has no antitype at +home. All women work in this region, so there is no fuss about my +working, or saying, "Oh, you mustn't do that," or "Oh, let me do that." + + +November 30. + +We sat up till eleven last night, so confident were we that Edwards +would leave Denver the day after Thanksgiving and get up here. This +morning we came to the resolution that we must break up. Tea, coffee, +and sugar are done, the venison is turning sour, and the men have only +one month left for the hunting on which their winter living depends. I +cannot leave the Territory till I get money, but I can go to Longmount +for the mail and hear whether the panic is abating. Yesterday I was +alone all day, and after riding to the base of Long's Peak, made two +roly-poly puddings for supper, having nothing else. The men, however, +came back perfectly loaded with trout, and we had a feast. Epicures at +home would have envied us. Mr. Kavan kept the frying pan with boiling +butter on the stove, butter enough thoroughly to cover the trout, +rolled them in coarse corn meal, plunged them into the butter, turned +them once, and took them out, thoroughly done, fizzing, and lemon +colored. For once young Lyman was satisfied, for the dish was +replenished as often as it was emptied. They caught 40 lbs., and have +packed them in ice until they can be sent to Denver for sale. The +winter fishing is very rich. In the hardest frost, men who fish not +for sport, but gain, take their axes and camping blankets, and go up to +the hard-frozen waters which lie in fifty places round the park, and +choosing a likely spot, a little sheltered from the wind, hack a hole +in the ice, and fastening a foot-link to a cotton-wood tree, bait the +hook with maggots or bits of easily-gotten fresh meat. Often the trout +are caught as fast as the hook can be baited, and looking through the +ice hole in the track of a sunbeam, you see a mass of tails, silver +fins, bright eyes, and crimson spots, a perfect shoal of fish, and +truly beautiful the crimson-spotted creatures look, lying still and +dead on the blue ice under the sunshine. Sometimes two men bring home +60 lbs. of trout as the result of one day's winter fishing. It is a +cold and silent sport, however. + +How a cook at home would despise our scanty appliances, with which we +turn out luxuries. We have only a cooking-stove, which requires +incessant feeding with wood, a kettle, a frying pan, a six-gallon brass +pan, and a bottle for a rolling pin. The cold has been very severe, +but I do not suffer from it even in my insufficient clothing. I take a +piece of granite made very hot to bed, draw the blankets over my head +and sleep eight hours, though the snow often covers me. One day of +snow, mist, and darkness was rather depressing, and yesterday a +hurricane began about five in the morning, and the whole park was one +swirl of drifting snow, like stinging wood smoke. My bed and room were +white, and the frost was so intense that water brought in a kettle hot +from the fire froze as I poured it into the basin. Then the snow +ceased, and a fierce wind blew most of it out of the park, lifting it +from the mountains in such clouds as to make Long's Peak look like a +smoking volcano. To-day the sky has resumed its delicious blue, and +the park its unrivalled beauty. I have cleaned all the windows, which, +ever since I have been here, I supposed were of discolored glass, so +opaque and dirty they were; and when the men came home from fishing +they found a cheerful new world. We had a great deal of sacred music +and singing on Sunday. Mr. Buchan asked me if I knew a tune called +"America," and began the grand roll of our National Anthem to the words: + + My country, 'tis of thee, + Sweet land of liberty, etc. + + +December 1. + +I was to have started for Canyon to-day, but was awoke by snow as +stinging as pinpoints beating on my hand. We all got up early, but it +did not improve until nearly noon. In the afternoon Lyman and I rode +to Mr. Nugent's cabin. I wanted him to read and correct my letter to +you, giving the account of our ascent of Long's Peak, but he said he +could not, and insisted on our going in for which young Lyman was more +anxious than I was, as Mr. Kavan had seen "Jim" in the morning, and +departed from his usual reticence so far as to say, "There's something +wrong with that man; he'll either shoot himself or somebody else." +However, the "ugly fit" had passed off, and he was so very pleasant and +courteous that we remained the whole afternoon. Lyman's one thought +was that he could make capital out of the interview, and write an +account of the celebrated desperado for a Western paper. + +The interior of the den was frightful, yet among his black and hideous +surroundings the grace of his manner and the genius of his conversation +were only more apparent. I read my letter aloud--or rather "The Ascent +of Long's Peak," which I have written for Out West--and was sincerely +interested with the taste and acumen of his criticisms on the style. +He is a true child of nature; his eye brightened and his whole face +became radiant, and at last tears rolled down his cheek when I read the +account of the glory of the sunrise. Then he read us a very able paper +on Spiritualism which he was writing. The den was dense with smoke, +and very dark, littered with hay, old blankets, skins, bones, tins, +logs, powder flasks, magazines, old books, old moccasins, horseshoes, +and relics of all kinds. He had no better seat to offer me than a log, +but offered it with a graceful unconsciousness that it was anything +less luxurious than an easy chair. Two valuable rifles and a Sharp's +revolver hung on the wall, and the sash and badge of a scout. I could +not help looking at "Jim" as he stood talking to me. He goes mad with +drink at times, swears fearfully, has an ungovernable temper. He has +formerly led a desperate life, and is at times even now undoubtedly a +ruffian. There is hardly a fireside in Colorado where fearful stories +of him as an Indian fighter are not told; mothers frighten their +naughty children by telling them that "Mountain Jim" will get them, and +doubtless his faults are glaring, but he is undoubtedly fascinating, +and enjoys a popularity or notoriety which no other person has. He +offered to be my guide to the Plains when I go away. Lyman asked me if +I should not be afraid of being murdered, but one could not be safer +than with him I have often been told. + +The cold was truly awful. I had caught a chill in the morning from +putting on my clothes before they were dry, and the warmth of the smoky +den was most agreeable; but we had a fearful ride back in the dusk, a +gale nearly blowing us off our horses, drifting snow nearly blinding +us, and the mercury below zero. I felt as if I were going to be laid +up with a severe cold, but the men suggested a trapper's remedy--a +tumbler of hot water, with a pinch of cayenne pepper in it--which +proved a very rapid cure. They kindly say that if the snow detains me +here they also will remain. They tell me that they were horrified when +I arrived, as they thought that they could not make me comfortable, and +that I had never been used to do anything for myself, and then we +complimented each other all round. To-morrow, weather permitting, I +set off for a ride of 100 miles, and my next letter will be my last +from the Rocky Mountains. + + I. L. B. + + + + +Letter XVI + +A harmonious home--Intense cold--A purple sun--A grim jest--A perilous +ride--Frozen eyelids--Longmount--The pathless prairie--Hardships of +emigrant life--A trapper's advice--The Little Thompson--Evans and "Jim." + +DR. HUGHES'S, LOWER CANYON, COLORADO, December 4. + +Once again here, in refined and cultured society, with harmonious +voices about me, and dear, sweet, loving children whose winning ways +make this cabin a true English home. "England, with all thy faults, I +love thee still!" I can truly say, + + Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see. + My heart, untraveled, fondly turns to thee. + +If it swerved a little in the Sandwich Islands, it is true to the Pole +now! Surely one advantage of traveling is that, while it removes much +prejudice against foreigners and their customs, it intensifies tenfold +one's appreciation of the good at home, and, above all, of the +quietness and purity of English domestic life. These reflections are +forced upon me by the sweet child-voices about me, and by the exquisite +consideration and tenderness which are the atmosphere (some would call +it the hothouse atmosphere) of this house. But with the bare, hard +life, and the bare, bleak mountains around, who could find fault with +even a hothouse atmosphere, if it can nourish such a flower of Paradise +as sacred human love? + +The mercury is eleven degrees below zero, and I have to keep my ink on +the stove to prevent it from freezing. The cold is intense--a clear, +brilliant, stimulating cold, so dry that even in my threadbare flannel +riding dress I do not suffer from it. I must now take up my narrative +of the nothings which have all the interest of SOMETHINGS to me. We +all got up before daybreak on Tuesday, and breakfasted at seven. I +have not seen the dawn for some time, with its amber fires deepening +into red, and the snow peaks flushing one by one, and it seemed a new +miracle. It was a west wind, and we all thought it promised well. I +took only two pounds of luggage, some raisins, the mailbag, and an +additional blanket under my saddle. I had not been up from the park at +sunrise before, and it was quite glorious, the purple depths of +M'Ginn's Gulch, from which at a height of 9,000 feet you look down on +the sunlit park 1,500 feet below, lying in a red haze, with its pearly +needle-shaped peaks, framed by mountain sides dark with pines--my +glorious, solitary, unique mountain home! The purple sun rose in +front. Had I known what made it purple I should certainly have gone no +farther. Then clouds, the morning mist as I supposed, lifted +themselves up rose lighted, showing the sun's disc as purple as one of +the jars in a chemist's window, and having permitted this glimpse of +their king, came down again as a dense mist, the wind chopped round, +and the mist began to freeze hard. Soon Birdie and myself were a mass +of acicular crystals; it was a true easterly fog. I galloped on, +hoping to get through it, unable to see a yard before me; but it +thickened, and I was obliged to subside into a jog-trot. + +As I rode on, about four miles from the cabin, a human figure, looking +gigantic like the spectre of the Brocken, with long hair white as snow, +appeared close to me, and at the same moment there was the flash of a +pistol close to my ear, and I recognized "Mountain Jim" frozen from +head to foot, looking a century old with his snowy hair. It was "ugly" +altogether certainly, a "desperado's" grim jest, and it was best to +accept it as such, though I had just cause for displeasure. He stormed +and scolded, dragged me off the pony--for my hands and feet were numb +with cold--took the bridle, and went off at a rapid stride, so that I +had to run to keep them in sight in the darkness, for we were off the +road in a thicket of scrub, looking like white branch coral, I knew not +where. Then we came suddenly on his cabin, and dear old "Ring," white +like all else; and the "ruffian" insisted on my going in, and he made a +good fire, and heated some coffee, raging all the time. He said +everything against my going forward, except that it was dangerous; all +he said came true, and here I am safe! Your letters, however, +outweighed everything but danger, and I decided on going on, when he +said, "I've seen many foolish people, but never one so foolish as +you--you haven't a grain of sense. Why, I, an old mountaineer, +wouldn't go down to the Plains to-day." I told him he could not, +though he would like it very much, for that he had turned his horses +loose; on which he laughed heartily, and more heartily still at the +stories I told him of young Lyman, so that I have still a doubt how +much of the dark moods I have lately seen was assumed. + +He took me back to the track; and the interview which began with a +pistol shot, ended quite pleasantly. It was an eerie ride, one not to +be forgotten, though there was no danger. I could not recognize any +localities. Every tree was silvered, and the fir-tree tufts of needles +looked like white chrysanthemums. The snow lay a foot deep in the +gulches, with its hard, smooth surface marked by the feet of +innumerable birds and beasts. Ice bridges had formed across all the +streams, and I crossed them without knowing when. Gulches looked +fathomless abysses, with clouds boiling up out of them, and shaggy +mountain summits, half seen for a moment through the eddies, as quickly +vanished. Everything looked vast and indefinite. Then a huge +creation, like one of Dore's phantom illustrations, with much breathing +of wings, came sailing towards me in a temporary opening in the mist. +As with a strange rustle it passed close over my head, I saw, for the +first time, the great mountain eagle, carrying a good-sized beast in +his talons. It was a noble vision. Then there were ten miles of +metamorphosed gulches--silent, awful--many ice bridges, then a frozen +drizzle, and then the winds changed from east to north-east. Birdie +was covered with exquisite crystals, and her long mane and the long +beard which covers her throat were pure white. I saw that I must give +up crossing the mountains to this place by an unknown trail; and I +struck the old trail to the St. Vrain, which I had never traveled +before, but which I knew to be more legible than the new one. The fog +grew darker and thicker, the day colder and windier, the drifts deeper; +but Birdie, whose four cunning feet had carried me 600 miles, and who +in all difficulties proves her value, never flinched or made a false +step, or gave me reason to be sorry that I had come on. + +I got down to the St. Vrain Canyon in good time, and stopped at a house +thirteen miles from Longmount to get oats. I was white from head to +foot, and my clothes were frozen stiff. The women gave me the usual +invitation, "Put your feet in the oven"; and I got my clothes thawed +and dried, and a delicious meal consisting of a basin of cream and +bread. They said it would be worse on the plains, for it was an +easterly storm; but as I was so used to riding, I could get on, so we +started at 2:30. Not far off I met Edwards going up at last to Estes +Park, and soon after the snow-storm began in earnest--or rather I +entered the storm, which had been going on there for several hours. By +that time I had reached the prairie, only eight miles from Longmount, +and pushed on. It was simply fearful. It was twilight from the thick +snow, and I faced a furious east wind loaded with fine, hard-frozen +crystals, which literally made my face bleed. I could only see a very +short distance anywhere; the drifts were often two feet deep, and only +now and then, through the blinding whirl, I caught a glimpse of snow +through which withered sunflowers did not protrude, and then I knew +that I was on the track. But reaching a wild place, I lost it, and +still cantered on, trusting to the pony's sagacity. It failed for +once, for she took me on a lake and we fell through the ice into the +water, 100 yards from land, and had a hard fight back again. It grew +worse and worse. I had wrapped up my face, but the sharp, hard snow +beat on my eyes--the only exposed part--bringing tears into them, which +froze and closed up my eye-lids at once. You cannot imagine what that +was. + +I had to take off one glove to pick one eye open, for as to the other, +the storm beat so savagely against it that I left it frozen, and drew +over it the double piece of flannel which protected my face. I could +hardly keep the other open by picking the ice from it constantly with +my numb fingers, in doing which I got the back of my hand slightly +frostbitten. It was truly awful at the time. I often thought, +"Suppose I am going south instead of east? Suppose Birdie should fail? +Suppose it should grow quite dark?" I was mountaineer enough to shake +these fears off and keep up my spirits, but I knew how many had +perished on the prairie in similar storms. I calculated that if I did +not reach Longmount in half an hour it would be quite dark, and that I +should be so frozen or paralyzed with cold that I should fall off. + +Not a quarter of an hour after I had wondered how long I could hold on +I saw, to my surprise, close to me, half-smothered in snow, the +scattered houses and blessed lights of Longmount, and welcome, indeed, +its wide, dreary, lifeless, soundless road looked! When I reached the +hotel I was so benumbed that I could not get off, and the worthy host +lifted me off and carried me in. + +Not expecting any travelers, they had no fire except in the bar-room, +so they took me to the stove in their own room, gave me a hot drink and +plenty of blankets and in half an hour I was all right and ready for a +ferocious meal. "If there's a traveler on the prairie to-night, God +help him!" the host had said to his wife just before I came in. + +I found Evans there, storm stayed, and that--to his great credit at the +time--my money matters were all right. After the sound and refreshing +sleep which one gets in this splendid climate, I was ready for an early +start, but, warned by yesterday's experience, waited till twelve to be +sure of the weather. The air was intensely clear, and the mercury +SEVENTEEN DEGREES BELOW ZERO! The snow sparkled and snapped under +one's feet. It was gloriously beautiful! In this climate, if you only +go out for a short time you do not feel cold even without a hat, or any +additional wrappings. I bought a cardigan for myself, however, and +some thick socks, got some stout snow-shoes for Birdie's hind feet, had +a pleasant talk with some English friends, did some commissions for the +men in the park, and hung about waiting for a freight train to break +the track, but eventually, inspirited by the good news from you, left +Longmount alone, and for the last time. I little thought that +miserable, broiling day on which I arrived at it with Dr. and Mrs. +Hughes, of the glories of which it was the gate, and of the "good +times" I should have. Now I am at home in it; every one in it and +along the St. Vrain Canyon addresses me in a friendly way by name; and +the newspapers, with their intolerable personality, have made me and my +riding exploits so notorious, that travelers speak courteously to me +when they meet me on the prairie, doubtless wishing to see what sort of +monster I am! I have met nothing but civility, both of manner and +speech, except that distraught pistol shot. It looked icily beautiful, +the snow so pure and the sky such a bright, sharp blue! The snow was +so deep and level that after a few miles I left the track, and steering +for Storm Peak, rode sixteen miles over the pathless prairie without +seeing man, bird, or beast--a solitude awful even in the bright +sunshine. The cold, always great, became piteous. I increased the +frostbite of yesterday by exposing my hand in mending the stirrup; and +when the sun sank in indescribable beauty behind the mountains, and +color rioted in the sky, I got off and walked the last four miles, and +stole in here in the colored twilight without any one seeing me. + +The life of which I wrote before is scarcely less severe, though +lightened by a hope of change, and this weather brings out some special +severities. The stove has to be in the living-room, the children +cannot go out, and, good and delightful as they are, it is hard for +them to be shut up all day with four adults. It is more of a trouble +than you would think for a lady in precarious health that before each +meal, eggs, butter, milk, preserves, and pickles have to be unfrozen. +Unless they are kept on the stove, there is no part of the room in +which they do not freeze. It is uninteresting down here in the Foot +Hills. I long for the rushing winds, the piled-up peaks, the great +pines, the wild night noises, the poetry and the prose of the free, +jolly life of my unrivalled eyrie. I can hardly realize that the river +which lies ice bound outside this house is the same which flashes +through Estes Park, and which I saw snow born on Long's Peak. + +Yesterday morning the mercury had disappeared, so it was 20 degrees +below zero at least. I lay awake from cold all night, but such is the +wonderful effect of the climate, that when I got up at half-past five +to waken the household for my early start, I felt quite refreshed. We +breakfasted on buffalo beef, and I left at eight to ride forty-five +miles before night, Dr. Hughes and a gentleman who was staying there +convoying me the first fifteen miles. I did like that ride, racing +with the other riders, careering through the intoxicating air in that +indescribable sunshine, the powdery snow spurned from the horses' feet +like dust! I was soon warm. We stopped at a trapper's ranch to feed, +and the old trapper amused me by seeming to think Estes Park almost +inaccessible in winter. The distance was greater than I had been told, +and he said that I could not get there before eleven at night, and not +at all if there was much drift. I wanted the gentlemen to go on with +me as far as the Devil's Gate, but they could not because their horses +were tired; and when the trapper heard that he exclaimed, indignantly, +"What! that woman going into the mountains alone? She'll lose the +track or be froze to death!" But when I told him I had ridden the +trail in the storm of Tuesday, and had ridden over 600 miles alone in +the mountains, he treated me with great respect as a fellow +mountaineer, and gave me some matches, saying, "You'll have to camp out +anyhow; you'd better make a fire than be froze to death." The idea of +my spending the night in the forest alone, by a fire, struck me as most +grotesque. + +We did not start again till one, and the two gentlemen rode the first +two miles with me. On that track, the Little Thompson, there a full +stream, has to be crossed eighteen times, and they had been hauling +wood across it, breaking it, and it had broken and refrozen several +times, making thick and thin places--indeed, there were crossings which +even I thought bad, where the ice let us through, and it was hard for +the horses to struggle upon it again; and one of the gentlemen who, +though a most accomplished man, was not a horseman, was once or twice +in the ludicrous position of hesitating on the bank with an anxious +face, not daring to spur his horse upon the ice. After they left me I +had eight more crossings, and then a ride of six miles, before I +reached the old trail; but though there were several drifts up to the +saddle, and no one had broken a track, Birdie showed such a pluck, that +instead of spending the night by a camp-fire, or not getting in till +midnight, I reached Mr. Nugent's cabin, four miles from Estes Park, +only an hour after dark, very cold, and with the pony so tired that she +could hardly put one foot before another. Indeed, I walked the last +three miles. I saw light through the chinks but, hearing an earnest +conversation within, was just about to withdraw, when "Ring" barked, +and on his master coming to the door I found that the solitary man was +talking to his dog. He was looking out for me, and had some coffee +ready, and a large fire, which were very pleasant; and I was very glad +to get the latest news from the park. He said that Evans told him that +it would be most difficult for any one of them to take me down to the +Plains, but that he would go, which is a great relief. According to +the Scotch proverb, "Better a finger off than aye wagging," and as I +cannot live here (for you would not like the life or climate), the +sooner I leave the better. + +The solitary ride to Evans's was very eerie. It was very dark, and the +noises were unintelligible. Young Lyman rushed out to take my horse, +and the light and warmth within were delightful, but there was a +stiffness about the new regime. Evans, though steeped in difficulties, +was as hearty and generous as ever; but Edwards, who had assumed the +management, is prudent, if not parsimonious, thinks we wasted the +supplies recklessly, and the limitations as to milk, etc., are +painfully apparent. A young ex-Guardsman has come up with Evans, of +whom the sanguine creature forms great expectations, to be disappointed +doubtless. In the afternoon of yesterday a gentleman came who I +thought was another stranger, strikingly handsome, well dressed, and +barely forty, with sixteen shining gold curls falling down his collar; +he walked in, and it was only after a careful second look that I +recognized in our visitor the redoubtable "desperado." Evans +courteously pressed him to stay and dine with us, and not only did he +show the most singular conversational dexterity in talking with the +stranger, who was a very well-informed man, and had seen a great deal +of the world, but, though he lives and eats like a savage, his manners +and way of eating were as refined as possible. I notice that Evans is +never quite himself or perfectly comfortable when he is there; and on +the part of the other there is a sort of stiffly-assumed cordiality, +significant, I fear of lurking hatred on both sides. I was in the +kitchen after dinner making rolled puddings, young Lyman was eating up +the relics as usual, "Jim" was singing one of Moore's melodies, the +others being in the living-room, when Mr. Kavan and Mr. Buchan came +from "up the creek" to wish me good-bye. They said it was not half so +much like home now, and recalled the "good time" we had had for three +weeks. Lyman having lost the ow, we have no milk. No one makes bread; +they dry the venison into chips, and getting the meals at all seems a +work of toil and difficulty, instead of the pleasure it used to be to +us. Evans, since tea, has told me all his troubles and worries. He is +a kind, generous, whole-hearted, unsuspicious man, a worse enemy to +himself, I believe, than to any other; but I feel sadly that the future +of a man who has not stronger principles than he has must be at the +best very insecure. + + I. L. B. + + + + +Letter XVII + +Woman's mission--The last morning--Crossing the St. Vrain--Miller--The +St. Vrain again--Crossing the prairie--"Jim's" dream--"Keeping +strangers"--The inn kitchen--A reputed child-eater--Notoriety--A quiet +dance--"Jim's" resolve--The frost-fall--An unfortunate introduction. + +CHEYENNE, WYOMING, December 12. + +The last evening came. I did not wish to realize it, as I looked at +the snow-peaks glistening in the moonlight. No woman will be seen in +the park till next May. Young Lyman talked in a "hifalutin" style, but +with some truth in it, of the influence of a woman's presence, how +"low, mean, vulgar talk" had died out on my return, how they had "all +pulled themselves up," and how Mr. Kavan and Mr. Buchan had said they +would like always to be as quiet and gentlemanly as when a lady was +with them. "By May," he said, "we shall be little better than brutes, +in our manners at least." I have seen a great deal of the roughest +class of men both on sea and land during the last two years, and the +more important I think the "mission" of every quiet, refined, +self-respecting woman--the more mistaken I think those who would +forfeit it by noisy self-assertion, masculinity, or fastness. In all +this wild West the influence of woman is second only in its benefits to +the influence of religion, and where the last unhappily does not exist +the first continually exerts its restraining power. The last morning +came. I cleaned up my room and sat at the window watching the red and +gold of one of the most glorious of winter sunrises, and the slow +lighting-up of one peak after another. I have written that this +scenery is not lovable, but I love it. + +I left on Birdie at 11 o'clock, Evans riding with me as far as Mr. +Nugent's. He was telling me so many things, that at the top of the +hill I forgot to turn round and take a last look at my colossal, +resplendent, lonely, sunlit den, but it was needless, for I carry it +away with me. I should not have been able to leave if Mr. Nugent had +not offered his services. His chivalry to women is so well known, that +Evans said I could be safer and better cared for with no one. He +added, "His heart is good and kind, as kind a heart as ever beat. He's +a great enemy of his own, but he's been living pretty quietly for the +last four years." At the door of his den I took leave of Birdie, who +had been my faithful companion for more than 700 miles of traveling, +and of Evans, who had been uniformly kind to me and just in all his +dealings, even to paying to me at that moment the very last dollar he +owed me. May God bless him and his! He was obliged to return before I +could get off, and as he commended me to Mr. Nugent's care, the two men +shook hands kindly.[21] + +[21]Some months later "Mountain Jim" fell by Evans's hand, shot from +Evans's doorstep while riding past his cabin. The story of the +previous weeks is dark, sad, and evil. Of the five differing versions +which have been written to me of the act itself and its immediate +causes, it is best to give none. The tragedy is too painful to dwell +upon. "Jim" lived long enough to give his own statement, and to appeal +to the judgment of God, but died in low delirium before the case +reached a human tribunal. + + +Rich spoils of beavers' skins were lying on the cabin floor, and the +trapper took the finest, a mouse-colored kitten beaver's skin, and +presented it to me. I hired his beautiful Arab mare, whose springy +step and long easy stride was a relief after Birdie's short sturdy +gait. We had a very pleasant ride, and I seldom had to walk. We took +neither of the trails, but cut right through the forest to a place +where, through an opening in the Foot Hills, the Plains stretched to +the horizon covered with snow, the surface of which, having melted and +frozen, reflected as water would the pure blue of the sky, presenting a +complete optical illusion. It required my knowledge of fact to assure +me that I was not looking at the ocean. "Jim" shortened the way by +repeating a great deal of poetry, and by earnest, reasonable +conversation, so that I was quite surprised when it grew dark. He told +me that he never lay down to sleep without prayer--prayer chiefly that +God would give him a happy death. He had previously promised that he +would not hurry or scold, but "fyking" had not been included in the +arrangement, and when in the early darkness we reached the steep hill, +at whose foot the rapid deep St. Vrain flows, he "fyked" unreasonably +about me, the mare, and the crossing generally, and seemed to think I +could not get through, for the ice had been cut with an axe, and we +could not see whether "glaze" had formed since or not. + +I was to have slept at the house of a woman farther down the canyon, +who never ceases talking, but Miller, the young man whose attractive +house and admirable habits I have mentioned before, came out and said +his house was "now fixed for ladies," so we stayed there, and I was +"made as comfortable" as could be. His house is a model. He cleans +everything as soon as it is used, so nothing is ever dirty, and his +stove and cooking gear in their bright parts look like polished silver. +It was amusing to hear the two men talk like two women about various +ways of making bread and biscuits, one even writing out a recipe for +the other. It was almost grievous that a solitary man should have the +power of making a house so comfortable! They heated a stone for my +feet, warmed a blanket for me to sleep in, and put logs enough on the +fire to burn all night, for the mercury was eleven below zero. The +stars were intensely bright, and a well-defined auroral arch, throwing +off fantastic coruscations, lighted the whole northern sky. Yet I was +only in the Foot Hills, and Long's glorious Peak was not to be seen. +Miller had all his things "washed up" and his "pots and pans" cleaned +in ten minutes after supper, and then had the whole evening in which to +smoke and enjoy himself--a poor woman would probably have been "fussing +round" till 10 o'clock about the same work. Besides Ring there was +another gigantic dog craving for notice, and two large cats, which, the +whole evening, were on their master's knee. Cold as the night was, the +house was chinked, and the rooms felt quite warm. I even missed the +free currents of air which I had been used to! This was my last +evening in what may be called a mountainous region. + +The next morning, as soon as the sun was well risen, we left for our +journey of 30 miles, which had to be done nearly at a foot's pace, +owing to one horse being encumbered with my luggage. I did not wish to +realize that it was my last ride, and my last association with any of +the men of the mountains whom I had learned to trust, and in some +respects to admire. No more hunters' tales told while the pine knots +crack and blaze; no more thrilling narratives of adventures with +Indians and bears; and never again shall I hear that strange talk of +Nature and her doings which is the speech of those who live with her +and her alone. Already the dismalness of a level land comes over me. +The canyon of the St. Vrain was in all its glory of color, but we had a +remarkably ugly crossing of that brilliant river, which was frozen all +over, except an unpleasant gap of about two feet in the middle. Mr. +Nugent had to drive the frightened horses through, while I, having +crossed on some logs lower down, had to catch them on the other side as +they plunged to shore trembling with fear. Then we emerged on the vast +expanse of the glittering Plains, and a sudden sweep of wind made the +cold so intolerable that I had to go into a house to get warm. This +was the last house we saw till we reached our destination that night. +I never saw the mountain range look so beautiful--uplifted in every +shade of transparent blue, till the sublimity of Long's Peak, and the +lofty crest of Storm Peak, bore only unsullied snow against the sky. +Peaks gleamed in living light; canyons lay in depths of purple shade; +100 miles away Pike's Peak rose a lump of blue, and over all, through +that glorious afternoon, a veil of blue spiritualized without dimming +the outlines of that most glorious range, making it look like the +dreamed-of mountains of "the land which is very far off," till at +sunset it stood out sharp in glories of violet and opal, and the whole +horizon up to a great height was suffused with the deep rose and pure +orange of the afterglow. It seemed all dream-like as we passed through +the sunlit solitude, on the right the prairie waves lessening towards +the far horizon, while on the left they broke in great snowy surges +against the Rocky Mountains. All that day we neither saw man, beast, +nor bird. "Jim" was silent mostly. Like all true children of the +mountains, he pined even when temporarily absent from them. + +At sunset we reached a cluster of houses called Namaqua, where, to my +dismay, I heard that there was to be a dance at the one little inn to +which we were going at St. Louis. I pictured to myself no privacy, no +peace, no sleep, drinking, low sounds, and worse than all, "Jim" +getting into a quarrel and using his pistols. He was uncomfortable +about it for another reason. He said he had dreamt the night before +that there was to be a dance, and that he had to shoot a man for making +"an unpleasant remark." + +For the last three miles which we accomplished after sunset the cold +was most severe, but nothing could exceed the beauty of the afterglow, +and the strange look of the rolling plains of snow beneath it. When we +got to the queer little place where they "keep strangers" at St. Louis, +they were very civil, and said that after supper we could have the +kitchen to ourselves. I found a large, prononcee, competent, bustling +widow, hugely stout, able to manage all men and everything else, and a +very florid sister like herself, top heavy with hair. There were +besides two naughty children in the kitchen, who cried incessantly, and +kept opening and shutting the door. There was no place to sit down but +a wooden chair by the side of the kitchen stove, at which supper was +being cooked for ten men. The bustle and clatter were indescribable, +and the landlady asked innumerable questions, and seemed to fill the +whole room. The only expedient for me for the night was to sleep on a +shake-down in a very small room occupied by the two women and the +children, and even this was not available till midnight, when the dance +terminated; and there was no place in which to wash except a bowl in +the kitchen. I sat by the stove till supper, wearying of the noise and +bustle after the quiet of Estes Park. + +The landlady asked, with great eagerness, who the gentleman was who was +with me, and said that the men outside were saying that they were sure +that it was "Rocky Mountain Jim," but she was sure it was not. When I +told her that the men were right, she exclaimed, "Do tell! I want to +know! that quiet, kind gentleman!" and she said she used to frighten +her children when they were naughty by telling them that "he would get +them, for he came down from the mountains every week, and took back a +child with him to eat!" She was as proud of having him in her house as +if he had been the President, and I gained a reflected importance! All +the men in the settlement assembled in the front room, hoping he would +go and smoke there, and when he remained in the kitchen they came round +the window and into the doorway to look at him. The children got on +his knee, and, to my great relief, he kept them good and quiet, and let +them play with his curls, to the great delight of the two women, who +never took their eyes off him. At last the bad-smelling supper was +served, and ten silent men came in and gobbled it up, staring steadily +at "Jim" as they gobbled. Afterwards, there seemed no hope of quiet, +so we went to the post-office, and while waiting for stamps were shown +into the prettiest and most ladylike-looking room I have seen in the +West, created by a pretty and refined-looking woman. She made an +opportunity for asking me if it were true that the gentleman with me +was "Mountain Jim," and added that so very gentlemanly a person could +not be guilty of the misdeeds attributed to him. + +When we returned, the kitchen was much quieter. It was cleared by +eight, as the landlady promised; we had it to ourselves till twelve, +and could scarcely hear the music. It was a most respectable dance, a +fortnightly gathering got up by the neighboring settlers, most of them +young married people, and there was no drinking at all. I wrote to you +for some time, while Mr. Nugent copied for himself the poems "In the +Glen" and the latter half of "The River without a Bridge," which he +recited with deep feeling. It was altogether very quiet and peaceful. +He repeated to me several poems of great merit which he had composed, +and told me much more about his life. I knew that no one else could or +would speak to him as I could, and for the last time I urged upon him +the necessity of a reformation in his life, beginning with the giving +up of whisky, going so far as to tell him that I despised a man of his +intellect for being a slave to such a vice. "Too late! too late!" he +always answered, "for such a change." Ay, TOO LATE. He shed tears +quietly. "It might have been once," he said. Ay, MIGHT have been. He +has excellent sense for every one but himself, and, as I have seen him +with a single exception, a gentleness, propriety, and considerateness +of manner surprising in any man, but especially so in a man associating +only with the rough men of the West. As I looked at him, I felt a pity +such as I never before felt for a human being. + +My thought at the moment was, Will not our Father in heaven, "who +spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all," be far more +pitiful? For the time a desire for self-respect, better aspirations, +and even hope itself, entered his dark life; and he said, suddenly, +that he had made up his mind to give up whisky and his reputation as a +desperado. But it is "too late." A little before twelve the dance was +over, and I got to the crowded little bedroom, which only allowed of +one person standing in it at a time, to sleep soundly and dream of +"ninety-and-nine just persons who need no repentance." The landlady +was quite taken up with her "distinguished guest." "That kind, quiet +gentleman, Mountain Jim! Well, I never! he must be a very good man!" + +Yesterday morning the mercury was 20 degrees below zero. I think I +never saw such a brilliant atmosphere. That curious phenomenon called +frost-fall was occurring, in which, whatever moisture may exist in the +air, somehow aggregates into feathers and fern leaves, the loveliest of +creations, only seen in rarefied air and intense cold. One breath and +they vanish. The air was filled with diamond sparks quite intangible. +They seemed just glitter and no more. It was still and cloudless, and +the shapes of violet mountains were softened by a veil of the tenderest +blue. When the Greeley stage wagon came up, Mr. Fodder, whom I met at +Lower Canyon, was on it. He had expressed a great wish to go to Estes +Park, and to hunt with "Mountain Jim," if it would be safe to do the +latter. He was now dressed in the extreme of English dandyism, and +when I introduced them, he put out a small hand cased in a +perfectly-fitting lemon-colored kid glove.[22] As the trapper stood +there in his grotesque rags and odds and ends of apparel, his +gentlemanliness of deportment brought into relief the innate vulgarity +of a rich parvenu. Mr. Fodder rattled so amusingly as we drove away +that I never realized that my Rocky Mountain life was at an end, not +even when I saw "Mountain Jim," with his golden hair yellow in the +sunshine, slowly leading the beautiful mare over the snowy Plains back +to Estes Park, equipped with the saddle on which I had ridden 800 miles! + +[22] This was a truly unfortunate introduction. It was the first link +in the chain of circumstances which brought about Mr. Nugent's untimely +end, and it was at this person's instigation (when overcome by fear) +that Evans fired the shot which proved fatal. + +A drive of several hours over the Plains brought us to Greeley, and a +few hours later, in the far blue distance, the Rocky Mountains, and all +that they enclose, went down below the prairie sea. + +I. L. B. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, by +Isabella L. 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If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association / Benedictine + University" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Benedictine University". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +A LADY'S LIFE +IN THE +ROCKY MOUNTAINS + + +Isabella L. Bird + + +Introduction by +Ann Ronald +University of Nevada, Reno + + + +To My Sister, +to whom +these letters were originally written, +they are now +affectionately dedicated. + +Contents + +Introduction, by Ann Ronald + +LETTER I + +Lake Tahoe--Morning in San Francisco--Dust--A Pacific +mail-train--Digger Indians--Cape Horn--A mountain hotel--A +pioneer--A Truckee livery stable--A mountain stream--Finding a +bear--Tahoe. + +LETTER II + +A lady's "get-up"--Grizzly bears--The "Gem of the Sierras"--A +tragic tale--A carnival of color. + +LETTER III + +A Temple of Morpheus--Utah--A "God-forgotten" town--A distressed +couple--Dog villages--A temperance colony--A Colorado inn +--The bug pest--Fort Collins. + +LETTER IV + +A plague of flies--A melancholy charioteer--The Foot Hills--A +mountain boarding-house--A dull life--"Being agreeable"--Climate +of Colorado--Soroche and snakes. + +LETTER V + +A dateless day--"Those hands of yours"--A Puritan--Persevering +shiftlessness--The house-mother--Family worship--A grim Sunday--A +"thick-skulled Englishman"--A morning call--Another +atmosphere--The Great Lone Land--"Ill found"--A log camp--Bad +footing for horses--Accidents--Disappointment. + +LETTER VI + +A bronco mare--An accident--Wonderland--A sad story--The children +of the Territories--Hard greed--Halcyon hours--Smartness-- +Old-fashioned prejudices--The Chicago colony--Good luck--Three +notes of admiration--A good horse--The St. Vrain--The Rocky +Mountains at last--"Mountain Jim"--A death hug--Estes Park. + +LETTER VII + +Personality of Long's Peak--"Mountain Jim"--Lake of the Lilies--A +silent forest--The camping ground--"Ring"--A lady's bower--Dawn +and sunrise--A glorious view--Links of diamonds--The ascent of +the Peak--The "Dog's Lift"--Suffering from thirst--The +descent--The bivouac. + +LETTER VIII + +Estes Park--Big game--"Parks" in Colorado--Magnificent +scenery--Flowers and pines--An awful road--Our log +cabin--Griffith Evans--A miniature world--Our topics--A +night alarm--A skunk--Morning glories--Daily routine--The +panic--"Wait for the wagon"--A musical evening. + +LETTER IX + +"Please Ma'ams"--A desperado--A cattle hunt--The muster--A mad +cow--A snowstorm--Snowed up--Birdie--The Plains--A prairie +schooner--Denver--A find--Plum Creek--"Being +agreeable"--Snowbound--The grey mare. + +LETTER X + +A white world--Bad traveling--A millionaire's home--Pleasant +Park--Perry's Park--Stock-raising--A cattle king--The Arkansas +Divide--Birdie's sagacity--Luxury--Monument Park--Deference to +prejudice--A death scene--The Manitou--A loose shoe--The Ute +Pass--Bergens Park--A settler's home--Hayden's Divide--Sharp +criticism--Speaking the truth. + +LETTER XI + +Tarryall Creek--The Red Range--Excelsior--Importunate +pedlars--Snow and heat--A bison calf--Deep drifts--South +Park--The Great Divide--Comanche Bill--Difficulties-- +Hall's Gulch--A Lord Dundreary--Ridiculous fears. + +LETTER XII + +Deer Valley--Lynch law--Vigilance committees--The silver +spruce--Taste and abstinence--The whisky fiend--Smartness--Turkey +Creek Canyon--The Indian problem--Public rascality--Friendly +meetings--The way to the Golden City--A rising settlement--Clear +Creek Canyon--Staging--Swearing--A mountain town. + +LETTER XIII + +The blight of mining--Green Lake--Golden +City--Benighted--Vertigo--Boulder Canyon--Financial straits--A +hard ride--The last cent--A bachelor's home--"Mountain Jim"--A +surprise--A night arrival--Making the best of it--Scanty fare. + +LETTER XIV + +A dismal ride--A desperado's tale--"Lost! Lost! Lost!"--Winter +glories--Solitude--Hard times--Intense cold--A pack of +wolves--The beaver dams--Ghastly scenes--Venison steaks--Our +evenings. + +LETTER XV + +A whisky slave--The pleasures of monotony--The mountain +lion--"Another mouth to feed"--A tiresome boy--An +outcast--Thanksgiving Day--The newcomer--A literary humbug-- +Milking a dry cow--Trout-fishing--A snow-storm--A desperado's +den. + +LETTER XVI + +A harmonious home--Intense cold--A purple sun--A grim jest--A +perilous ride--Frozen eyelids--Longmount--The pathless prairie-- +Hardships of emigrant life--A trapper's advice--The Little +Thompson--Evans and "Jim." + +LETTER XVII + +Woman's mission--The last morning--Crossing the St. +Vrain--Miller--The St. Vrain again--Crossing the prairie--"Jim's" +dream--"Keeping strangers"--The inn kitchen--A reputed +child-eater--Notoriety--A quiet dance--"Jim's" resolve--The +frost-fall--An unfortunate introduction. + + + +Letter I + +Lake Tahoe--Morning in San Francisco--Dust--A Pacific +mail-train--Digger Indians--Cape Horn--A mountain hotel--A +pioneer--A Truckee livery stable--A mountain stream--Finding a +bear--Tahoe. + +LAKE TAHOE, September 2. + +I have found a dream of beauty at which one might look all one's +life and sigh. Not lovable, like the Sandwich Islands, but +beautiful in its own way! A strictly North American +beauty--snow-splotched mountains, huge pines, red-woods, sugar +pines, silver spruce; a crystalline atmosphere, waves of the +richest color; and a pine-hung lake which mirrors all beauty on +its surface. Lake Tahoe is before me, a sheet of water +twenty-two miles long by ten broad, and in some places 1,700 feet +deep. It lies at a height of 6,000 feet, and the snow-crowned +summits which wall it in are from 8,000 to 11,000 feet in +altitude. The air is keen and elastic. There is no sound but +the distant and slightly musical ring of the lumberer's axe. + +It is a weariness to go back, even in thought, to the clang of +San Francisco, which I left in its cold morning fog early +yesterday, driving to the Oakland ferry through streets with +side-walks heaped with thousands of cantaloupe and water-melons, +tomatoes, cucumbers, squashes, pears, grapes, peaches, +apricots--all of startling size as compared with any I ever saw +before. Other streets were piled with sacks of flour, left out +all night, owing to the security from rain at this season. I +pass hastily over the early part of the journey, the crossing +the bay in a fog as chill as November, the number of "lunch +baskets," which gave the car the look of conveying a great picnic +party, the last view of the Pacific, on which I had looked for +nearly a year, the fierce sunshine and brilliant sky inland, the +look of long RAINLESSNESS, which one may not call drought, the +valleys with sides crimson with the poison oak, the dusty +vineyards, with great purple clusters thick among the leaves, and +between the vines great dusty melons lying on the dusty earth. +From off the boundless harvest fields the grain was carried in +June, and it is now stacked in sacks along the track, awaiting +freightage. California is a "land flowing with milk and honey." +The barns are bursting with fullness. In the dusty orchards the +apple and pear branches are supported, that they may not break +down under the weight of fruit; melons, tomatoes, and squashes of +gigantic size lie almost unheeded on the ground; fat cattle, +gorged almost to repletion, shade themselves under the oaks; +superb "red" horses shine, not with grooming, but with condition; +and thriving farms everywhere show on what a solid basis the +prosperity of the "Golden State" is founded. Very uninviting, +however rich, was the blazing Sacramento Valley, and very +repulsive the city of Sacramento, which, at a distance of 125 +miles from the Pacific, has an elevation of only thirty feet. +The mercury stood at 103 degrees in the shade, and the fine white +dust was stifling. + +In the late afternoon we began the ascent of the Sierras, whose +sawlike points had been in sight for many miles. The dusty +fertility was all left behind, the country became rocky and +gravelly, and deeply scored by streams bearing the muddy wash of +the mountain gold mines down to the muddier Sacramento. There +were long broken ridges and deep ravines, the ridges becoming +longer, the ravines deeper, the pines thicker and larger, as we +ascended into a cool atmosphere of exquisite purity, and before 6 +P.M. the last traces of cultivation and the last hardwood trees +were left behind.[1] + +[1] In consequence of the unobserved omission of a date to my +letters having been pointed out to me, I take this opportunity of +stating that I traveled in Colorado in the autumn and early +winter of 1873, on my way to England from the Sandwich Islands. +The letters are a faithful picture of the country and state of +society as it then was; but friends who have returned from the +West within the last six months tell me that things are rapidly +changing, that the frame house is replacing the log cabin, and +that the footprints of elk and bighorn may be sought for in vain +on the dewy slopes of Estes Park. + I. L. B. +(Author's note to the third edition, January 16, 1880.) + + +At Colfax, a station at a height of 2,400 feet, I got out and +walked the length of the train. First came two great gaudy +engines, the Grizzly Bear and the White Fox, with their +respective tenders loaded with logs of wood, the engines with +great, solitary, reflecting lamps in front above the cow guards, +a quantity of polished brass-work, comfortable glass houses, and +well-stuffed seats for the engine-drivers. The engines and +tenders were succeeded by a baggage car, the latter loaded with +bullion and valuable parcels, and in charge of two "express +agents." Each of these cars is forty-five feet long. Then came +two cars loaded with peaches and grapes; then two "silver palace" +cars, each sixty feet long; then a smoking car, at that time +occupied mainly by Chinamen; and then five ordinary passenger +cars, with platforms like all the others, making altogether a +train about 700 feet in length. + +The platforms of the four front cars were clustered over with +Digger Indians, with their squaws, children, and gear. They are +perfect savages, without any aptitude for even aboriginal +civilization, and are altogether the most degraded of the +ill-fated tribes which are dying out before the white races. +They were all very diminutive, five feet one inch being, I should +think, about the average height, with flat noses, wide mouths, +and black hair, cut straight above the eyes and hanging lank and +long at the back and sides. The squaws wore their hair thickly +plastered with pitch, and a broad band of the same across their +noses and cheeks. They carried their infants on their backs, +strapped to boards. The clothing of both sexes was a ragged, +dirty combination of coarse woolen cloth and hide, the moccasins +being unornamented. They were all hideous and filthy, and +swarming with vermin. The men carried short bows and arrows, one +of them, who appeared to be the chief, having a lynx's skin for a +quiver. A few had fishing tackle, but the bystanders said that +they lived almost entirely upon grasshoppers. They were a +most impressive incongruity in the midst of the tokens of an +omnipotent civilization. + +The light of the sinking sun from that time glorified the +Sierras, and as the dew fell, aromatic odors made the still air +sweet. On a single track, sometimes carried on a narrow ledge +excavated from the mountain side by men lowered from the top in +baskets, overhanging ravines from 2,000 to 3,000 feet deep, the +monster train SNAKED its way upwards, stopping sometimes in front +of a few frame houses, at others where nothing was to be seen but +a log cabin with a few Chinamen hanging about it, but where +trails on the sides of the ravines pointed to a gold country +above and below. So sharp and frequent are the curves on some +parts of the ascent, that on looking out of the window one could +seldom see more than a part of the train at once. At Cape Horn, +where the track curves round the ledge of a precipice 2,500 feet +in depth, it is correct to be frightened, and a fashion of +holding the breath and shutting the eyes prevails, but my fears +were reserved for the crossing of a trestle bridge over a very +deep chasm, which is itself approached by a sharp curve. This +bridge appeared to be overlapped by the cars so as to produce the +effect of looking down directly into a wild gulch, with a torrent +raging along it at an immense depth below. + +Shivering in the keen, frosty air near the summit pass of the +Sierras, we entered the "snow-sheds," wooden galleries, which for +about fifty miles shut out all the splendid views of the region, +as given in dioramas, not even allowing a glimpse of "the Gem of +the Sierras," the lovely Donner Lake. One of these sheds is +twenty-seven miles long. In a few hours the mercury had fallen +from 103 degrees to 29 degrees, and we had ascended 6,987 feet in +105 miles! After passing through the sheds, we had several grand +views of a pine forest on fire before reaching Truckee at 11 P.M. +having traveled 258 miles. Truckee, the center of the "lumbering +region" of the Sierras, is usually spoken of as "a rough mountain +town," and Mr. W. had told me that all the roughs of the district +congregated there, that there were nightly pistol affrays in +bar-rooms, etc., but as he admitted that a lady was sure of +respect, and Mr. G. strongly advised me to stay and see the +lakes, I got out, much dazed, and very stupid with sleep, envying +the people in the sleeping car, who were already unconscious on +their luxurious couches. The cars drew up in a street--if street +that could be called which was only a wide, cleared space, +intersected by rails, with here and there a stump, and great +piles of sawn logs bulking big in the moonlight, and a number of +irregular clap-board, steep-roofed houses, many of them with +open fronts, glaring with light and crowded with men. We had +pulled up at the door of a rough Western hotel, with a partially +open front, being a bar-room crowded with men drinking and +smoking, and the space between it and the cars was a moving mass +of loafers and passengers. On the tracks, engines, tolling heavy +bells, were mightily moving, the glare from their cyclopean eyes +dulling the light of a forest which was burning fitfully on a +mountain side; and on open spaces great fires of pine logs were +burning cheerily, with groups of men round them. A band was +playing noisily, and the unholy sound of tom-toms was not far +off. Mountains--the Sierras of many a fireside dream--seemed to +wall in the town, and great pines stood out, sharp and clear cut, +against a sky in which a moon and stars were shining frostily. + +It was a sharp frost at that great height, and when an +"irrepressible rigger," who seemed to represent the hotel +establishment, deposited me and my carpetbag in a room which +answered for "the parlor," I was glad to find some remains of +pine knots still alight in the stove. A man came in and said +that when the cars were gone he would try to get me a room, but +they were so full that it would be a very poor one. The crowd +was solely masculine. It was then 11:30 P.M., and I had not had +a meal since 6 A.M.; but when I asked hopefully for a hot supper, +with tea, I was told that no supper could be got at that hour; +but in half an hour the same man returned with a small cup of +cold, weak tea, and a small slice of bread, which looked as if it +had been much handled. + +I asked the Negro factotum about the hire of horses, and +presently a man came in from the bar who, he said, could supply +my needs. This man, the very type of a Western pioneer, bowed, +threw himself into a rocking-chair, drew a spittoon beside him, +cut a fresh quid of tobacco, began to chew energetically, and put +his feet, cased in miry high boots, into which his trousers were +tucked, on the top of the stove. He said he had horses which +would both "lope" and trot, that some ladies preferred the +Mexican saddle, that I could ride alone in perfect safety; and +after a route had been devised, I hired a horse for two days. +This man wore a pioneer's badge as one of the earliest settlers +of California, but he had moved on as one place after another +had become too civilized for him, "but nothing," he added, "was +likely to change much in Truckee." I was afterwards told that +the usual regular hours of sleep are not observed there. The +accommodation is too limited for the population of 2,000,[2] +which is masculine mainly, and is liable to frequent temporary +additions, and beds are occupied continuously, though by +different occupants, throughout the greater part of the +twenty-four hours. Consequently I found the bed and room +allotted to me quite tumbled looking. Men's coats and sticks +were hanging up, miry boots were littered about, and a rifle was +in one corner. There was no window to the outer air, but I slept +soundly, being only once awoke by an increase of the same din in +which I had fallen asleep, varied by three pistol shots fired in +rapid succession. + +[2] Nelson's Guide to the Central Pacific Railroad. + + +This morning Truckee wore a totally different aspect. The crowds +of the night before had disappeared. There were heaps of ashes +where the fires had been. A sleepy German waiter seemed the only +person about the premises, the open drinking saloons were nearly +empty, and only a few sleepy-looking loafers hung about in what +is called the street. It might have been Sunday; but they say +that it brings a great accession of throng and jollity. Public +worship has died out at present; work is discontinued on Sunday, +but the day is given up to pleasure. Putting a minimum of +indispensables into a bag, and slipping on my Hawaiian riding +dress[3] over a silk skirt, and a dust cloak over all, I +stealthily crossed the plaza to the livery stable, the largest +building in Truckee, where twelve fine horses were stabled in +stalls on each side of a broad drive. My friend of the evening +before showed me his "rig," three velvet-covered side-saddles +almost without horns. Some ladies, he said, used the horn of the +Mexican saddle, but none "in the part" rode cavalier fashion. I +felt abashed. I could not ride any distance in the conventional +mode, and was just going to give up this splendid "ravage," when +the man said, "Ride your own fashion; here, at Truckee, if +anywhere in the world, people can do as they like." Blissful +Truckee! In no time a large grey horse was "rigged out" in a +handsome silver-bossed Mexican saddle, with ornamental leather +tassels hanging from the stirrup guards, and a housing of black +bear's-skin. I strapped my silk skirt on the saddle, deposited +my cloak in the corn-bin, and was safely on the horse's back +before his owner had time to devise any way of mounting me. +Neither he nor any of the loafers who had assembled showed the +slightest sign of astonishment, but all were as respectful as +possible. + +[3] For the benefit of other lady travelers, I wish to explain +that my "Hawaiian riding dress" is the "American Lady's Mountain +Dress," a half-fitting jacket, a skirt reaching to the ankles, +and full Turkish trousers gathered into frills falling over the +boots,--a thoroughly serviceable and feminine costume for +mountaineering and other rough traveling, as in the Alps or any +other part of the world. + I. L. B. +(Author's note to the second edition, November 27, 1879.) + + +Once on horseback my embarrassment disappeared, and I rode +through Truckee, whose irregular, steep-roofed houses and +shanties, set down in a clearing and surrounded closely by +mountain and forest, looked like a temporary encampment; passed +under the Pacific Railroad; and then for twelve miles followed +the windings of the Truckee River, a clear, rushing, mountain +stream, in which immense pine logs had gone aground not to be +floated off till the next freshet, a loud-tongued, rollicking +stream of ice-cold water, on whose banks no ferns or trailers +hang, and which leaves no greenness along its turbulent progress. + +All was bright with that brilliancy of sky and atmosphere, that +blaze of sunshine and universal glitter, which I never saw till I +came to California, combined with an elasticity in the air which +removed all lassitude, and gives one spirit enough for anything. +On either side of the Truckee great sierras rose like walls, +castellated, embattled, rifted, skirted and crowned with pines of +enormous size, the walls now and then breaking apart to show some +snow-slashed peak rising into a heaven of intense, unclouded, +sunny blue. At this altitude of 6,000 feet one must learn to be +content with varieties of Coniferae, for, except for aspens, +which spring up in some places where the pines have been cleared +away, and for cotton-woods, which at a lower level fringe the +streams, there is nothing but the bear cherry, the raspberry, the +gooseberry, the wild grape, and the wild currant. None of these +grew near the Truckee, but I feasted my eyes on pines[4] which, +though not so large as the Wellingtonia of the Yosemite, are +really gigantic, attaining a height of 250 feet, their huge +stems, the warm red of cedar wood, rising straight and branchless +for a third of their height, their diameter from seven to fifteen +feet, their shape that of a larch, but with the needles long and +dark, and cones a foot long. Pines cleft the sky; they were +massed wherever level ground occurred; they stood over the +Truckee at right angles, or lay across it in prostrate grandeur. +Their stumps and carcasses were everywhere; and smooth "shoots" +on the sierras marked where they were shot down as "felled +timber," to be floated off by the river. To them this wild +region owes its scattered population, and the sharp ring of the +lumberer's axe mingles with the cries of wild beasts and the roar +of mountain torrents. + +[4] Pinus Lambertina. + + +The track is a soft, natural, wagon road, very pleasant to ride +on. The horse was much too big for me, and had plans of his own; +but now and then, where the ground admitted to it, I tried his +heavy "lope" with much amusement. I met nobody, and passed +nothing on the road but a freight wagon, drawn by twenty-two +oxen, guided by three fine-looking men, who had some difficulty +in making room for me to pass their awkward convoy. After I had +ridden about ten miles the road went up a steep hill in the +forest, turned abruptly, and through the blue gloom of the great +pines which rose from the ravine in which the river was then hid, +came glimpses of two mountains, about 11,000 feet in height, +whose bald grey summits were crowned with pure snow. It was one +of those glorious surprises in scenery which make one feel as if +one must bow down and worship. The forest was thick, and had an +undergrowth of dwarf spruce and brambles, but as the horse had +become fidgety and "scary" on the track, I turned off in the idea +of taking a short cut, and was sitting carelessly, shortening my +stirrup, when a great, dark, hairy beast rose, crashing and +snorting, out of the tangle just in front of me. I had only a +glimpse of him, and thought that my imagination had magnified a +wild boar, but it was a bear. The horse snorted and plunged +violently, as if he would go down to the river, and then turned, +still plunging, up a steep bank, when, finding that I must come +off, I threw myself off on the right side, where the ground rose +considerably, so that I had not far to fall. I got up covered +with dust, but neither shaken nor bruised. It was truly +grotesque and humiliating. The bear ran in one direction, and +the horse in another. I hurried after the latter, and twice he +stopped till I was close to him, then turned round and cantered +away. After walking about a mile in deep dust, I picked up first +the saddle-blanket and next my bag, and soon came upon the horse, +standing facing me, and shaking all over. I thought I should +catch him then, but when I went up to him he turned round, threw +up his heels several times, rushed off the track, galloped in +circles, bucking, kicking, and plunging for some time, and then +throwing up his heels as an act of final defiance, went off at +full speed in the direction of Truckee, with the saddle over his +shoulders and the great wooden stirrups thumping his sides, while +I trudged ignominiously along in the dust, laboriously carrying +the bag and saddle-blanket. + +I walked for nearly an hour, heated and hungry, when to my joy I +saw the ox-team halted across the top of a gorge, and one of the +teamsters leading the horse towards me. The young man said that, +seeing the horse coming, they had drawn the team across the road +to stop him, and remembering that he had passed them with a lady +on him, they feared that there had +been an accident, and had just saddled one of their own horses to +go in search of me. He brought me some water to wash the dust +from my face, and re-saddled the horse, but the animal snorted +and plunged for some time before he would let me mount, and then +sidled along in such a nervous and scared way, that the teamster +walked for some distance by me to see that I was "all right." He +said that the woods in the neighborhood of Tahoe had been full of +brown and grizzly bears for some days, but that no one was in +any danger from them. I took a long gallop beyond the scene of +my tumble to quiet the horse, who was most restless and +troublesome. + +Then the scenery became truly magnificent and bright with life. +Crested blue-jays darted through the dark pines, squirrels in +hundreds scampered through the forest, red dragon-flies flashed +like "living light," exquisite chipmunks ran across the track, +but only a dusty blue lupin here and there reminded me of earth's +fairer children. Then the river became broad and still, and +mirrored in its transparent depths regal pines, straight as an +arrow, with rich yellow and green lichen clinging to their stems, +and firs and balsam pines filling up the spaces between them, the +gorge opened, and this mountain-girdled lake lay before me, with +its margin broken up into bays and promontories, most +picturesquely clothed by huge sugar pines. It lay dimpling and +scintillating beneath the noonday sun, as entirely unspoilt as +fifteen years ago, when its pure loveliness was known only to +trappers and Indians. One man lives on it the whole year round; +otherwise early October strips its shores of their few +inhabitants, and thereafter, for seven months, it is rarely +accessible except on snowshoes. It never freezes. In the dense +forests which bound it, and drape two-thirds of its gaunt +sierras, are hordes of grizzlies, brown bears, wolves, elk, deer, +chipmunks, martens, minks, skunks, foxes, squirrels, and snakes. +On its margin I found an irregular wooden inn, with a +lumber-wagon at the door, on which was the carcass of a large +grizzly bear, shot behind the house this morning. I had intended +to ride ten miles farther, but, finding that the trail in some +places was a "blind" one, and being bewitched by the beauty and +serenity of Tahoe, I have remained here sketching, reveling in +the view from the veranda, and strolling in the forest. At this +height there is frost every night of the year, and my fingers are +benumbed. + +The beauty is entrancing. The sinking sun is out of sight behind +the western Sierras, and all the pine-hung promontories on this +side of the water are rich indigo, just reddened with lake, +deepening here and there into Tyrian purple. The peaks above, +which still catch the sun, are bright rose-red, and all the +mountains on the other side are pink; and pink, too, are the +far-off summits on which the snow-drifts rest. Indigo, red, and +orange tints stain the still water, which lies solemn and dark +against the shore, under the shadow of stately pines. An hour +later, and a moon nearly full--not a pale, flat disc, but a +radiant sphere--has wheeled up into the flushed sky. The sunset +has passed through every stage of beauty, through every glory of +color, through riot and triumph, through pathos and tenderness, +into a long, dreamy, painless rest, succeeded by the profound +solemnity of the moonlight, and a stillness broken only by the +night cries of beasts in the aromatic forests. + I. L. B. + + +Letter II + +A lady's "get-up"--Grizzly bears--The "Gems of the Sierras"--A +tragic tale--A carnival of color. + +CHEYENNE, WYOMING, September 7. + +As night came on the cold intensified, and the stove in the +parlor attracted every one. A San Francisco lady, much "got up" +in paint, emerald green velvet, Brussels lace, and diamonds, +rattled continuously for the amusement of the company, giving +descriptions of persons and scenes in a racy Western twang, +without the slightest scruple as to what she said. In a few +years Tahoe will be inundated in summer with similar vulgarity, +owing to its easiness of access. I sustained the reputation +which our country-women bear in America by looking a "perfect +guy"; and feeling that I was a salient point for the speaker's +next sally, I was relieved when the landlady, a ladylike +Englishwoman, asked me to join herself and her family in the +bar-room, where we had much talk about the neighborhood and its +wild beasts, especially bears. The forest is full of them, but +they seem never to attack people unless when wounded, or much +aggravated by dogs, or a shebear thinks you are going to molest +her young. + +I dreamt of bears so vividly that I woke with a furry death hug +at my throat, but feeling quite refreshed. When I mounted my +horse after breakfast the sun was high and the air so keen and +intoxicating that, giving the animal his head, I galloped up and +down hill, feeling completely tireless. Truly, that air is the +elixir of life. I had a glorious ride back to Truckee. The road +was not as solitary as the day before. In a deep part of the +forest the horse snorted and reared, and I saw a cinnamon-colored +bear with two cubs cross the track ahead of me. I tried to keep +the horse quiet that the mother might acquit me of any designs +upon her lolloping children, but I was glad when the ungainly, +long-haired party crossed the river. Then I met a team, the +driver of which stopped and said he was glad that I had not gone +to Cornelian Bay, it was such a bad trail, and hoped I had +enjoyed Tahoe. The driver of another team stopped and asked if I +had seen any bears. Then a man heavily armed, a hunter probably, +asked me if I were the English tourist who had "happened on" a +"Grizzly" yesterday. Then I saw a lumberer taking his dinner on +a rock in the river, who "touched his hat" and brought me a +draught of ice-cold water, which I could hardly drink owing to +the fractiousness of the horse, and gathered me some mountain +pinks, which I admired. I mention these little incidents to +indicate the habit of respectful courtesy to women which prevails +in that region. These men might have been excused for speaking +in a somewhat free-and-easy tone to a lady riding alone, and in +an unwonted fashion. Womanly dignity and manly respect for women +are the salt of society in this wild West. + +My horse was so excitable that I avoided the center of Truckee, +and skulked through a collection of Chinamen's shanties to the +stable, where a prodigious roan horse, standing seventeen hands +high, was produced for my ride to the Donner Lake. I asked the +owner, who was as interested in my enjoying myself as a West +Highlander might have been, if there were not ruffians about who +might make an evening ride dangerous. A story was current of a +man having ridden through Truckee two evenings before with a +chopped-up human body in a sack behind the saddle, and hosts of +stories of ruffianism are located there, rightly or wrongly. +This man said, "There's a bad breed of ruffians, but the ugliest +among them all won't touch you. There's nothing Western folk +admire so much as pluck in a woman." I had to get on a barrel +before I could reach the stirrup, and when I was mounted my feet +only came half-way down the horse's sides. I felt like a fly on +him. The road at first lay through a valley without a river, but +some swampishness nourished some rank swamp grass, the first +GREEN grass I have seen in America; and the pines, with their red +stems, looked beautiful rising out of it. I hurried along, and +came upon the Donner Lake quite suddenly, to be completely +smitten by its beauty. It is only about three miles long by one +and a half broad, and lies hidden away among mountains, with no +dwellings on its shores but some deserted lumberers' cabins.[5] +Its loneliness pleased me well. I did not see man, beast, or +bird from the time I left Truckee till I returned. The +mountains, which rise abruptly from the margin, are covered with +dense pine forests, through which, here and there, strange forms +of bare grey rock, castellated, or needle-like, protrude +themselves. On the opposite side, at a height of about 6,000 +feet, a grey, ascending line, from which rumbling, incoherent +sounds occasionally proceeded, is seen through the pines. This +is one of the snow-sheds of the Pacific Railroad, which shuts out +from travelers all that I was seeing. The lake is called after +Mr. Donner, who, with his family, arrived at the Truckee River in +the fall of the year, in company with a party of emigrants bound +for California. Being encumbered with many cattle, he let the +company pass on, and, with his own party of sixteen souls, which +included his wife and four children, encamped by the lake. In +the morning they found themselves surrounded by an expanse of +snow, and after some consultation it was agreed that the whole +party except Mr. Donner who was unwell, his wife, and a German +friend, should take the horses and attempt to cross the mountain, +which, after much peril, they succeeded in doing; but, as the +storm continued for several weeks, it was impossible for any +rescue party to succor the three who had been left behind. In +the early spring, when the snow was hard enough for traveling, a +party started in quest, expecting to find the snow-bound alive +and well, as they had cattle enough for their support, and, after +weeks of toil and exposure, they scaled the Sierras and reached +the Donner Lake. On arriving at the camp they opened the rude +door, and there, sitting before the fire, they found the German, +holding a roasted human arm and hand, which he was greedily +eating. The rescue party overpowered him, and with difficulty +tore the arm from him. A short search discovered the body of the +lady, minus the arm, frozen in the snow, round, plump, and fair, +showing that she was in perfect health when she met her fate. +The rescuers returned to California, taking the German with them, +whose story was that Mr. Donner died in the fall, and that the +cattle escaped, leaving them but little food, and that when this +was exhausted Mrs. Donner died. The story never gained any +credence, and the truth oozed out that the German had murdered +the husband, then brutally murdered the wife, and had seized upon +Donner's money. There were, however, no witnesses, and the +murderer escaped with the enforced surrender of the money to the +Donner orphans. + +[5] Visitors can now be accommodated at a tolerable mountain +hotel. + + +This tragic story filled my mind as I rode towards the head of +the lake, which became every moment grander and more unutterably +lovely. The sun was setting fast, and against his golden light +green promontories, wooded with stately pines, stood out one +beyond another in a medium of dark rich blue, while grey bleached +summits, peaked, turreted, and snow slashed, were piled above +them, gleaming with amber light. Darker grew the blue gloom, the +dew fell heavily, aromatic odors floated on the air, and still +the lofty peaks glowed with living light, till in one second it +died off from them, leaving them with the ashy paleness of a dead +face. It was dark and cold under the mountain shadows, the +frosty chill of the high altitude wrapped me round, the solitude +was overwhelming, and I reluctantly turned my horse's head +towards Truckee, often looking back to the ashy summits in their +unearthly fascination. Eastwards the look of the scenery was +changing every moment, while the lake for long remained "one +burnished sheet of living gold," and Truckee lay utterly out of +sight in a hollow filled with lake and cobalt. Before long a +carnival of color began which I can only describe as delirious, +intoxicating, a hardly bearable joy, a tender anguish, an +indescribable yearning, an unearthly music, rich in love and +worship. It lasted considerably more than an hour, and though +the road was growing very dark, and the train which was to take +me thence was fast climbing the Sierras, I could not ride faster +than a walk. + +The eastward mountains, which had been grey, blushed pale pink, +the pink deepened into rose, and the rose into crimson, and then +all solidity etherealized away and became clear and pure as an +amethyst, while all the waving ranges and the broken pine-clothed +ridges below etherealized too, but into a dark rich blue, and a +strange effect of atmosphere blended the whole into one perfect +picture. It changed, deepened, reddened, melted, growing more +and more wonderful, while under the pines it was night, till, +having displayed itself for an hour, the jewelled peaks suddenly +became like those of the Sierras, wan as the face of death. Far +later the cold golden light lingered in the west, with pines in +relief against its purity, and where the rose light had glowed in +the east, a huge moon upheaved itself, and the red flicker of +forest fires luridly streaked the mountain sides near and far +off. I realized that night had come with its EERINESS, and +putting my great horse into a gallop I clung on to him till I +pulled him up in Truckee, which was at the height of its evening +revelries--fires blazing out of doors, bar-rooms and saloons +crammed, lights glaring, gaming tables thronged, fiddle and banjo +in frightful discord, and the air ringing with ribaldry and +profanity. + I. L. B. + + +Letter III + +A Temple of Morpheus--Utah--A "God-forgotten" town--A distressed +couple--Dog villages--A temperance colony--A Colorado inn--The +bug pest--Fort Collins. + +CHEYENNE, WYOMING, September 8. + +Precisely at 11 P.M. the huge Pacific train, with its heavy bell +tolling, thundered up to the door of the Truckee House, and on +presenting my ticket at the double door of a "Silver Palace" car, +the slippered steward, whispering low, conducted me to my +berth--a luxurious bed three and a half feet wide, with a hair +mattress on springs, fine linen sheets, and costly California +blankets. The twenty-four inmates of the car were all invisible, +asleep behind rich curtains. It was a true Temple of Morpheus. +Profound sleep was the object to which everything was dedicated. +Four silver lamps hanging from the roof, and burning low, gave +a dreamy light. On each side of the center passage, rich rep +curtains, green and crimson, striped with gold, hung from silver +bars running near the roof, and trailed on the soft Axminster +carpet. The temperature was carefully kept at 70 degrees. It +was 29 degrees outside. Silence and freedom from jolting were +secured by double doors and windows, costly and ingenious +arrangements of springs and cushions, and a speed limited to +eighteen miles an hour. + +As I lay down, the gallop under the dark pines, the frosty moon, +the forest fires, the flaring lights and roaring din of Truckee +faded as dreams fade, and eight hours later a pure, pink dawn +divulged a level blasted region, with grey sage brush growing out +of a soil encrusted with alkali, and bounded on either side by +low glaring ridges. All through that day we traveled under a +cloudless sky over solitary glaring plains, and stopped twice at +solitary, glaring frame houses, where coarse, greasy meals, +infested by lazy flies, were provided at a dollar per head. By +evening we were running across the continent on a bee line, and I +sat for an hour on the rear platform of the rear car to enjoy the +wonderful beauty of the sunset and the atmosphere. Far as one +could see in the crystalline air there was nothing but desert. +The jagged Humboldt ranges flaming in the sunset, with snow in +their clefts, though forty-five miles off, looked within an easy +canter. The bright metal track, purpling like all else in the +cool distance, was all that linked one with Eastern or Western +civilization. + +The next morning, when the steward unceremoniously turned us out +of our berths soon after sunrise, we were running down upon the +Great Salt Lake, bounded by the white Wahsatch ranges. Along its +shores, by means of irrigation, Mormon industry has compelled the +ground to yield fine crops of hay and barley; and we passed +several cabins, from which, even at that early hour, Mormons, +each with two or three wives, were going forth to their day's +work. The women were ugly, and their shapeless blue dresses +hideous. At the Mormon town of Ogden we changed cars, and again +traversed dusty plains, white and glaring, varied by muddy +streams and rough, arid valleys, now and then narrowing into +canyons. By common consent the windows were kept closed to +exclude the fine white alkaline dust, which is very irritating to +the nostrils. The journey became more and more wearisome as we +ascended rapidly over immense plains and wastes of gravel +destitute of mountain boundaries, and with only here and there a +"knob" or "butte"[6] to break the monotony. The wheel-marks of +the trail to Utah often ran parallel with the track, and bones of +oxen were bleaching in the sun, the remains of those "whose +carcasses fell in the wilderness" on the long and drouthy +journey. The daybreak of to-day (Sunday) found us shivering at +Fort Laramie, a frontier post dismally situated at a height of +7,000 feet. Another 1,000 feet over gravelly levels brought us +to Sherman, the highest level reached by this railroad. From +this point eastward the streams fall into the Atlantic. The +ascent of these apparently level plateaus is called "crossing the +Rocky Mountains," but I have seen nothing of the range, except +two peaks like teeth lying low on the distant horizon. It became +mercilessly cold; some people thought it snowed, but I only saw +rolling billows of fog. Lads passed through the cars the whole +morning, selling newspapers, novels, cacti, lollypops, pop corn, +pea nuts, and ivory ornaments, so that, having lost all reckoning +of the days, I never knew that it was Sunday till the cars pulled +up at the door of the hotel in this detestable place. + +[6] The mountains which bound the "valley of the Babbling +Waters," Utah, afford striking examples of these "knobs" or +"buttes." + + +The surrounding plains were endless and verdureless. The scanty +grasses were long ago turned into sun-cured hay by the fierce +summer heats. There is neither tree nor bush, the sky is grey, +the earth buff, the air blae and windy, and clouds of coarse +granitic dust sweep across the prairie and smother the +settlement. Cheyenne is described as "a God-forsaken, +God-forgotten place." That it forgets God is written on its +face. It owes its existence to the railroad, and has diminished +in population, but is a depot for a large amount of the +necessaries of life which are distributed through the scantily +settled districts within distances of 300 miles by "freight +wagons," each drawn by four or six horses or mules, or double +that number of oxen. At times over 100 wagons, with double that +number of teamsters, are in Cheyenne at once. A short time ago +it was a perfect pandemonium, mainly inhabited by rowdies and +desperadoes, the scum of advancing civilization; and murders, +stabbings, shooting, and pistol affrays were at times events of +almost hourly occurrence in its drinking dens. But in the West, +when things reach their worst, a sharp and sure remedy is +provided. Those settlers who find the state of matters +intolerable, organize themselves into a Vigilance Committee. +"Judge Lynch," with a few feet of rope, appears on the scene, the +majority crystallizes round the supporters of order, warnings are +issued to obnoxious people, simply bearing a scrawl of a tree +with a man dangling from it, with such words as "Clear out of +this by 6 A.M., or----." A number of the worst desperadoes are +tried by a yet more summary process than a drumhead court +martial, "strung up," and buried ignominiously. I have been told +that 120 ruffians were disposed of in this way here in a single +fortnight. Cheyenne is now as safe as Hilo, and the interval +between the most desperate lawlessness and the time when United +States law, with its corruption and feebleness, comes upon the +scene is one of comparative security and good order. Piety is +not the forte of Cheyenne. The roads resound with atrocious +profanity, and the rowdyism of the saloons and bar-rooms is +repressed, not extirpated. + +The population, once 6,000, is now about 4,000. It is an +ill-arranged set of frame houses and shanties [7] and rubbish +heaps, and offal of deer and antelope, produce the foulest smells +I have smelt for a long time. Some of the houses are painted a +blinding white; others are unpainted; there is not a bush, or +garden, or green thing; it just straggles out promiscuously on +the boundless brown plains, on the extreme verge of which three +toothy peaks are seen. It is utterly slovenly-looking, and +unornamental, abounds in slouching bar-room-looking characters, +and looks a place of low, mean lives. Below the hotel window +freight cars are being perpetually shunted, but beyond the +railroad tracks are nothing but the brown plains, with their +lonely sights--now a solitary horseman at a traveling amble, then +a party of Indians in paint and feathers, but civilized up to the +point of carrying firearms, mounted on sorry ponies, the +bundled-up squaws riding astride on the baggage ponies; then a +drove of ridgy-spined, long-horned cattle, which have been +several months eating their way from Texas, with their escort of +four or five much-spurred horsemen, in peaked hats, blue-hooded +coats, and high boots, heavily armed with revolvers and repeating +rifles, and riding small wiry horses. A solitary wagon, with a +white tilt, drawn by eight oxen, is probably bearing an emigrant +and his fortunes to Colorado. On one of the dreary spaces of the +settlement six white-tilted wagons, each with twelve oxen, are +standing on their way to a distant part. Everything suggests a +beyond. + +[7] The discovery of gold in the Black Hills has lately given it +a great impetus, and as it is the chief point of departure for +the diggings it is increasing in population and importance. +(July, 1879) + + +September 9. + +I have found at the post office here a circular letter of +recommendation from ex-Governor Hunt, procured by Miss Kingsley's +kindness, and another equally valuable one of "authentication" +and recommendation from Mr. Bowles, of the Springfield +Republican, whose name is a household word in all the West. +Armed with these, I shall plunge boldly into Colorado. I am +suffering from giddiness and nausea produced by the bad smells. +A "help" here says that there have been fifty-six deaths from +cholera during the last twenty days. Is common humanity lacking, +I wonder, in this region of hard greed? Can it not be bought by +dollars here, like every other commodity, votes included? Last +night I made the acquaintance of a shadowy gentleman from +Wisconsin, far gone in consumption, with a spirited wife and +young baby. He had been ordered to the Plains as a last +resource, but was much worse. Early this morning he crawled to +my door, scarcely able to speak from debility and bleeding from +the lungs, begging me to go to his wife, who, the doctor said was +ill of cholera. The child had been ill all night, and not for +love or money could he get any one to do anything for them, not +even to go for the medicine. The lady was blue, and in great +pain from cramp, and the poor unweaned infant was roaring for the +nourishment which had failed. I vainly tried to get hot water +and mustard for a poultice, and though I offered a Negro a dollar +to go for the medicine, he looked at it superciliously, hummed a +tune, and said he must wait for the Pacific train, which was not +due for an hour. Equally in vain I hunted through Cheyenne for a +feeding bottle. Not a maternal heart softened to the helpless +mother and starving child, and my last resource was to dip a +piece of sponge in some milk and water, and try to pacify the +creature. I applied Rigollot's leaves, went for the medicine, +saw the popular host--a bachelor--who mentioned a girl who, after +much difficulty, consented to take charge of the baby for two +dollars a day and attend to the mother, and having remained till +she began to amend, I took the cars for Greeley, a settlement on +the Plains, which I had been recommended to make my starting +point for the mountains. + + +FORT COLLINS, September 10. + +It gave me a strange sensation to embark upon the Plains. +Plains, plains everywhere, plains generally level, but elsewhere +rolling in long undulations, like the waves of a sea which had +fallen asleep. They are covered thinly with buff grass, the +withered stalks of flowers, Spanish bayonet, and a small +beehive-shaped cactus. One could gallop all over them. + +They are peopled with large villages of what are called prairie +dogs, because they utter a short, sharp bark, but the dogs are, +in reality, marmots. We passed numbers of villages, which are +composed of raised circular orifices, about eighteen inches in +diameter, with sloping passages leading downwards for five or six +feet. Hundreds of these burrows are placed together. On nearly +every rim a small furry reddish-buff beast sat on his hind legs, +looking, so far as head went, much like a young seal. These +creatures were acting as sentinels, and sunning themselves. As +we passed, each gave a warning yelp, shook its tail, and, with a +ludicrous flourish of its hind legs, dived into its hole. The +appearance of hundreds of these creatures, each eighteen inches +long, sitting like dogs begging, with their paws down and all +turned sunwards, is most grotesque. The Wish-ton-Wish has few +enemies, and is a most prolific animal. From its enormous +increase and the energy and extent of its burrowing operations, +one can fancy that in the course of years the prairies will be +seriously injured, as it honeycombs the ground, and renders it +unsafe for horses. The burrows seem usually to be shared by +owls, and many of the people insist that a rattlesnake is also an +inmate, but I hope for the sake of the harmless, cheery little +prairie dog, that this unwelcome fellowship is a myth. + +After running on a down grade for some time, five distinct ranges +of mountains, one above another, a lurid blue against a lurid +sky, upheaved themselves above the prairie sea. An American +railway car, hot, stuffy and full of chewing, spitting Yankees, +was not an ideal way of approaching this range which had early +impressed itself upon my imagination. Still, it was truly grand, +although it was sixty miles off, and we were looking at it from a +platform 5,000 feet in height. As I write I am only twenty-five +miles from them, and they are gradually gaining possession of me. + +I can look at and FEEL nothing else. At five in the afternoon +frame houses and green fields began to appear, the cars drew up, +and two of my fellow passengers and I got out and carried our own +luggage through the deep dust to a small, rough, Western tavern, +where with difficulty we were put up for the night. This +settlement is called the Greeley Temperance Colony, and was +founded lately by an industrious class of emigrants from the +East, all total abstainers, and holding advanced political +opinions. They bought and fenced 50,000 acres of land, +constructed an irrigating canal, which distributes its waters on +reasonable terms, have already a population of 3,000, and are the +most prosperous and rising colony in Colorado, being altogether +free from either laziness or crime. Their rich fields are +artificially productive solely; and after seeing regions where +Nature gives spontaneously, one is amazed that people should +settle here to be dependent on irrigating canals, with the risk +of having their crops destroyed by grasshoppers. A clause in the +charter of the colony prohibits the introduction, sale, or +consumption of intoxicating liquor, and I hear that the men of +Greeley carry their crusade against drink even beyond their +limits, and have lately sacked three houses open for the sale of +drink near their frontier, pouring the whisky upon the ground, so +that people don't now like to run the risk of bringing liquor +near Greeley, and the temperance influence is spreading over a +very large area. As the men have no bar-rooms to sit in, I +observed that Greeley was asleep at an hour when other places +were beginning their revelries. Nature is niggardly, and living +is coarse and rough, the merest necessaries of hardy life being +all that can be thought of in this stage of existence. + +My first experiences of Colorado travel have been rather severe. +At Greeley I got a small upstairs room at first, but gave it up +to a married couple with a child, and then had one downstairs no +bigger than a cabin, with only a canvas partition. It was very +hot, and every place was thick with black flies. The English +landlady had just lost her "help," and was in a great fuss, so +that I helped her to get supper ready. Its chief features were +greasiness and black flies. Twenty men in working clothes fed +and went out again, "nobody speaking to nobody." The landlady +introduced me to a Vermont settler who lives in the "Foot Hills," +who was very kind and took a great deal of trouble to get me a +horse. Horses abound, but they are either large American horses, +which are only used for draught, or small, active horses, called +broncos, said to be from a Spanish word, signifying that they can +never be broke. They nearly all "buck," and are described as +being more "ugly" and treacherous than mules. There is only one +horse in Greeley "safe for a woman to ride." I tried an Indian +pony by moonlight--such a moonlight--but found he had tender +feet. The kitchen was the only sitting room, so I shortly went +to bed, to be awoke very soon by crawling creatures apparently in +myriads. I struck a light, and found such swarms of bugs that I +gathered myself up on the wooden chairs, and dozed uneasily till +sunrise. Bugs are a great pest in Colorado. They come out of +the earth, infest the wooden walls, and cannot be got rid of by +any amount of cleanliness. Many careful housewives take their +beds to pieces every week and put carbolic acid on them. + +It was a glorious, cool morning, and the great range of the Rocky +Mountains looked magnificent. I tried the pony again, but found +he would not do for a long journey; and as my Vermont +acquaintance offered me a seat in his wagon to Fort Collins, +twenty-five miles nearer the Mountains, I threw a few things +together and came here with him. We left Greeley at 10, and +arrived here at 4:30, staying an hour for food on the way. I +liked the first half of the drive; but the fierce, ungoverned, +blazing heat of the sun on the whitish earth for the last half, +was terrible even with my white umbrella, which I have not used +since I left New Zealand; it was sickening. Then the eyes have +never anything green to rest upon, except in the river bottoms, +where there is green hay grass. We followed mostly the course of +the River Cache-a-la-Poudre, which rises in the Mountains, and +after supplying Greeley with irrigation, falls into the Platte, +which is an affluent of the Missouri. When once beyond the +scattered houses and great ring fence of the vigorous Greeley +colonists, we were on the boundless prairie. Now and then +horsemen passed us, and we met three wagons with white tilts. +Except where the prairie dogs have honeycombed the ground, you +can drive almost anywhere, and the passage of a few wagons over +the same track makes a road. We forded the river, whose course +is marked the whole way by a fringe of small cotton-woods and +aspens, and traveled hour after hour with nothing to see except +some dog towns, with their quaint little sentinels; but the view +in front was glorious. The Alps, from the Lombard Plains, are +the finest mountain panorama I ever saw, but not equal to this; +for not only do five high-peaked giants, each nearly the height +of Mont Blanc, lift their dazzling summits above the lower +ranges, but the expanse of mountains is so vast, and the whole +lie in a transparent medium of the richest blue, not +haze--something peculiar to the region. The lack of foreground +is a great artistic fault, and the absence of greenery is +melancholy, and makes me recall sadly the entrancing detail of +the Hawaiian Islands. Once only, the second time we forded the +river, the cotton-woods formed a foreground, and then the +loveliness was heavenly. We stopped at a log house and got a +rough dinner of beef and potatoes, and I was amused at the five +men who shared it with us for apologizing to me for being without +their coats, as if coats would not be an enormity on the Plains. + +It is the election day for the Territory, and men were galloping +over the prairie to register their votes. The three in the wagon +talked politics the whole time. They spoke openly and +shamelessly of the prices given for votes; and apparently there +was not a politician on either side who was not accused of +degrading corruption. We saw a convoy of 5,000 head of Texas +cattle traveling from southern Texas to Iowa. They had been +nine months on the way! They were under the charge of twenty +mounted vacheros, heavily armed, and a light wagon accompanied +them, full of extra rifles and ammunition, not unnecessary, for +the Indians are raiding in all directions, maddened by the +reckless and useless slaughter of the buffalo, which is their +chief subsistence. On the Plains are herds of wild horses, +buffalo, deer, and antelope; and in the Mountains, bears, wolves, +deer, elk, mountain lions, bison, and mountain sheep. You see a +rifle in every wagon, as people always hope to fall in with game. + +By the time we reached Fort Collins I was sick and dizzy with the +heat of the sun, and not disposed to be pleased with a most +unpleasing place. It was a military post, but at present +consists of a few frame houses put down recently on the bare and +burning plain. The settlers have "great expectations," but of +what? The Mountains look hardly nearer than from Greeley; one +only realizes their vicinity by the loss of their higher peaks. +This house is freer from bugs than the one at Greeley, but full +of flies. These new settlements are altogether revolting, +entirely utilitarian, given up to talk of dollars as well as to +making them, with coarse speech, coarse food, coarse everything, +nothing wherewith to satisfy the higher cravings if they exist, +nothing on which the eye can rest with pleasure. The lower floor +of this inn swarms with locusts in addition to thousands of black +flies. The latter cover the ground and rise buzzing from it as +you walk. + I. L. B. + + +Letter IV + +A plague of flies--A melancholy charioteer--The Foot Hills--A +mountain boarding-house--A dull life--"Being agreeable"--Climate +of Colorado--Soroche and snakes. + +CANYON, September 12. + +I was actually so dull and tired that I deliberately slept away +the afternoon in order to forget the heat and flies. Thirty men +in working clothes, silent and sad looking, came in to supper. +The beef was tough and greasy, the butter had turned to oil, and +beef and butter were black with living, drowned, and half-drowned +flies. The greasy table-cloth was black also with flies, and I +did not wonder that the guests looked melancholy and quickly +escaped. I failed to get a horse, but was strongly recommended +to come here and board with a settler, who, they said, had a +saw-mill and took boarders. The person who recommended it so +strongly gave me a note of introduction, and told me that it was +in a grand part of the mountains, where many people had been +camping out all the summer for the benefit of their health. The +idea of a boarding-house, as I know them in America, was rather +formidable in the present state of my wardrobe, and I decided on +bringing my carpet-bag, as well as my pack, lest I should be +rejected for my bad clothes. + +Early the next morning I left in a buggy drawn by light broncos +and driven by a profoundly melancholy young man. He had never +been to the canyon; there was no road. We met nobody, saw +nothing except antelope in the distance, and he became more +melancholy and lost his way, driving hither and thither for +about twenty miles till we came upon an old trail which +eventually brought us to a fertile "bottom," where hay and barley +were being harvested, and five or six frame houses looked +cheerful. I had been recommended to two of these, which +professed to take in strangers, but one was full of reapers, and +in the other a child was dead. So I took the buggy on, glad to +leave the glaring, prosaic settlement behind. There was a most +curious loneliness about the journey up to that time. Except for +the huge barrier to the right, the boundless prairies were +everywhere, and it was like being at sea without a compass. The +wheels made neither sound nor indentation as we drove over the +short, dry grass, and there was no cheerful clatter of horses' +hoofs. The sky was cloudy and the air hot and still. In one +place we passed the carcass of a mule, and a number of vultures +soared up from it, to descend again immediately. Skeletons and +bones of animals were often to be seen. A range of low, grassy +hills, called the Foot Hills, rose from the plain, featureless +and monotonous, except where streams, fed by the snows of the +higher regions, had cut their way through them. Confessedly +bewildered, and more melancholy than ever, the driver turned up +one of the wildest of these entrances, and in another hour the +Foot Hills lay between us and the prairie sea, and a higher and +broken range, with pitch pines of average size, was revealed +behind them. These Foot Hills, which swell up uninterestingly +from the plains on their eastern side, on their western have the +appearance of having broken off from the next range, and the +break is abrupt, and takes the form of walls and terraces of rock +of the most brilliant color, weathered and stained by ores, and, +even under the grey sky, dazzling to the eyes. The driver +thought he had understood the directions given, but he was +stupid, and once we lost some miles by arriving at a river too +rough and deep to be forded, and again we were brought up by an +impassable canyon. He grew frightened about his horses, and said +no money would ever tempt him into the mountains again; but +average intelligence would have made it all easy. + +The solitude was becoming somber, when, after driving for nine +hours, and traveling at the least forty-five miles, without any +sign of fatigue on the part of the broncos, we came to a stream, +by the side of which we drove along a definite track, till we +came to a sort of tripartite valley, with a majestic crooked +canyon 2,000 feet deep opening upon it. A rushing stream roared +through it, and the Rocky Mountains, with pines scattered over +them, came down upon it. A little farther, and the canyon became +utterly inaccessible. This was exciting; here was an inner +world. A rough and shaky bridge, made of the outsides of pines +laid upon some unsecured logs, crossed the river. The broncos +stopped and smelt it, not liking it, but some encouraging speech +induced them to go over. On the other side was a log cabin, +partially ruinous, and the very rudest I ever saw, its roof of +plastered mud being broken into large holes. It stood close to +the water among some cotton-wood trees. A little higher there +was a very primitive saw-mill, also out of repair, with some logs +lying about. An emigrant wagon and a forlorn tent, with a +camp-fire and a pot, were in the foreground, but there was no +trace of the boarding-house, of which I stood a little in dread. +The driver went for further directions to the log cabin, and +returned with a grim smile deepening the melancholy of his face +to say it was Mr. Chalmers', but there was no accommodation +for such as him, much less for me! This was truly "a sell." I +got down and found a single room of the rudest kind, with the +wall at one end partially broken down, holes in the roof, holes +for windows, and no furniture but two chairs and two unplaned +wooden shelves, with some sacks of straw upon them for beds. +There was an adjacent cabin room, with a stove, benches, and +table, where they cooked and ate, but this was all. A hard, +sad-looking woman looked at me measuringly. She said that they +sold milk and butter to parties who camped in the canyon, that +they had never had any boarders but two asthmatic old ladies, but +they would take me for five dollars per week if I "would make +myself agreeable." The horses had to be fed, and I sat down on a +box, had some dried beef and milk, and considered the matter. If +I went back to Fort Collins, I thought I was farther from a +mountain life, and had no choice but Denver, a place from which I +shrank, or to take the cars for New York. Here the life was +rough, rougher than any I had ever seen, and the people repelled +me by their faces and manners; but if I could rough it for a few +days, I might, I thought, get over canyons and all other +difficulties into Estes Park, which has become the goal of my +journey and hopes. So I decided to remain. + +September 16. + +Five days here, and I am no nearer Estes Park. How the days pass +I know not; I am weary of the limitations of this existence. +This is "a life in which nothing happens." When the buggy +disappeared, I felt as if I had cut the bridge behind me. I sat +down and knitted for some time--my usual resource under +discouraging circumstances. I really did not know how I should +get on. There was no table, no bed, no basin, no towel, no +glass, no window, no fastening on the door. The roof was in +holes, the logs were unchinked, and one end of the cabin was +partially removed! Life was reduced to its simplest elements. I +went out; the family all had something to do, and took no notice +of me. I went back, and then an awkward girl of sixteen, with +uncombed hair, and a painful repulsiveness of face and air, sat +on a log for half an hour and stared at me. I tried to draw her +into talk, but she twirled her fingers and replied snappishly in +monosyllables. Could I by any effort "make myself agreeable"? I +wondered. The day went on. I put on my Hawaiian dress, rolling +up the sleeves to the elbows in an "agreeable" fashion. Towards +evening the family returned to feed, and pushed some dried beef +and milk in at the door. They all slept under the trees, and +before dark carried the sacks of straw out for their bedding. I +followed their example that night, or rather watched Charles's +Wain while they slept, but since then have slept on blankets on +the floor under the roof. They have neither lamp nor candle, so +if I want to do anything after dark I have to do it by the +unsteady light of pine knots. As the nights are cold, and free +from bugs, and I do a good deal of manual labor, I sleep well. +At dusk I make my bed on the floor, and draw a bucket of ice-cold +water from the river; the family go to sleep under the trees, and +I pile logs on the fire sufficient to burn half the night, for I +assure you the solitude is eerie enough. There are unaccountable +noises, (wolves), rummagings under the floor, queer cries, and +stealthy sounds of I know not what. One night a beast (fox or +skunk) rushed in at the open end of the cabin, and fled through +the window, almost brushing my face, and on another, the head and +three or four inches of the body of a snake were protruded +through a chink of the floor close to me, to my extreme disgust. +My mirror is the polished inside of my watchcase. At sunrise +Mrs. Chalmers comes in--if coming into a nearly open shed can be +called IN--and makes a fire, because she thinks me too stupid to +do it, and mine is the family room; and by seven I am dressed, +have folded the blankets, and swept the floor, and then she puts +some milk and bread or stirabout on a box by the door. After +breakfast I draw more water, and wash one or two garments daily, +taking care that there are no witnesses of my inexperience. +Yesterday a calf sucked one into hopeless rags. The rest of the +day I spend in mending, knitting, writing to you, and the various +odds and ends which arise when one has to do all for oneself. At +twelve and six some food is put on the box by the door, and at +dusk we make up our beds. A distressed emigrant woman has just +given birth to a child in a temporary shanty by the river, and I +go to help her each day. + +I have made the acquaintance of all the careworn, struggling +settlers within a walk. All have come for health, and most have +found or are finding it, even if they have not better shelter +than a wagon tilt or a blanket on sticks laid across four poles. +The climate of Colorado is considered the finest in North +America, and consumptives, asthmatics, dyspeptics, and sufferers +from nervous diseases, are here in hundreds and thousands, either +trying the "camp cure" for three or four months, or settling here +permanently. People can safely sleep out of doors for six months +of the year. The plains are from 4,000 to 6,000 feet high, and +some of the settled "parks," or mountain valleys, are from 8,000 +to 10,000. The air, besides being much rarefied, is very dry. +The rainfall is far below the average, dews are rare, and fogs +nearly unknown. The sunshine is bright and almost constant, and +three-fourths of the days are cloudless. The milk, beef, and +bread are good. The climate is neither so hot in summer nor so +cold in winter as that of the States, and when the days are hot +the nights are cool. Snow rarely lies on the lower ranges, and +horses and cattle don't require to be either fed or housed during +the winter. Of course the rarefied air quickens respiration. +All this is from hearsay.[8] I am not under favorable +circumstances, either for mind or body, and at present I feel a +singular lassitude and difficulty in taking exercise, but this is +said to be the milder form of the affliction known on higher +altitudes as soroche, or "mountain sickness," and is only +temporary. I am forming a plan for getting farther into the +mountains, and hope that my next letter will be more lively. I +killed a rattlesnake this morning close to the cabin, and have +taken its rattle, which has eleven joints. My life is embittered +by the abundance of these reptiles--rattlesnakes and moccasin +snakes, both deadly, carpet snakes and "green racers," reputed +dangerous, water snakes, tree snakes, and mouse snakes, harmless +but abominable. Seven rattlesnakes have been killed just outside +the cabin since I came. A snake, three feet long, was coiled +under the pillow of the sick woman. I see snakes in all withered +twigs, and am ready to flee at "the sound of a shaken leaf." And +besides snakes, the earth and air are alive and noisy with forms +of insect life, large and small, stinging, humming, buzzing, +striking, rasping, devouring! + +[8] The curative effect of the climate of Colorado can hardly be +exaggerated. In traveling extensively through the Territory +afterwards I found that nine out of every ten settlers were cured +invalids. Statistics and medical workers on the climate of the +State(as it now is) represent Colorado as the most remarkable +sanatorium in the world. + I. L. B. + + +Letter V + +A dateless day--"Those hands of yours"--A Puritan--Persevering +shiftlessness--The house-mother--Family worship--A grim Sunday--A +"thick-skulled Englishman"--A morning call--Another +atmosphere--The Great Lone Land--"Ill found"--A log camp--Bad +footing for horses--Accidents--Disappointment. + +CANYON, September. + +The absence of a date shows my predicament. THEY have no +newspaper; _I_ have no almanack; the father is away for the day, +and none of the others can help me, and they look contemptuously +upon my desire for information on the subject. The monotony will +come to an end to-morrow, for Chalmers offers to be my guide over +the mountains to Estes Park, and has persuaded his wife "for once +to go for a frolic"; and with much reluctance, many growls at the +waste of time, and many apprehensions of danger and loss, she has +consented to accompany him. My life has grown less dull from +their having become more interesting to me, and as I have "made +myself agreeable," we are on fairly friendly terms. My first +move in the direction of fraternizing was, however, snubbed. A +few days ago, having finished my own work, I offered to wash up +the plates, but Mrs. C., with a look which conveyed more than +words, a curl of her nose, and a sneer in her twang, said "Guess +you'll make more work nor you'll do. Those hands of yours" (very +brown and coarse they were) "ain't no good; never done nothing, I +guess." Then to her awkward daughter: "This woman says she'll +wash up! Ha! ha! look at her arms and hands!" This was the +nearest approach to a laugh I have heard, and have never seen +even a tendency towards a smile. Since then I have risen in +their estimation by improvizing a lamp--Hawaiian fashion--by +putting a wisp of rag into a tin of fat. They have actually +condescended to sit up till the stars come out since. Another +advance was made by means of the shell-pattern quilt I am +knitting for you. There has been a tendency towards approving of +it, and a few days since the girl snatched it out of my hand, +saying, "I want this," and apparently took it to the camp. This +has resulted in my having a knitting class, with the woman, her +married daughter, and a woman from the camp, as pupils. Then I +have gained ground with the man by being able to catch and saddle +a horse. I am often reminded of my favorite couplet,-- + + Beware of desperate steps; the darkest day, + Live till to-morrow, will have passed away. + +But oh! what a hard, narrow life it is with which I am now in +contact! A narrow and unattractive religion, which I believe +still to be genuine, and an intense but narrow patriotism, are +the only higher influences. Chalmers came from Illinois nine +years ago, pronounced by the doctors to be far gone in +consumption, and in two years he was strong. They are a queer +family; somewhere in the remote Highlands I have seen such +another. Its head is tall, gaunt, lean, and ragged, and has +lost one eye. On an English road one would think him a starving +or a dangerous beggar. He is slightly intelligent, very +opinionated, and wishes to be thought well informed, which he is +not. He belongs to the straitest sect of Reformed Presbyterians +("Psalm-singers"), but exaggerates anything of bigotry and +intolerance which may characterize them, and rejoices in truly +merciless fashion over the excision of the philanthropic Mr. +Stuart, of Philadelphia, for worshipping with congregations which +sing hymns. His great boast is that his ancestors were Scottish +Covenanters. He considers himself a profound theologian, and by +the pine logs at night discourses to me on the mysteries of the +eternal counsels and the divine decrees. Colorado, with its +progress and its future, is also a constant theme. He hates +England with a bitter, personal hatred, and regards any allusions +which I make to the progress of Victoria as a personal insult. +He trusts to live to see the downfall of the British monarchy and +the disintegration of the empire. He is very fond of talking, +and asks me a great deal about my travels, but if I speak +favorably of the climate or resources of any other country, he +regards it as a slur on Colorado. + +They have one hundred and sixty acres of land, a "Squatter's +claim," and an invaluable water power. He is a lumberer, and has +a saw-mill of a very primitive kind. I notice that every day +something goes wrong with it, and this is the case throughout. +If he wants to haul timber down, one or other of the oxen cannot +be found; or if the timber is actually under way, a wheel or a +part of the harness gives way, and the whole affair is at a +standstill for days. The cabin is hardly a shelter, but is +allowed to remain in ruins because the foundation of a frame +house was once dug. A horse is always sure to be lame for want +of a shoe nail, or a saddle to be useless from a broken buckle, +and the wagon and harness are a marvel of temporary shifts, +patchings, and insecure linkings with strands of rope. Nothing +is ever ready or whole when it is wanted. Yet Chalmers is a +frugal, sober, hard-working man, and he, his eldest son, and a +"hired man" "Rise early," "going forth to their work and labor +till the evening"; and if they do not "late take rest," they +truly "eat the bread of carefulness." It is hardly surprising +that nine years of persevering shiftlessness should have resulted +in nothing but the ability to procure the bare necessaries of +life. + +Of Mrs. C. I can say less. She looks like one of the English +poor women of our childhood--lean, clean, toothless, and speaks, +like some of them, in a piping, discontented voice, which seems +to convey a personal reproach. All her waking hours are spent in +a large sun-bonnet. She is never idle for one minute, is severe +and hard, and despises everything but work. I think she suffers +from her husband's shiftlessness. She always speaks of me as +"This" or "that woman." The family consists of a grown-up son, a +shiftless, melancholy-looking youth, who possibly pines for a +wider life; a girl of sixteen, a sour, repellent-looking +creature, with as much manners as a pig; and three hard, un- +child-like younger children. By the whole family all courtesy +and gentleness of act or speech seem regarded as "works of the +flesh," if not of "the devil." They knock over all one's things +without apologizing or picking them up, and when I thank them for +anything they look grimly amazed. I feel that they think it +sinful that I do not work as hard as they do. I wish I could +show them "a more excellent way." This hard greed, and the +exclusive pursuit of gain, with the indifference to all which +does not aid in its acquisition, are eating up family love and +life throughout the West. I write this reluctantly, and after a +total experience of nearly two years in the United States. They +seem to have no "Sunday clothes," and few of any kind. The +sewing machine, like most other things, is out of order. One +comb serves the whole family. Mrs. C. is cleanly in her person +and dress, and the food, though poor, is clean. Work, work, +work, is their day and their life. They are thoroughly ungenial, +and have that air of suspicion in speaking of every one which is +not unusual in the land of their ancestors. Thomas Chalmers +is the man's ecclesiastical hero, in spite of his own severe +Puritanism. Their live stock consists of two wretched horses, a +fairly good bronco mare, a mule, four badly-bred cows, four gaunt +and famished-looking oxen, some swine of singularly active +habits, and plenty of poultry. The old saddles are tied on with +twine; one side of the bridle is a worn-out strap and the other a +rope. They wear boots, but never two of one pair, and never +blacked, of course, but no stockings. They think it quite +effeminate to sleep under a roof, except during the severest +months of the year. There is a married daughter across the +river, just the same hard, loveless, moral, hard-working being as +her mother. Each morning, soon after seven, when I have swept +the cabin, the family come in for "worship." Chalmers "wales" a +psalm, in every sense of the word wail, to the most doleful of +dismal tunes; they read a chapter round, and he prays. If his +prayer has something of the tone of the imprecatory psalms, he +has high authority in his favor; and if there be a tinge of the +Pharisaic thanksgiving, it is hardly surprising that he is +grateful that he is not as other men are when he contemplates the +general godlessness of the region. + +Sunday was a dreadful day. The family kept the Commandment +literally, and did no work. Worship was conducted twice, and was +rather longer than usual. Chalmers does not allow of any books +in his house but theological works, and two or three volumes of +dull travels, so the mother and children slept nearly all day. +The man attempted to read a well-worn copy of Boston's Fourfold +State, but shortly fell asleep, and they only woke up for their +meals. Friday and Saturday had been passably cool, with frosty +nights, but on Saturday night it changed, and I have not felt +anything like the heat of Sunday since I left New Zealand, though +the mercury was not higher than 91 degrees. It was sickening, +scorching, melting, unbearable, from the mere power of the sun's +rays. It was an awful day, and seemed as if it would never come +to an end. The cabin, with its mud roof under the shade of the +trees, gave a little shelter, but it was occupied by the family, +and I longed for solitude. I took the Imitation of Christ, and +strolled up the canyon among the withered, crackling leaves, in +much dread of snakes, and lay down on a rough table which some +passing emigrant had left, and soon fell asleep. When I awoke it +was only noon. The sun looked wicked as it blazed like a white +magnesium light. A large tree-snake (quite harmless) hung from +the pine under which I had taken shelter, and looked as if it +were going to drop upon me. I was covered with black flies. The +air was full of a busy, noisy din of insects, and snakes, +locusts, wasps, flies, and grasshoppers were all rioting in the +torrid heat. Would the sublime philosophy of Thomas a Kempis, +I wondered, have given way under this? All day I seemed to hear +in mockery the clear laugh of the Hilo streams, and the drip of +Kona showers, and to see as in a mirage the perpetual Green of +windward Hawaii. I was driven back to the cabin in the late +afternoon, and in the evening listened for two hours to abuse of +my own country, and to sweeping condemnations of all religionists +outside of the brotherhood of "Psalm-singers." It is jarring and +painful, yet I would say of Chalmers, as Dr. Holland says of +another:-- + + If ever I shall reach the home in heaven, + For whose dear rest I humbly hope and pray, + In the great company of the forgiven + I shall be sure to meet old Daniel Gray. + + +The night came without coolness, but at daylight on Monday +morning a fire was pleasant. You will now have some idea of my +surroundings. It is a moral, hard, unloving, unlovely, +unrelieved, unbeautified, grinding life. These people live in a +discomfort and lack of ease and refinement which seems only +possible to people of British stock. A "foreigner" fills his +cabin with ingenuities and elegancies, and a Hawaiian or South +Sea Islander makes his grass house both pretty and tasteful. Add +to my surroundings a mighty canyon, impassable both above and +below, and walls of mountains with an opening some miles off to +the vast prairie sea.[9] + +[9] I have not curtailed this description of the roughness +of a Colorado settler's life, for, with the exceptions of the +disrepair and the Puritanism, it is a type of the hard, +unornamented existence with which I came almost universally in +contact during my subsequent residence in the Territory. + + +An English physician is settled about half a mile from here over +a hill. He is spoken of as holding "very extreme opinions." +Chalmers rails at him for being "a thick-skulled Englishman," for +being "fine, polished," etc. To say a man is "polished" here is +to give him a very bad name. He accuses him also of holding +views subversive of all morality. In spite of all this, I +thought he might possess a map, and I induced Mrs. C. to walk +over with me. She intended it as a formal morning call, but she +wore the inevitable sun-bonnet, and had her dress tied up as when +washing. It was not till I reached the gate that I remembered +that I was in my Hawaiian riding dress, and that I still wore the +spurs with which I had been trying a horse in the morning! The +house was in a grass valley which opened from the tremendous +canyon through which the river had cut its way. The Foot Hills, +with their terraces of flaming red rock, were glowing in the +sunset, and a pure green sky arched tenderly over a soft evening +scene. Used to the meanness and baldness of settlers' dwellings. +I was delighted to see that in this instance the usual log cabin +was only the lower floor of a small house, which bore a +delightful resemblance to a Swiss chalet. It stood in a +vegetable garden fertilized by an irrigating ditch, outside of +which were a barn and cowshed. A young Swiss girl was bringing +the cows slowly home from the hill, an Englishwoman in a clean +print dress stood by the fence holding a baby, and a fine-looking +Englishman in a striped Garibaldi shirt, and trousers of the same +tucked into high boots, was shelling corn. As soon as Mrs. +Hughes spoke I felt she was truly a lady; and oh! how refreshing +her refined, courteous, graceful English manner was, as she +invited us into the house! The entrance was low, through a log +porch festooned and almost concealed by a "wild cucumber." +Inside, though plain and poor, the room looked a home, not like a +squatter's cabin. An old tin was completely covered by a +graceful clematis mixed with streamers of Virginia creeper, and +white muslin curtains, and above all two shelves of +admirably-chosen books, gave the room almost an air of elegance. +Why do I write almost? It was an oasis. It was barely three +weeks since I had left "the communion of educated men," and the +first tones of the voices of my host and hostess made me feel as +if I had been out of it for a year. Mrs. C. stayed an hour and a +half, and then went home to the cows, when we launched upon a sea +of congenial talk. They said they had not seen an educated lady +for two years, and pressed me to go and visit them. I rode home +on Dr. Hughes's horse after dark, to find neither fire nor light +in the cabin. Mrs. C. had gone back saying, "Those English +talked just like savages, I couldn't understand a word they +said." + +I made a fire, and extemporized a light with some fat and a wick +of rag, and Chalmers came in to discuss my visit and to ask me a +question concerning a matter which had roused the latent +curiosity of the whole family. I had told him, he said, that I +knew no one hereabouts, but "his woman" told him that Dr. H. and +I spoke constantly of a Mrs. Grundy, whom we both knew and +disliked, and who was settled, as we said, not far off! He had +never heard of her, he said, and he was the pioneer settler of +the canyon, and there was a man up here from Longmount who said +he was sure there was not a Mrs. Grundy in the district, unless +it was a woman who went by two names! The wife and family had +then come in, and I felt completely nonplussed. I longed to tell +Chalmers that it was he and such as he, there or anywhere, with +narrow hearts, bitter tongues, and harsh judgments, who were the +true "Mrs. Grundys," dwarfing individuality, checking lawful +freedom of speech, and making men "offenders for a word," but I +forebore. How I extricated myself from the difficulty, deponent +sayeth not. The rest of the evening has been spent in preparing +to cross the mountains. Chalmers says he knows the way well, and +that we shall sleep to-morrow at the foot of Long's Peak. Mrs. +Chalmers repents of having consented, and conjures up doleful +visions of what the family will come to when left headless, and +of disasters among the cows and hens. I could tell her that the +eldest son and the "hired man" have plotted to close the saw-mill +and go on a hunting and fishing expedition, that the cows will +stray, and that the individual spoken respectfully of as "Mr. +Skunk" will make havoc in the hen-house. + + +NAMELESS REGION, ROCKY MOUNTAINS, September. + +This is indeed far removed. It seems farther away from you than +any place I have been to yet, except the frozen top of the +volcano of Mauna Loa. It is so little profaned by man that if +one were compelled to live here in solitude one might truly say +of the bears, deer, and elk which abound, "Their tameness is +shocking to me." It is the world of "big game." Just now a +heavy-headed elk, with much-branched horns fully three feet long, +stood and looked at me, and then quietly trotted away. He was so +near that I heard the grass, crisp with hoar frost, crackle under +his feet. Bears stripped the cherry bushes within a few yards of +us last night. Now two lovely blue birds, with crests on their +heads, are picking about within a stone's-throw. This is "The +Great Lone Land," until lately the hunting ground of the Indians, +and not yet settled or traversed, or likely to be so, owing to +the want of water. A solitary hunter has built a log cabin up +here, which he occupies for a few weeks for the purpose of +elk-hunting, but all the region is unsurveyed, and mostly +unexplored. It is 7 A.M. The sun has not yet risen high enough +to melt the hoar frost, and the air is clear, bright, and cold. +The stillness is profound. I hear nothing but the far-off +mysterious roaring of a river in a deep canyon, which we spent +two hours last night in trying to find. The horses are lost, and +if I were disposed to retort upon my companions the term they +invariably apply to me, I should now write, with bitter emphasis, +"THAT man" and "THAT woman" have gone in search of them. + +The scenery up here is glorious, combining sublimity with beauty, +and in the elastic air fatigue has dropped off from me. This is +no region for tourists and women, only for a few elk and bear +hunters at times, and its unprofaned freshness gives me new life. +I cannot by any words give you an idea of scenery so different +from any that you or I have ever seen. This is an upland valley +of grass and flowers, of glades and sloping lawns, and +cherry-fringed beds of dry streams, and clumps of pines +artistically placed, and mountain sides densely pine clad, the +pines breaking into fringes as they come down upon the "park," +and the mountains breaking into pinnacles of bold grey rock as +they pierce the blue of the sky. A single dell of bright green +grass, on which dwarf clumps of the scarlet poison oak look like +beds of geraniums, slopes towards the west, as if it must lead to +the river which we seek. Deep, vast canyons, all trending +westwards, lie in purple gloom. Pine-clad ranges, rising into +the blasted top of Storm Peak, all run westwards too, and all the +beauty and glory are but the frame out of which +rises--heaven-piercing, pure in its pearly luster, as glorious a +mountain as the sun tinges red in either hemisphere--the +splintered, pinnacled, lonely, ghastly, imposing, double-peaked +summit of Long's Peak, the Mont Blanc of Northern Colorado.[10] + +[10] Gray's Peak and Pike's Peak have their partisans, but +after seeing them all under favorable aspects, Long's Peak stands +in my memory as it does in that vast congeries of mountains, +alone in imperial grandeur. + + +This is a view to which nothing needs to be added. This is truly +the "lodge in some vast wilderness" for which one often sighs +when in the midst of "a bustle at once sordid and trivial." In +spite of Dr. Johnson, these "monstrous protuberances" do "inflame +the imagination and elevate the understanding." This scenery +satisfies my soul. Now, the Rocky Mountains realize--nay, +exceed--the dream of my childhood. It is magnificent, and the +air is life giving. I should like to spend some time in these +higher regions, but I know that this will turn out an abortive +expedition, owing to the stupidity and pigheadedness of Chalmers. + +There is a most romantic place called Estes Park, at a height of +7,500 feet, which can be reached by going down to the plains and +then striking up the St. Vrain Canyon, but this is a distance of +fifty-five miles, and as Chalmers was confident that he could +take me over the mountains, a distance, as he supposed, of about +twenty miles, we left at mid-day yesterday, with the fervent +hope, on my part, that I might not return. Mrs. C. was busy the +whole of Tuesday in preparing what she called "grub," which, +together with "plenty of bedding," was to be carried on a pack +mule; but when we started I was disgusted to find that Chalmers +was on what should have been the pack animal, and that two +thickly-quilted cotton "spreads" had been disposed of under my +saddle, making it broad, high, and uncomfortable. Any human +being must have laughed to see an expedition start so grotesquely +"ill found." I had a very old iron-grey horse, whose lower lip +hung down feebly, showing his few teeth, while his fore-legs +stuck out forwards, and matter ran from both his nearly-blind +eyes. It is kindness to bring him up to abundant pasture. My +saddle is an old McLellan cavalry saddle, with a battered brass +peak, and the bridle is a rotten leather strap on one side and a +strand of rope on the other. The cotton quilts covered the +Rosinante from mane to tail. Mrs. C. wore an old print skirt, an +old short-gown, a print apron, and a sun-bonnet, with a flap +coming down to her waist, and looked as careworn and clean as she +always does. The inside horn of her saddle was broken; to the +outside one hung a saucepan and a bundle of clothes. The one +girth was nearly at the breaking point when we started. + +My pack, with my well-worn umbrella upon it, was behind my +saddle. I wore my Hawaiian riding dress, with a handkerchief +tied over my face and the sun-cover of my umbrella folded and +tied over my hat, for the sun was very fierce. The queerest +figure of all was the would-be guide. With his one eye, his +gaunt, lean form, and his torn clothes, he looked more like a +strolling tinker than the honest worthy settler that he is. He +bestrode rather than rode a gaunt mule, whose tail had all been +shaven off, except a turf for a tassel at the end. Two flour bags +which leaked were tied on behind the saddle, two quilts were +under it, and my canvas bag, a battered canteen, a frying pan, +and two lariats hung from the horn. On one foot C. wore an old +high boot, into which his trouser was tucked, and on the other an +old brogue, through which his toes protruded. + +We had an ascent of four hours through a ravine which gradually +opened out upon this beautiful "park," but we rode through it for +some miles before the view burst upon us. The vastness of this +range, like astronomical distances, can hardly be conceived of. +At this place, I suppose, it is not less than 250 miles wide, and +with hardly a break in its continuity, it stretches almost from +the Arctic Circle to the Straits of Magellan. From the top of +Long's Peak, within a short distance, twenty-two summits, each +above 12,000 feet in height, are visible, and the Snowy Range, +the backbone or "divide" of the continent, is seen snaking +distinctly through the wilderness of ranges, with its waters +starting for either ocean. From the first ridge we crossed after +leaving Canyon we had a singular view of range beyond range cleft +by deep canyons, and abounding in elliptical valleys, richly +grassed. The slopes of all the hills, as far as one could see, +were waving with fine grass ready for the scythe, but the food of +wild animals only. All these ridges are heavily timbered with +pitch pines, and where they come down on the grassy slopes they +look as if the trees had been arranged by a landscape gardener. +Far off, through an opening in a canyon, we saw the prairie +simulating the ocean. Far off, through an opening in another +direction, was the glistening outline of the Snowy Range. But +still, till we reached this place, it was monotonous, though +grand as a whole: a grey-green or buff-grey, with outbreaks of +brilliantly-colored rock, only varied by the black-green of +pines, which are not the stately pyramidal pines of the Sierra +Nevada, but much resemble the natural Scotch fir. Not many miles +from us is North Park, a great tract of land said to be rich in +gold, but those who have gone to "prospect" have seldom returned, +the region being the home of tribes of Indians who live in +perpetual hostility to the whites and to each other. + +At this great height, and most artistically situated, we came +upon a rude log camp tenanted in winter by an elk hunter, but now +deserted. Chalmers without any scruple picked the padlock; we +lighted a fire, made some tea, and fried some bacon, and after +a good meal mounted again and started for Estes Park. For four +weary hours we searched hither and thither along every +indentation of the ground which might be supposed to slope +towards the Big Thompson River, which we knew had to be forded. +Still, as the quest grew more tedious, Long's Peak stood before +us as a landmark in purple glory; and still at his feet lay a +hollow filled with deep blue atmosphere, where I knew that Estes +Park must lie, and still between us and it lay never-lessening +miles of inaccessibility, and the sun was ever weltering, and the +shadows ever lengthening, and Chalmers, who had started +confident, bumptious, blatant, was ever becoming more bewildered, +and his wife's thin voice more piping and discontented, and my +stumbling horse more insecure, and I more determined (as I am at +this moment) that somehow or other I would reach that blue +hollow, and even stand on Long's Peak where the snow was +glittering. Affairs were becoming serious, and Chalmers's +incompetence a source of real peril, when, after an exploring +expedition, he returned more bumptious than ever, saying he knew +it would be all right, he had found a trail, and we could get +across the river by dark, and camp out for the night. So he led +us into a steep, deep, rough ravine, where we had to dismount, +for trees were lying across it everywhere, and there was almost +no footing on the great slabs of shelving rock. Yet there was a +trail, tolerably well worn, and the branches and twigs near the +ground were well broken back. Ah! it was a wild place. My horse +fell first, rolling over twice, and breaking off a part of the +saddle, in his second roll knocking me over a shelf of three feet +of descent. Then Mrs. C.'s horse and the mule fell on the top of +each other, and on recovering themselves bit each other savagely. +The ravine became a wild gulch, the dry bed of some awful +torrent; there were huge shelves of rock, great overhanging walls +of rock, great prostrate trees, cedar spikes and cacti to wound +the feet, and then a precipice fully 500 feet deep! The trail +was a trail made by bears in search of bear cherries, which +abounded! + +It was getting dusk as we had to struggle up the rough gulch we +had so fatuously descended. The horses fell several times; I +could hardly get mine up at all, though I helped him as much as I +could; I was cut and bruised, scratched and torn. A spine of a +cactus penetrated my foot, and some vicious thing cut the back of +my neck. Poor Mrs. C. was much bruised, and I pitied her, for +she got no fun out of it as I did. It was an awful climb. When +we got out of the gulch, C. was so confused that he took the +wrong direction, and after an hour of vague wandering was only +recalled to the right one by my pertinacious assertions acting on +his weak brain. I was inclined to be angry with the incompetent +braggart, who had boasted that he could take us to Estes Park +"blindfold"; but I was sorry for him too, so said nothing, even +though I had to walk during these meanderings to save my tired +horse. When at last, at dark, we reached the open, there was +a snow flurry, with violent gusts of wind, and the shelter of the +camp, dark and cold as it was, was desirable. We had no food, +but made a fire. I lay down on some dry grass, with my inverted +saddle for a pillow, and slept soundly, till I was awoke by the +cold of an intense frost and the pain of my many cuts and +bruises. Chalmers promised that we should make a fresh start +at six, so I woke him up at five, and here I am alone at +half-past eight! I said to him many times that unless he hobbled +or picketed the horses, we should lose them. "Oh," he said +"they'll be all right." In truth he had no picketing pins. Now, +the animals are merrily trotting homewards. I saw them two miles +off an hour ago with him after them. His wife, who is also after +them, goaded to desperation, said, "He's the most ignorant, +careless, good-for-nothing man I ever saw," upon which I dwelt +upon his being well meaning. There is a sort of well here, but +our "afternoon tea" and watering the horses drained it, so we +have had nothing to drink since yesterday, for the canteen, which +started without a cork, lost all its contents when the mule fell. +I have made a monstrous fire, but thirst and impatience are hard +to bear, and preventible misfortunes are always irksome. I have +found the stomach of a bear with fully a pint of cherrystones in +it, and have spent an hour in getting the kernels; and lo! now, +at half-past nine, I see the culprit and his wife coming back +with the animals. + I. L. B. + + +LOWER CANYON, September 21. + +We never reached Estes Park. There is no trail, and horses have +never been across. We started from camp at ten, and spent four +hours in searching for the trail. Chalmers tried gulch after +gulch again, his self-assertion giving way a little after each +failure; sometimes going east when we should have gone west, +always being brought up by a precipice or other impossibility. +At last he went off by himself, and returned rejoicing, saying he +had found the trail; and soon, sure enough, we were on a +well-defined old trail, evidently made by carcasses which have +been dragged along it by hunters. Vainly I pointed out to him +that we were going north-east when we should have gone +south-west, and that we were ascending instead of descending. +"Oh, it's all right, and we shall soon come to water," he always +replied. For two hours we ascended slowly through a thicket of +aspen, the cold continually intensifying; but the trail, which +had been growing fainter, died out, and an opening showed the top +of Storm Peak not far off and not much above us, though it is +11,000 feet high. I could not help laughing. He had deliberately +turned his back on Estes Park. He then confessed that he was +lost, and that he could not find the way back. His wife sat down +on the ground and cried bitterly. We ate some dry bread, and +then I said I had had much experience in traveling, and would +take the control of the party, which was agreed to, and we began +the long descent. Soon after his wife was thrown from her horse, +and cried bitterly again from fright and mortification. Soon +after that the girth of the mule's saddle broke, and having no +crupper, saddle and addenda went over his head, and the flour was +dispersed. Next the girth of the woman's saddle broke, and she +went over her horse's head. Then he began to fumble helplessly +at it, railing against England the whole time, while I secured +the saddle, and guided the route back to an outlet of the park. +There a fire was built, and we had some bread and bacon; and then +a search for water occupied nearly two hours, and resulted in the +finding of a mudhole, trodden and defiled by hundreds of feet of +elk, bears, cats, deer, and other beasts, and containing only +a few gallons of water as thick as pea soup, with which we +watered our animals and made some strong tea. + +The sun was setting in glory as we started for the four hours' +ride home, and the frost was intense, and made our bruised, +grazed limbs ache painfully. I was sorry for Mrs. Chalmers, who +had had several falls, and bore her aches patiently, and had said +several times to her husband, with a kind meaning, "I am real +sorry for this woman." I was so tired with the perpetual +stumbling of my horse, as well as stiffened with the bitter cold, +that I walked for the last hour or two; and Chalmers, as if to +cover his failure, indulged in loud, incessant talk, abusing all +other religionists, and railing against England in the coarsest +American fashion. Yet, after all, they were not bad souls; and +though he failed so grotesquely, he did his incompetent best. +The log fire in the ruinous cabin was cheery, and I kept it up +all night, and watched the stars through the holes in the roof, +and thought of Long's Peak in its glorious solitude, and resolved +that, come what might, I would reach Estes Park. + I. L. B. + + +Letter VI + +A bronco mare--An accident--Wonderland--A sad story--The children +of the Territories--Hard greed--Halcyon hours-- +Smartness--Old-fashioned prejudices--The Chicago colony--Good +luck--Three notes of admiration--A good horse--The St. +Vrain--The Rocky Mountains at last--"Mountain Jim"--A death +hug--Estes Park. + +LOWER CANYON, September 25. + +This is another world. My entrance upon it was signalized in +this fashion. Chalmers offered me a bronco mare for a reasonable +sum, and though she was a shifty, half-broken young thing, I came +over here on her to try her, when, just as I was going away, she +took into her head to "scare" and "buck," and when I touched her +with my foot she leaped over a heap of timber, and the girth gave +way, and the onlookers tell me that while she jumped I fell over +her tail from a good height upon the hard gravel, receiving a +parting kick on my knee. They could hardly believe that no bones +were broken. The flesh of my left arm looks crushed into a +jelly, but cold-water dressings will soon bring it right; and a +cut on my back bled profusely; and the bleeding, with many +bruises and the general shake, have made me feel weak, but +circumstances do not admit of "making a fuss," and I really think +that the rents in my riding dress will prove the most important +part of the accident. + +The surroundings here are pleasing. The log cabin, on the top of +which a room with a steep, ornamental Swiss roof has been built, +is in a valley close to a clear, rushing river, which emerges a +little higher up from an inaccessible chasm of great sublimity. +One side of the valley is formed by cliffs and terraces of +porphyry as red as the reddest new brick, and at sunset blazing +into vermilion. Through rifts in the nearer ranges there are +glimpses of pine-clothed peaks, which, towards twilight, pass +through every shade of purple and violet. The sky and the earth +combine to form a Wonderland every evening--such rich, velvety +coloring in crimson and violet; such an orange, green, and +vermilion sky; such scarlet and emerald clouds; such an +extraordinary dryness and purity of atmosphere, and then the +glorious afterglow which seems to blend earth and heaven! For +color, the Rocky Mountains beat all I have seen. The air has been +cold, but the sun bright and hot during the last few days. + +The story of my host is a story of misfortune. It indicates who +should NOT come to Colorado.[11] He and his wife are under +thirty-five. The son of a London physician in large practice, +with a liberal education in the largest sense of the word, +unusual culture and accomplishments, and the partner of a +physician in good practice in the second city in England, he +showed symptoms which threatened pulmonary disease. In an evil +hour he heard of Colorado with its "unrivalled climate, boundless +resources," etc., and, fascinated not only by these material +advantages, but by the notion of being able to found or reform +society on advanced social theories of his own, he became an +emigrant. Mrs. Hughes is one of the most charming, and lovable +women I have ever seen, and their marriage is an ideal one. Both +are fitted to shine in any society, but neither had the slightest +knowledge of domestic and farming details. Dr. H. did not know +how to saddle or harness a horse. Mrs. H. did not know whether +you should put an egg into cold or hot water when you meant to +boil it! They arrived at Longmount, bought up this claim, rather +for the beauty of the scenery than for any substantial +advantages, were cheated in land, goods, oxen, everything, and, +to the discredit of the settlers, seemed to be regarded as fair +game. Everything has failed with them, and though they "rise +early, and late take rest, and eat the bread of carefulness," +they hardly keep their heads above water. A young Swiss girl, +devoted to them both, works as hard as they do. They have one +horse, no wagon, some poultry, and a few cows, but no "hired +man." It is the hardest and least ideal struggle that I have +ever seen made by educated people. They had all their experience +to learn, and they have bought it by losses and hardships. That +they have learnt so much surprises me. Dr. H. and these two +ladies built the upper room and the addition to the house without +help. He has cropped the land himself, and has learned the +difficult art of milking cows. Mrs. H. makes all the clothes +required for a family of six, and her evenings, when the hard +day's work is done and she is ready to drop from fatigue, are +spent in mending and patching. The day is one long GRIND, +without rest or enjoyment, or the pleasure of chance intercourse +with cultivated people. The few visitors who have "happened in" +are the thrifty wives of prosperous settlers, full of housewifely +pride, whose one object seems to be to make Mrs. H. feel her +inferiority to themselves. I wish she did take a more genuine +interest in the "coming-on" of the last calf, the prospects of +the squash crop, and the yield and price of butter; but though +she has learned to make excellent butter and bread, it is all +against the grain. The children are delightful. The little boys +are refined, courteous, childish gentlemen, with love and +tenderness to their parents in all their words and actions. +Never a rough or harsh word is heard within the house. But the +atmosphere of struggles and difficulties has already told on +these infants. They consider their mother in all things, going +without butter when they think the stock is low, bringing in wood +and water too heavy for them to carry, anxiously speculating on +the winter prospect and the crops, yet withal the most childlike +and innocent of children. + +[11] The story is ended now. A few months after my visit +Mrs. H. died a few days after her confinement, and was buried on +the bleak hill side, leaving her husband with five children under +six years old, and Dr. H. is a prosperous man on one of the +sunniest islands of the Pacific, with the devoted Swiss friend as +his second wife. + + +One of the most painful things in the Western States and +Territories is the extinction of childhood. I have never seen +any children, only debased imitations of men and women, cankered +by greed and selfishness, and asserting and gaining complete +independence of their parents at ten years old. The atmosphere +in which they are brought up is one of greed, godlessness, and +frequently of profanity. Consequently these sweet things seem +like flowers in a desert. + +Except for love, which here as everywhere raises life into the +ideal, this is a wretched existence. The poor crops have been +destroyed by grasshoppers over and over again, and that talent +deified here under the name of "smartness" has taken advantage of +Dr. H. in all bargains, leaving him with little except food for +his children. Experience has been dearly bought in all ways, and +this instance of failure might be a useful warning to +professional men without agricultural experience not to come and +try to make a living by farming in Colorado. + +My time here has passed very delightfully in spite of my regret +and anxiety for this interesting family. I should like to stay +longer, were it not that they have given up to me their straw +bed, and Mrs. H. and her baby, a wizened, fretful child, sleep on +the floor in my room, and Dr. H. on the floor downstairs, and the +nights are frosty and chill. Work is the order of their day, and +of mine, and at night, when the children are in bed, we three +ladies patch the clothes and make shirts, and Dr. H. reads +Tennyson's poems, or we speak tenderly of that world of culture +and noble deeds which seems here "the land very far off," or Mrs. +H. lays aside her work for a few minutes and reads some favorite +passage of prose or poetry, as I have seldom heard either read +before, with a voice of large compass and exquisite tone, quick +to interpret every shade of the author's meaning, and soft, +speaking eyes, moist with feeling and sympathy. These are our +halcyon hours, when we forget the needs of the morrow, and that +men still buy, sell, cheat, and strive for gold, and that we are +in the Rocky Mountains, and that it is near midnight. But +morning comes hot and tiresome, and the never-ending work is +oppressive, and Dr. H. comes in from the field two or three times +in the day, dizzy and faint, and they condole with each other, +and I feel that the Colorado settler needs to be made of sterner +stuff and to possess more adaptability. + +To-day has been a very pleasant day for me, though I have only +once sat down since 9 A.M., and it is now 5 P.M. I plotted that +the devoted Swiss girl should go to the nearest settlement with +two of the children for the day in a neighbor's wagon, and that +Dr. and Mrs. H. should get an afternoon of rest and sleep +upstairs, while I undertook to do the work and make something of +a cleaning. I had a large "wash" of my own, having been hindered +last week by my bad arm, but a clothes wringer which screws on to +the side of the tub is a great assistance, and by folding the +clothes before passing them through it, I make it serve instead +of mangle and iron. After baking the bread and thoroughly +cleaning the churn and pails, I began upon the tins and pans, the +cleaning of which had fallen into arrears, and was hard at work, +very greasy and grimy, when a man came in to know where to ford +the river with his ox team, and as I was showing him he looked +pityingly at me, saying, "Be you the new hired girl? Bless me, +you're awful small!" + +Yesterday we saved three cwt. of tomatoes for winter use, and +about two tons of squash and pumpkin for the cattle, two of the +former weighing 140 lbs. I pulled nearly a quarter of an acre of +maize, but it was a scanty crop, and the husks were poorly +filled. I much prefer field work to the scouring of greasy pans +and to the wash tub, and both to either sewing or writing. + +This is not Arcadia. "Smartness," which consists in +over-reaching your neighbor in every fashion which is not +illegal, is the quality which is held in the greatest repute, and +Mammon is the divinity. From a generation brought up to worship +the one and admire the other little can be hoped. In districts +distant as this is from "Church Ordinances," there are three ways +in which Sunday is spent: one, to make it a day for visiting, +hunting, and fishing; another, to spend it in sleeping and +abstinence from work; and the third, to continue all the usual +occupations, consequently harvesting and felling and hauling +timber are to be seen in progress. + +Last Sunday a man came here and put up a door, and said he didn't +believe in the Bible or in a God, and he wasn't going to +sacrifice his children's bread to old-fashioned prejudices. +There is a manifest indifference to the higher obligations of the +law, "judgment, mercy and faith"; but in the main the settlers +are steady, there are few flagrant breaches of morals, industry +is the rule, life and property are far safer than in England or +Scotland, and the law of universal respect to women is still in +full force. + +The days are now brilliant and the nights sharply frosty. People +are preparing for the winter. The tourists from the East are +trooping into Denver, and the surveying parties are coming down +from the mountains. Snow has fallen on the higher ranges, and my +hopes of getting to Estes Park are down at zero. + + +LONGMOUNT, September 25. + +Yesterday was perfect. The sun was brilliant and the air cool +and bracing. I felt better, and after a hard day's work and an +evening stroll with my friends in the glorious afterglow, I went +to bed cheerful and hopeful as to the climate and its effect on +my health. This morning I awoke with a sensation of extreme +lassitude, and on going out, instead of the delicious atmosphere +of yesterday, I found intolerable suffocating heat, a BLAZING +(not BRILLIANT) sun, and a sirocco like a Victorian hot wind. +Neuralgia, inflamed eyes, and a sense of extreme prostration +followed, and my acclimatized hosts were somewhat similarly +affected. The sparkle, the crystalline atmosphere, and the glory +of color of yesterday, had all vanished. We had borrowed a +wagon, but Dr. H.'s strong but lazy horse and a feeble hired one +made a poor span; and though the distance here is only twenty-two +miles over level prairie, our tired animal, and losing the way +three times, have kept us eight and a half hours in the broiling +sun. All notions of locality fail me on the prairie, and Dr. H. +was not much better. We took wrong tracks, got entangled among +fences, plunged through the deep mud of irrigation ditches, and +were despondent. It was a miserable drive, sitting on a heap of +fodder under the angry sun. Half-way here we camped at a river, +now only a series of mud holes, and I fell asleep under the +imperfect shade of a cotton-wood tree, dreading the thought of +waking and jolting painfully along over the dusty prairie in the +dust-laden, fierce sirocco, under the ferocious sun. We never +saw man or beast the whole day. + +This is the "Chicago Colony," and it is said to be prospering, +after some preliminary land swindles. It is as uninviting as +Fort Collins. We first came upon dust-colored frame houses set +down at intervals on the dusty buff plain, each with its dusty +wheat or barley field adjacent, the crop, not the product of the +rains of heaven, but of the muddy overflow of "Irrigating Ditch +No.2." Then comes a road made up of many converging wagon +tracks, which stiffen into a wide straggling street, in which +glaring frame houses and a few shops stand opposite to each +other. A two-storey house, one of the whitest and most glaring, +and without a veranda like all the others, is the "St. Vrain +Hotel," called after the St. Vrain River, out of which the ditch +is taken which enables Longmount to exist. Everything was +broiling in the heat of the slanting sun, which all day long had +been beating on the unshaded wooden rooms. The heat within was +more sickening than outside, and black flies covered everything, +one's face included. We all sat fighting the flies in my +bedroom, which was cooler than elsewhere, till a glorious sunset +over the Rocky Range, some ten miles off, compelled us to go out +and enjoy it. Then followed supper, Western fashion, without +table-cloths, and all the "unattached" men of Longmount came in +and fed silently and rapidly. It was a great treat to have tea +to drink, as I had not tasted any for a fortnight. The landlord +is a jovial, kindly man. I told him how my plans had faded, and +how I was reluctantly going on to-morrow to Denver and New York, +being unable to get to Estes Park, and he said there might yet be +a chance of some one coming in to-night who would be going up. +He soon came to my room and asked definitely what I could do--if +I feared cold, if I could "rough it," if I could "ride horseback +and lope." Estes Park and its surroundings are, he says, "the +most beautiful scenery in Colorado," and "it's a real shame," he +added, "for you not to see it." We had hardly sat down to tea +when he came, saying "You're in luck this time; two young men +have just come in and are going up to-morrow morning." I am +rather pleased, and have hired a horse for three days; but I am +not very hopeful, for I am almost ill of the smothering heat, and +still suffer from my fall, and not having been on horseback +since, thirty miles will be a long ride. Then I fear that the +accommodation is as rough as Chalmers's, and that solitude will +be impossible. We have been strolling in the street every since +it grew dark to get the little air which is moving. + + +ESTES PARK!!! September 28. + +I wish I could let those three notes of admiration go to you +instead of a letter. They mean everything that is rapturous and +delightful--grandeur, cheerfulness, health, enjoyment, novelty, +freedom, etc., etc. I have just dropped into the very place I +have been seeking, but in everything it exceeds all my dreams. +There is health in every breath of air; I am much better already, +and get up to a seven o'clock breakfast without difficulty. It +is quite comfortable--in the fashion that I like. I have a log +cabin, raised on six posts, all to myself, with a skunk's lair +underneath it, and a small lake close to it. There is a frost +every night, and all day it is cool enough for a roaring fire. +The ranchman, who is half-hunter, half-stockman, and his wife are +jovial, hearty Welsh people from Llanberis, who laugh with loud, +cheery British laughs, sing in parts down to the youngest child, +are free hearted and hospitable, and pile the pitch-pine logs +half-way up the great rude chimney. There has been fresh meat +each day since I came, delicious bread baked daily, excellent +potatoes, tea and coffee, and an abundant supply of milk like +cream. I have a clean hay bed with six blankets, and there are +neither bugs nor fleas. The scenery is the most glorious I have +ever seen, and is above us, around us, at the very door. Most +people have advized me to go to Colorado Springs, and only one +mentioned this place, and till I reached Longmount I never saw +any one who had been here, but I saw from the lie of the country +that it must be most superbly situated. People said, however, +that it was most difficult of access, and that the season for it +was over. In traveling there is nothing like dissecting people's +statements, which are usually colored by their estimate of the +powers or likings of the person spoken to, making all reasonable +inquiries, and then pertinaciously but quietly carrying out one's +own plans. This is perfection, and all the requisites for health +are present, including plenty of horses and grass to ride on. + +It is not easy to sit down to write after ten hours of hard +riding, especially in a cabin full of people, and wholesome +fatigue may make my letter flat when it ought to be enthusiastic. +I was awake all night at Longmount owing to the stifling heat, +and got up nervous and miserable, ready to give up the thought of +coming here, but the sunrise over the Plains, and the wonderful +red of the Rocky Mountains, as they reflected the eastern sky, +put spirit into me. The landlord had got a horse, but could not +give any satisfactory assurances of his being quiet, and being +much shaken by my fall at Canyon, I earnestly wished that the +Greeley Tribune had not given me a reputation for horsemanship, +which had preceded me here. The young men who were to escort me +"seemed very innocent," he said, but I have not arrived at his +meaning yet. When the horse appeared in the street at 8:30, I +saw, to my dismay, a high-bred, beautiful creature, stable kept, +with arched neck, quivering nostrils, and restless ears and eyes. +My pack, as on Hawaii, was strapped behind the Mexican saddle, +and my canvas bag hung on the horn, but the horse did not look +fit to carry "gear," and seemed to require two men to hold and +coax him. There were many loafers about, and I shrank from going +out and mounting in my old Hawaiian riding dress, though Dr. and +Mrs. H. assured me that I looked quite "insignificant and +unnoticeable." We got away at nine with repeated injunctions +from the landlord in the words, "Oh, you should be heroic!" + +The sky was cloudless, and a deep brilliant blue, and though the +sun was hot the air was fresh and bracing. The ride for glory +and delight I shall label along with one to Hanalei, and another +to Mauna Kea, Hawaii. I felt better quite soon; the horse in +gait and temper turned out perfection--all spring and spirit, +elastic in his motion, walking fast and easily, and cantering +with a light, graceful swing as soon as one pressed the reins on +his neck, a blithe, joyous animal, to whom a day among the +mountains seemed a pleasant frolic. So gentle he was, that when +I got off and walked he followed me without being led, and +without needing any one to hold him he allowed me to mount on +either side. In addition to the charm of his movements he has +the catlike sure-footedness of a Hawaiian horse, and fords rapid +and rough-bottomed rivers, and gallops among stones and stumps, +and down steep hills, with equal security. I could have ridden +him a hundred miles as easily as thirty. We have only been +together two days, yet we are firm friends, and thoroughly +understand each other. I should not require another companion on +a long mountain tour. All his ways are those of an animal +brought up without curb, whip, or spur, trained by the voice, and +used only to kindness, as is happily the case with the majority +of horses in the Western States. Consequently, unless they are +broncos, they exercise their intelligence for your advantage, and +do their work rather as friends than as machines. + +I soon began not only to feel better, but to be exhilarated with +the delightful motion. The sun was behind us, and puffs of a +cool elastic air came down from the glorious mountains in front. +We cantered across six miles of prairie, and then reached the +beautiful canyon of the St. Vrain, which, towards its mouth, is a +narrow, fertile, wooded valley, through which a bright rapid +river, which we forded many times, hurries along, with twists and +windings innumerable. Ah, how brightly its ripples danced in the +glittering sunshine, and how musically its waters murmured like +the streams of windward Hawaii! We lost our way over and over +again, though the "innocent" young men had been there before; +indeed, it would require some talent to master the intricacies of +that devious trail, but settlers making hay always appeared in +the nick of time to put us on the right track. Very fair it was, +after the brown and burning plains, and the variety was endless. +Cotton-wood trees were green and bright, aspens shivered in gold +tremulousness, wild grape-vines trailed their lemon-colored +foliage along the ground, and the Virginia creeper hung its +crimson sprays here and there, lightening up green and gold into +glory. Sometimes from under the cool and bowery shade of the +colored tangle we passed into the cool St. Vrain, and then were +wedged between its margin and lofty cliffs and terraces of +incredibly staring, fantastic rocks, lined, patched, and splashed +with carmine, vermilion, greens of all tints, blue, yellow, +orange, violet, deep crimson, coloring that no artist would dare +to represent, and of which, in sober prose, I scarcely dare tell. +Long's wonderful peaks, which hitherto had gleamed above the +green, now disappeared, to be seen no more for twenty miles. We +entered on an ascending valley, where the gorgeous hues of the +rocks were intensified by the blue gloom of the pitch pines, and +then taking a track to the north-west, we left the softer world +behind, and all traces of man and his works, and plunged into +the Rocky Mountains. + +There were wonderful ascents then up which I led my horse; wild +fantastic views opening up continually, a recurrence of +surprises; the air keener and purer with every mile, the +sensation of loneliness more singular. A tremendous ascent among +rocks and pines to a height of 9,000 feet brought us to a passage +seven feet wide through a wall of rock, with an abrupt descent of +2,000 feet, and a yet higher ascent beyond. I never saw anything +so strange as looking back. It was a single gigantic ridge which +we had passed through, standing up knifelike, built up entirely +of great brick-shaped masses of bright red rock, some of them as +large as the Royal Institution, Edinburgh, piled one on another +by Titans. Pitch pines grew out of their crevices, but there +was not a vestige of soil. Beyond, wall beyond wall of similar +construction, and range above range, rose into the blue sky. +Fifteen miles more over great ridges, along passes dark with +shadow, and so narrow that we had to ride in the beds of the +streams which had excavated them, round the bases of colossal +pyramids of rock crested with pines, up into fair upland "parks," +scarlet in patches with the poison oak, parks so beautifully +arranged by nature that I momentarily expected to come upon some +stately mansion, but that afternoon crested blue jays and +chipmunks had them all to themselves. Here, in the early +morning, deer, bighorn, and the stately elk, come down to feed, +and there, in the night, prowl and growl the Rocky Mountain lion, +the grizzly bear, and the cowardly wolf. There were chasms of +immense depth, dark with the indigo gloom of pines, and mountains +with snow gleaming on their splintered crests, loveliness to +bewilder and grandeur to awe, and still streams and shady pools, +and cool depths of shadow; mountains again, dense with pines, +among which patches of aspen gleamed like gold; valleys +where the yellow cotton-wood mingled with the crimson oak, and +so, on and on through the lengthening shadows, till the trail, +which in places had been hardly legible, became well defined, and +we entered a long gulch with broad swellings of grass belted with +pines. + +A very pretty mare, hobbled, was feeding; a collie dog barked at +us, and among the scrub, not far from the track, there was a +rude, black log cabin, as rough as it could be to be a shelter at +all, with smoke coming out of the roof and window. We diverged +towards it; it mattered not that it was the home, or rather den, +of a notorious "ruffian" and "desperado." One of my companions +had disappeared hours before, the remaining one was a town-bred +youth. I longed to speak to some one who loved the mountains. I +called the hut a DEN--it looked like the den of a wild beast. +The big dog lay outside it in a threatening attitude and growled. +The mud roof was covered with lynx, beaver, and other furs laid +out to dry, beaver paws were pinned out on the logs, a part of +the carcass of a deer hung at one end of the cabin, a skinned +beaver lay in front of a heap of peltry just within the door, and +antlers of deer, old horseshoes, and offal of many animals, lay +about the den. + +Roused by the growling of the dog, his owner came out, a broad, +thickset man, about the middle height, with an old cap on his +head, and wearing a grey hunting suit much the worse for wear +(almost falling to pieces, in fact), a digger's scarf knotted +round his waist, a knife in his belt, and "a bosom friend," a +revolver, sticking out of the breast pocket of his coat; his +feet, which were very small, were bare, except for some +dilapidated moccasins made of horse hide. The marvel was how his +clothes hung together, and on him. The scarf round his waist +must have had something to do with it. His face was remarkable. +He is a man about forty-five, and must have been strikingly +handsome. He has large grey-blue eyes, deeply set, with +well-marked eyebrows, a handsome aquiline nose, and a very +handsome mouth. His face was smooth shaven except for a dense +mustache and imperial. Tawny hair, in thin uncared-for curls, +fell from under his hunter's cap and over his collar. One eye +was entirely gone, and the loss made one side of the face +repulsive, while the other might have been modeled in marble. +"Desperado" was written in large letters all over him. I almost +repented of having sought his acquaintance. His first impulse +was to swear at the dog, but on seeing a lady he contented +himself with kicking him, and coming to me he raised his cap, +showing as he did so a magnificently-formed brow and head, and in +a cultured tone of voice asked if there were anything he could do +for me? I asked for some water, and he brought some in a +battered tin, gracefully apologizing for not having anything more +presentable. We entered into conversation, and as he spoke I +forgot both his reputation and appearance, for his manner was +that of a chivalrous gentleman, his accent refined, and his +language easy and elegant. I inquired about some beavers' paws +which were drying, and in a moment they hung on the horn of my +saddle. Apropos of the wild animals of the region, he told me +that the loss of his eye was owing to a recent encounter with a +grizzly bear, which, after giving him a death hug, tearing him +all over, breaking his arm and scratching out his eye, had left +him for dead. As we rode away, for the sun was sinking, he said, +courteously, "You are not an American. I know from your voice +that you are a countrywoman of mine. I hope you will allow me +the pleasure of calling on you."[12] + +[12] Of this unhappy man, who was shot nine months later within +two miles of his cabin, I write in the subsequent letters only as +he appeared to me. His life, without doubt, was deeply stained +with crimes and vices, and his reputation for ruffianism was a +deserved one. But in my intercourse with him I saw more of his +nobler instincts than of the darker parts of his character, +which, unfortunately for himself and others, showed itself in its +worst colors at the time of his tragic end. It was not until +after I left Colorado, not indeed until after his death, that I +heard of the worst points of his character. + + +This man, known through the Territories and beyond them as "Rocky +Mountain Jim," or, more briefly, as "Mountain Jim," is one of the +famous scouts of the Plains, and is the original of some daring +portraits in fiction concerning Indian Frontier warfare. So far +as I have at present heard, he is a man for whom there is now no +room, for the time for blows and blood in this part of Colorado +is past, and the fame of many daring exploits is sullied by +crimes which are not easily forgiven here. He now has a +"squatter's claim," but makes his living as a trapper, and is a +complete child of the mountains. Of his genius and chivalry to +women there does not appear to be any doubt; but he is a +desperate character, and is subject to "ugly fits," when people +think it best to avoid him. It is here regarded as an evil that +he has located himself at the mouth of the only entrance to the +park, for he is dangerous with his pistols, and it would be safer +if he were not here. His besetting sin is indicated in the +verdict pronounced on him by my host: "When he's sober Jim's a +perfect gentleman; but when he's had liquor he's the most awful +ruffian in Colorado." + +From the ridge on which this gulch terminates, at a height of +9,000 feet, we saw at last Estes Park, lying 1,500 feet below in +the glory of the setting sun, an irregular basin, lighted up by +the bright waters of the rushing Thompson, guarded by sentinel +mountains of fantastic shape and monstrous size, with Long's Peak +rising above them all in unapproachable grandeur, while the Snowy +Range, with its outlying spurs heavily timbered, come down upon +the park slashed by stupendous canyons lying deep in purple +gloom. The rushing river was blood red, Long's Peak was aflame, +the glory of the glowing heaven was given back from earth. +Never, nowhere, have I seen anything to equal the view into Estes +Park. The mountains "of the land which is very far off" are very +near now, but the near is more glorious than the far, and reality +than dreamland. The mountain fever seized me, and, giving my +tireless horse one encouraging word, he dashed at full gallop +over a mile of smooth sward at delirious speed. + +But I was hungry, and the air was frosty, and I was wondering +what the prospects of food and shelter were in this enchanted +region, when we came suddenly upon a small lake, close to which +was a very trim-looking log cabin, with a flat mud roof, with +four smaller ones; picturesquely dotted about near it, two +corrals,[13] a long shed, in front of which a steer was being +killed, a log dairy with a water wheel, some hay piles, and +various evidences of comfort; and two men, on serviceable horses, +were just bringing in some tolerable cows to be milked. A short, +pleasant-looking man ran up to me and shook hands gleefully, +which surprised me; but he has since told me that in the evening +light he thought I was "Mountain Jim, dressed up as a woman!" I +recognized in him a countryman, and he introduced himself as +Griffith Evans, a Welshman from the slate quarries near +Llanberis. When the cabin door was opened I saw a good-sized log +room, unchinked, however, with windows of infamous glass, looking +two ways; a rough stone fireplace, in which pine logs, half as +large as I am, were burning; a boarded floor, a round table, two +rocking chairs, a carpet-covered backwoods couch; and skins, +Indian bows and arrows, wampum belts, and antlers, fitly +decorated the rough walls, and equally fitly, rifles were stuck +up in the corners. Seven men, smoking, were lying about on the +floor, a sick man lay on the couch, and a middle-aged lady sat at +the table writing. I went out again and asked Evans if he could +take me in, expecting nothing better than a shakedown; but, to my +joy, he told me he could give me a cabin to myself, two minutes' +walk from his own. So in this glorious upper world, with the +mountain pines behind and the clear lake in front, in the "blue +hollow at the foot of Long's Peak," at a height of 7,500 feet, +where the hoar frost crisps the grass every night of the year, I +have found far more than I ever dared to hope for. + +[13] A corral is a fenced enclosure for cattle. This word, with +bronco, ranch, and a few others, are adaptations from the +Spanish, and are used as extensively throughout California and +the Territories as is the Spanish or Mexican saddle. + I. L. B. + + +Letter VII + +Personality of Long's Peak--"Mountain Jim"--Lake of the Lilies--A +silent forest--The camping ground--"Ring"--A lady's bower--Dawn +and sunrise--A glorious view--Links of diamonds--The ascent of +the Peak--The "Dog's Lift"--Suffering from thirst--The +descent--The bivouac. + +ESTES PARK, COLORADO, October. + +As this account of the ascent of Long's Peak could not +be written at the time, I am much disinclined to write it, +especially as no sort of description within my powers could +enable another to realize the glorious sublimity, the majestic +solitude, and the unspeakable awfulness and fascination of the +scenes in which I spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. + +Long's Peak, 14,700 feet high, blocks up one end of Estes Park, +and dwarfs all the surrounding mountains. From it on this side +rise, snow-born, the bright St. Vrain, and the Big and Little +Thompson. By sunlight or moonlight its splintered grey crest is +the one object which, in spite of wapiti and bighorn, skunk and +grizzly, unfailingly arrests the eyes. From it come all +storms of snow and wind, and the forked lightnings play round its +head like a glory. It is one of the noblest of mountains, but in +one's imagination it grows to be much more than a mountain. It +becomes invested with a personality. In its caverns and abysses +one comes to fancy that it generates and chains the strong winds, +to let them loose in its fury. The thunder becomes its voice, +and the lightnings do it homage. Other summits blush under the +morning kiss of the sun, and turn pale the next moment; but it +detains the first sunlight and holds it round its head for an +hour at least, till it pleases to change from rosy red to deep +blue; and the sunset, as if spell-bound, lingers latest on its +crest. The soft winds which hardly rustle the pine needles down +here are raging rudely up there round its motionless summit. The +mark of fire is upon it; and though it has passed into a grim +repose, it tells of fire and upheaval as truly, though not as +eloquently, as the living volcanoes of Hawaii. Here under its +shadow one learns how naturally nature worship, and the +propitiation of the forces of nature, arose in minds which had no +better light. + +Long's Peak, "the American Matterhorn," as some call it, was +ascended five years ago for the first time. I thought I should +like to attempt it, but up to Monday, when Evans left for Denver, +cold water was thrown upon the project. It was too late in the +season, the winds were likely to be strong, etc.; but just before +leaving, Evans said that the weather was looking more settled, +and if I did not get farther than the timber line it would be +worth going. Soon after he left, "Mountain Jim" came in, and +said he would go up as guide, and the two youths who rode here +with me from Longmount and I caught at the proposal. Mrs. +Edwards at once baked bread for three days, steaks were cut from +the steer which hangs up conveniently, and tea, sugar, and butter +were benevolently added. Our picnic was not to be a luxurious or +"well-found" one, for, in order to avoid the expense of a pack +mule, we limited our luggage to what our saddle horses could +carry. Behind my saddle I carried three pair of camping blankets +and a quilt, which reached to my shoulders. My own boots were so +much worn that it was painful to walk, even about the park, in +them, so Evans had lent me a pair of his hunting boots, which +hung to the horn of my saddle. The horses of the two young men +were equally loaded, for we had to prepare for many degrees of +frost. "Jim" was a shocking figure; he had on an old pair of +high boots, with a baggy pair of old trousers made of deer hide, +held on by an old scarf tucked into them; a leather shirt, with +three or four ragged unbuttoned waistcoats over it; an old +smashed wideawake, from under which his tawny, neglected ringlets +hung; and with his one eye, his one long spur, his knife in his +belt, his revolver in his waistcoat pocket, his saddle covered +with an old beaver skin, from which the paws hung down; his +camping blankets behind him, his rifle laid across the saddle in +front of him, and his axe, canteen, and other gear hanging to the +horn, he was as awful-looking a ruffian as one could see. By way +of contrast he rode a small Arab mare, of exquisite beauty, +skittish, high spirited, gentle, but altogether too light for +him, and he fretted her incessantly to make her display herself. + +Heavily loaded as all our horses were, "Jim" started over the +half-mile of level grass at a hard gallop, and then throwing his +mare on her haunches, pulled up alongside of me, and with a grace +of manner which soon made me forget his appearance, entered into +a conversation which lasted for more than three hours, in spite +of the manifold checks of fording streams, single file, abrupt +ascents and descents, and other incidents of mountain travel. +The ride was one series of glories and surprises, of "park" and +glade, of lake and stream, of mountains on mountains, culminating +in the rent pinnacles of Long's Peak, which looked yet grander +and ghastlier as we crossed an attendant mountain 11,000 feet +high. The slanting sun added fresh beauty every hour. There +were dark pines against a lemon sky, grey peaks reddening and +etherealizing, gorges of deep and infinite blue, floods of golden +glory pouring through canyons of enormous depth, an atmosphere of +absolute purity, an occasional foreground of cottonwood and aspen +flaunting in red and gold to intensify the blue gloom of the +pines, the trickle and murmur of streams fringed with icicles, +the strange sough of gusts moving among the pine tops--sights and +sounds not of the lower earth, but of the solitary, +beast-haunted, frozen upper altitudes. From the dry, buff grass +of Estes Park we turned off up a trail on the side of a pine-hung +gorge, up a steep pine-clothed hill, down to a small valley, rich +in fine, sun-cured hay about eighteen inches high, and enclosed +by high mountains whose deepest hollow contains a lily-covered +lake, fitly named "The Lake of the Lilies." Ah, how magical its +beauty was, as it slept in silence, while THERE the dark pines +were mirrored motionless in its pale gold, and HERE the great +white lily cups and dark green leaves rested on amethyst-colored +water! + +From this we ascended into the purple gloom of great pine forests +which clothe the skirts of the mountains up to a height of about +11,000 feet, and from their chill and solitary depths we had +glimpses of golden atmosphere and rose-lit summits, not of "the +land very far off," but of the land nearer now in all its +grandeur, gaining in sublimity by nearness--glimpses, too, +through a broken vista of purple gorges, of the illimitable +Plains lying idealized in the late sunlight, their baked, brown +expanse transfigured into the likeness of a sunset sea rolling +infinitely in waves of misty gold. + +We rode upwards through the gloom on a steep trail blazed through +the forest, all my intellect concentrated on avoiding being +dragged off my horse by impending branches, or having the +blankets badly torn, as those of my companions were, by sharp +dead limbs, between which there was hardly room to pass--the +horses breathless, and requiring to stop every few yards, though +their riders, except myself, were afoot. The gloom of the dense, +ancient, silent forest is to me awe inspiring. On such an +evening it is soundless, except for the branches creaking in the +soft wind, the frequent snap of decayed timber, and a murmur in +the pine tops as of a not distant waterfall, all tending to +produce EERINESS and a sadness "hardly akin to pain." There no +lumberer's axe has ever rung. The trees die when they have +attained their prime, and stand there, dead and bare, till the +fierce mountain winds lay them prostrate. The pines grew smaller +and more sparse as we ascended, and the last stragglers wore a +tortured, warring look. The timber line was passed, but yet a +little higher a slope of mountain meadow dipped to the south-west +towards a bright stream trickling under ice and icicles, and +there a grove of the beautiful silver spruce marked our camping +ground. The trees were in miniature, but so exquisitely arranged +that one might well ask what artist's hand had planted them, +scattering them here, clumping them there, and training their +slim spires towards heaven. Hereafter, when I call up memories +of the glorious, the view from this camping ground will come up. +Looking east, gorges opened to the distant Plains, then fading +into purple grey. Mountains with pine-clothed skirts rose in +ranges, or, solitary, uplifted their grey summits, while close +behind, but nearly 3,000 feet above us, towered the bald white +crest of Long's Peak, its huge precipices red with the light of a +sun long lost to our eyes. Close to us, in the caverned side of +the Peak, was snow that, owing to its position, is eternal. Soon +the afterglow came on, and before it faded a big half-moon hung +out of the heavens, shining through the silver blue foliage of +the pines on the frigid background of snow, and turning the +whole into fairyland. The "photo" which accompanies this letter +is by a courageous Denver artist who attempted the ascent just +before I arrived, but, after camping out at the timber line for a +week, was foiled by the perpetual storms, and was driven down +again, leaving some very valuable apparatus about 3,000 feet +from the summit. + +Unsaddling and picketing the horses securely, making the beds of +pine shoots, and dragging up logs for fuel, warmed us all. "Jim" +built up a great fire, and before long we were all sitting around +it at supper. It didn't matter much that we had to drink our tea +out of the battered meat tins in which it was boiled, and eat +strips of beef reeking with pine smoke without plates or forks. + +"Treat Jim as a gentleman and you'll find him one," I had been +told; and though his manner was certainly bolder and freer than +that of gentlemen generally, no imaginary fault could be found. +He was very agreeable as a man of culture as well as a child of +nature; the desperado was altogether out of sight. He was very +courteous and even kind to me, which was fortunate, as the young +men had little idea of showing even ordinary civilities. That +night I made the acquaintance of his dog "Ring," said to be the +best hunting dog in Colorado, with the body and legs of a collie, +but a head approaching that of a mastiff, a noble face with a +wistful human expression, and the most truthful eyes I ever saw +in an animal. His master loves him if he loves anything, but in +his savage moods ill-treats him. "Ring's" devotion never +swerves, and his truthful eyes are rarely taken off his master's +face. He is almost human in his intelligence, and, unless he is +told to do so, he never takes notice of any one but "Jim." In a +tone as if speaking to a human being, his master, pointing to me, +said, "Ring, go to that lady, and don't leave her again +to-night." "Ring" at once came to me, looked into my face, laid +his head on my shoulder, and then lay down beside me with his +head on my lap, but never taking his eyes from "Jim's" face. + +The long shadows of the pines lay upon the frosted grass, an +aurora leaped fitfully, and the moonlight, though intensely +bright, was pale beside the red, leaping flames of our pine logs +and their red glow on our gear, ourselves, and Ring's truthful +face. One of the young men sang a Latin student's song and two +Negro melodies; the other "Sweet Spirit, hear my Prayer." "Jim" +sang one of Moore's melodies in a singular falsetto, and all +together sang, "The Star-spangled Banner" and "The Red, White, +and Blue." Then "Jim" recited a very clever poem of his own +composition, and told some fearful Indian stories. A group of +small silver spruces away from the fire was my sleeping place. +The artist who had been up there had so woven and interlaced +their lower branches as to form a bower, affording at once +shelter from the wind and a most agreeable privacy. It was +thickly strewn with young pine shoots, and these, when covered +with a blanket, with an inverted saddle for a pillow, made a +luxurious bed. The mercury at 9 P.M. was 12 degrees below the +freezing point. "Jim," after a last look at the horses, made a +huge fire, and stretched himself out beside it, but "Ring" lay at +my back to keep me warm. I could not sleep, but the night passed +rapidly. I was anxious about the ascent, for gusts of ominous +sound swept through the pines at intervals. Then wild animals +howled, and "Ring" was perturbed in spirit about them. Then it +was strange to see the notorious desperado, a red-handed man, +sleeping as quietly as innocence sleeps. But, above all, it was +exciting to lie there, with no better shelter than a bower of +pines, on a mountain 11,000 feet high, in the very heart of the +Rocky Range, under twelve degrees of frost, hearing sounds of +wolves, with shivering stars looking through the fragrant canopy, +with arrowy pines for bed-posts, and for a night lamp the red +flames of a camp-fire. + +Day dawned long before the sun rose, pure and lemon colored. The +rest were looking after the horses, when one of the students came +running to tell me that I must come farther down the slope, for +"Jim" said he had never seen such a sunrise. From the chill, +grey Peak above, from the everlasting snows, from the silvered +pines, down through mountain ranges with their depths of Tyrian +purple, we looked to where the Plains lay cold, in blue-grey, +like a morning sea against a far horizon. Suddenly, as a +dazzling streak at first, but enlarging rapidly into a dazzling +sphere, the sun wheeled above the grey line, a light and glory as +when it was first created. "Jim" involuntarily and reverently +uncovered his head, and exclaimed, "I believe there is a God!" I +felt as if, Parsee-like, I must worship. The grey of the Plains +changed to purple, the sky was all one rose-red flush, on which +vermilion cloud-streaks rested; the ghastly peaks gleamed like +rubies, the earth and heavens were new created. Surely "the Most +High dwelleth not in temples made with hands!" For a full hour +those Plains simulated the ocean, down to whose limitless expanse +of purple, cliff, rocks, and promontories swept down. + +By seven we had finished breakfast, and passed into the ghastlier +solitudes above, I riding as far as what, rightly, or wrongly, +are called the "Lava Beds," an expanse of large and small +boulders, with snow in their crevices. It was very cold; some +water which we crossed was frozen hard enough to bear the horse. +"Jim" had advised me against taking any wraps, and my thin +Hawaiian riding dress, only fit for the tropics, was penetrated +by the keen air The rarefied atmosphere soon began to oppress our +breathing, and I found that Evans's boots were so large that I +had no foothold. Fortunately, before the real difficulty of the +ascent began, we found, under a rock, a pair of small overshoes, +probably left by the Hayden exploring expedition, which just +lasted for the day. As we were leaping from rock to rock, "Jim" +said, "I was thinking in the night about your traveling alone, +and wondering where you carried your Derringer, for I could see +no signs of it." On my telling him that I traveled unarmed, he +could hardly believe it, and adjured me to get a revolver at +once. + +On arriving at the "Notch" (a literal gate of rock), we found +ourselves absolutely on the knifelike ridge or backbone of Long's +Peak, only a few feet wide, covered with colossal boulders and +fragments, and on the other side shelving in one precipitous, +snow-patched sweep of 3,000 feet to a picturesque hollow, +containing a lake of pure green water. Other lakes, hidden among +dense pine woods, were farther off, while close above us rose the +Peak, which, for about 500 feet, is a smooth, gaunt, +inaccessible-looking pile of granite. Passing through the +"Notch," we looked along the nearly inaccessible side of the +Peak, composed of boulders and debris of all shapes and sizes, +through which appeared broad, smooth ribs of reddish-colored +granite, looking as if they upheld the towering rock mass above. +I usually dislike bird's-eye and panoramic views, but, though +from a mountain, this was not one. Serrated ridges, not much +lower than that on which we stood, rose, one beyond another, far +as that pure atmosphere could carry the vision, broken into awful +chasms deep with ice and snow, rising into pinnacles piercing the +heavenly blue with their cold, barren grey, on, on for ever, till +the most distant range upbore unsullied snow alone. There were +fair lakes mirroring the dark pine woods, canyons dark and +blue-black with unbroken expanses of pines, snow-slashed +pinnacles, wintry heights frowning upon lovely parks, watered and +wooded, lying in the lap of summer; North Park floating off into +the blue distance, Middle Park closed till another season, the +sunny slopes of Estes Park, and winding down among the mountains +the snowy ridge of the Divide, whose bright waters seek both the +Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. There, far below, links of diamonds +showed where the Grand River takes its rise to seek the +mysterious Colorado, with its still unsolved enigma, and lose +itself in the waters of the Pacific; and nearer the snow-born +Thompson bursts forth from the ice to begin its journey to the +Gulf of Mexico. Nature, rioting in her grandest mood, exclaimed +with voices of grandeur, solitude, sublimity, beauty, and +infinity, "Lord, what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? or +the son of man, that Thou visitest him?" Never-to-be-forgotten +glories they were, burnt in upon my memory by six succeeding +hours of terror. + +You know I have no head and no ankles, and never ought to dream +of mountaineering; and had I known that the ascent was a real +mountaineering feat I should not have felt the slightest ambition +to perform it. As it is, I am only humiliated by my success, for +"Jim" dragged me up, like a bale of goods, by sheer force of +muscle. At the "Notch" the real business of the ascent began. +Two thousand feet of solid rock towered above us, four thousand +feet of broken rock shelved precipitously below; smooth granite +ribs, with barely foothold, stood out here and there; melted snow +refrozen several times, presented a more serious obstacle; many +of the rocks were loose, and tumbled down when touched. To +me it was a time of extreme terror. I was roped to "Jim," but it +was of no use; my feet were paralyzed and slipped on the bare +rock, and he said it was useless to try to go that way, and we +retraced our steps. I wanted to return to the "Notch," knowing +that my incompetence would detain the party, and one of the +young men said almost plainly that a woman was a dangerous +encumbrance, but the trapper replied shortly that if it were not +to take a lady up he would not go up at all. He went on to +explore, and reported that further progress on the correct line +of ascent was blocked by ice; and then for two hours we +descended, lowering ourselves by our hands from rock to rock +along a boulder-strewn sweep of 4,000 feet, patched with ice and +snow, and perilous from rolling stones. My fatigue, giddiness, +and pain from bruised ankles, and arms half pulled out of their +sockets, were so great that I should never have gone halfway had +not "Jim," nolens volens, dragged me along with a patience and +skill, and withal a determination that I should ascend the Peak, +which never failed. After descending about 2,000 feet to avoid +the ice, we got into a deep ravine with inaccessible sides, +partly filled with ice and snow and partly with large and small +fragments of rock, which were constantly giving away, rendering +the footing very insecure. That part to me was two hours of +painful and unwilling submission to the inevitable; of trembling, +slipping, straining, of smooth ice appearing when it was least +expected, and of weak entreaties to be left behind while the +others went on. "Jim" always said that there was no danger, that +there was only a short bad bit ahead, and that I should go up +even if he carried me! + +Slipping, faltering, gasping from the exhausting toil in the +rarefied air, with throbbing hearts and panting lungs, we reached +the top of the gorge and squeezed ourselves between two gigantic +fragments of rock by a passage called the "Dog's Lift," when I +climbed on the shoulders of one man and then was hauled up. This +introduced us by an abrupt turn round the south-west angle of the +Peak to a narrow shelf of considerable length, rugged, uneven, +and so overhung by the cliff in some places that it is necessary +to crouch to pass at all. Above, the Peak looks nearly vertical +for 400 feet; and below, the most tremendous precipice I have +ever seen descends in one unbroken fall. This is usually +considered the most dangerous part of the ascent, but it does not +seem so to me, for such foothold as there is is secure, and one +fancies that it is possible to hold on with the hands. But +there, and on the final, and, to my thinking, the worst part of +the climb, one slip, and a breathing, thinking, human being would +lie 3,000 feet below, a shapeless, bloody heap! "Ring" refused +to traverse the Ledge, and remained at the "Lift" howling +piteously. + +From thence the view is more magnificent even than that from the +"Notch." At the foot of the precipice below us lay a lovely +lake, wood embosomed, from or near which the bright St. Vrain and +other streams take their rise. I thought how their clear cold +waters, growing turbid in the affluent flats, would heat under +the tropic sun, and eventually form part of that great ocean +river which renders our far-off islands habitable by impinging on +their shores. Snowy ranges, one behind the other, extended to +the distant horizon, folding in their wintry embrace the beauties +of Middle Park. Pike's Peak, more than one hundred miles off, +lifted that vast but shapeless summit which is the landmark of +southern Colorado. There were snow patches, snow slashes, +snow abysses, snow forlorn and soiled looking, snow pure and +dazzling, snow glistening above the purple robe of pine worn by +all the mountains; while away to the east, in limitless breadth, +stretched the green-grey of the endless Plains. Giants +everywhere reared their splintered crests. From thence, with a +single sweep, the eye takes in a distance of 300 miles--that +distance to the west, north, and south being made up of mountains +ten, eleven, twelve, and thirteen thousand feet in height, +dominated by Long's Peak, Gray's Peak, and Pike's Peak, all +nearly the height of Mont Blanc! On the Plains we traced the +rivers by their fringe of cottonwoods to the distant Platte, and +between us and them lay glories of mountain, canyon, and lake, +sleeping in depths of blue and purple most ravishing to the eye. + +As we crept from the ledge round a horn of rock I beheld what +made me perfectly sick and dizzy to look at--the terminal Peak +itself--a smooth, cracked face or wall of pink granite, as nearly +perpendicular as anything could well be up which it was possible +to climb, well deserving the name of the "American +Matterhorn.[14] + +[14] Let no practical mountaineer be allured by my description +into the ascent of Long's Peak. Truly terrible as it was to me, +to a member of the Alpine Club it would not be a feat worth +performing. + + +SCALING, not climbing, is the correct term for this last ascent. +It took one hour to accomplish 500 feet, pausing for breath every +minute or two. The only foothold was in narrow cracks or on +minute projections on the granite. To get a toe in these cracks, +or here and there on a scarcely obvious projection, while +crawling on hands and knees, all the while tortured with thirst +and gasping and struggling for breath, this was the climb; but at +last the Peak was won. A grand, well-defined mountain top it is, +a nearly level acre of boulders, with precipitous sides all +round, the one we came up being the only accessible one. + +It was not possible to remain long. One of the young men was +seriously alarmed by bleeding from the lungs, and the intense +dryness of the day and the rarefication of the air, at a height +of nearly 15,000 feet, made respiration very painful. There is +always water on the Peak, but it was frozen as hard as a rock, +and the sucking of ice and snow increases thirst. We all +suffered severely from the want of water, and the gasping for +breath made our mouths and tongues so dry that articulation was +difficult, and the speech of all unnatural. + +From the summit were seen in unrivalled combination all the views +which had rejoiced our eyes during the ascent. It was something +at last to stand upon the storm-rent crown of this lonely +sentinel of the Rocky Range, on one of the mightiest of the +vertebrae of the backbone of the North American continent, and +to see the waters start for both oceans. Uplifted above love and +hate and storms of passion, calm amidst the eternal silences, +fanned by zephyrs and bathed in living blue, peace rested for +that one bright day on the Peak, as if it were some region + + Where falls not rain, or hail, or any snow, + Or ever wind blows loudly. + +We placed our names, with the date of ascent, in a tin within a +crevice, and descended to the Ledge, sitting on the smooth +granite, getting our feet into cracks and against projections, +and letting ourselves down by our hands, "Jim" going before me, +so that I might steady my feet against his powerful shoulders. I +was no longer giddy, and faced the precipice of 3,500 feet +without a shiver. Repassing the Ledge and Lift, we accomplished +the descent through 1,500 feet of ice and snow, with many falls +and bruises, but no worse mishap, and there separated, the young +men taking the steepest but most direct way to the "Notch," with +the intention of getting ready for the march home, and "Jim" and +I taking what he thought the safer route for me--a descent over +boulders for 2,000 feet, and then a tremendous ascent to the +"Notch." I had various falls, and once hung by my frock, which +caught on a rock, and "Jim" severed it with his hunting knife, +upon which I fell into a crevice full of soft snow. We were +driven lower down the mountains than he had intended by +impassable tracts of ice, and the ascent was tremendous. For the +last 200 feet the boulders were of enormous size, and the +steepness fearful. Sometimes I drew myself up on hands and +knees, sometimes crawled; sometimes "Jim" pulled me up by my arms +or a lariat, and sometimes I stood on his shoulders, or he made +steps for me of his feet and hands, but at six we stood on the +"Notch" in the splendor of the sinking sun, all color deepening, +all peaks glorifying, all shadows purpling, all peril past. + +"Jim" had parted with his brusquerie when we parted from the +students, and was gentle and considerate beyond anything, though +I knew that he must be grievously disappointed, both in my +courage and strength. Water was an object of earnest desire. My +tongue rattled in my mouth, and I could hardly articulate. It is +good for one's sympathies to have for once a severe experience of +thirst. Truly, there was + + Water, water, everywhere, + But not a drop to drink. + +Three times its apparent gleam deceived even the mountaineer's +practiced eye, but we found only a foot of "glare ice." At last, +in a deep hole, he succeeded in breaking the ice, and by putting +one's arm far down one could scoop up a little water in one's +hand, but it was tormentingly insufficient. With great +difficulty and much assistance I recrossed the "Lava Beds," was +carried to the horse and lifted upon him, and when we reached the +camping ground I was lifted off him, and laid on the ground +wrapped up in blankets, a humiliating termination of a great +exploit. The horses were saddled, and the young men were all +ready to start, but "Jim" quietly said, "Now, gentlemen, I want a +good night's rest, and we shan't stir from here to-night." I +believe they were really glad to have it so, as one of them was +quite "finished." I retired to my arbor, wrapped myself in a +roll of blankets, and was soon asleep. + +When I woke, the moon was high shining through the silvery +branches, whitening the bald Peak above, and glittering on the +great abyss of snow behind, and pine logs were blazing like a +bonfire in the cold still air. My feet were so icy cold that I +could not sleep again, and getting some blankets to sit in, and +making a roll of them for my back, I sat for two hours by the +camp-fire. It was weird and gloriously beautiful. The students +were asleep not far off in their blankets with their feet towards +the fire. "Ring" lay on one side of me with his fine head on my +arm, and his master sat smoking, with the fire lighting up the +handsome side of his face, and except for the tones of our +voices, and an occasional crackle and splutter as a pine knot +blazed up, there was no sound on the mountain side. The beloved +stars of my far-off home were overhead, the Plough and Pole Star, +with their steady light; the glittering Pleiades, looking larger +than I ever saw them, and "Orion's studded belt" shining +gloriously. Once only some wild animals prowled near the camp, +when "Ring," with one bound, disappeared from my side; and the +horses, which were picketed by the stream, broke their lariats, +stampeded, and came rushing wildly towards the fire, and it was +fully half an hour before they were caught and quiet was +restored. "Jim," or Mr. Nugent, as I always scrupulously called +him, told stories of his early youth, and of a great sorrow which +had led him to embark on a lawless and desperate life. His voice +trembled, and tears rolled down his cheek. Was it semi-conscious +acting, I wondered, or was his dark soul really stirred to its +depths by the silence, the beauty, and the memories of youth? + +We reached Estes Park at noon of the following day. A more +successful ascent of the Peak was never made, and I would not now +exchange my memories of its perfect beauty and extraordinary +sublimity for any other experience of mountaineering in any part +of the world. Yesterday snow fell on the summit, and it will be +inaccessible for eight months to come. + I. L. B. + + +Letter VIII + +Estes Park--Big game--"Parks" in Colorado--Magnificent +scenery--Flowers and pines--An awful road--Our log +cabin--Griffith Evans--A miniature world--Our topics--A +night alarm--A skunk--Morning glories--Daily routine--The +panic--"Wait for the wagon"--A musical evening. + +ESTES PARK, COLORADO TERRITORY, October 2. + +How time has slipped by I do not know. This is a glorious +region, and the air and life are intoxicating. I live mainly out +of doors and on horseback, wear my half-threadbare Hawaiian +dress, sleep sometimes under the stars on a bed of pine boughs, +ride on a Mexican saddle, and hear once more the low music of my +Mexican spurs. "There's a stranger! Heave arf a brick at him!" +is said by many travelers to express the feeling of the new +settlers in these Territories. This is not my experience in my +cheery mountain home. How the rafters ring as I write with songs +and mirth, while the pitch-pine logs blaze and crackle in the +chimney, and the fine snow dust drives in through the chinks and +forms mimic snow wreaths on the floor, and the wind raves and +howls and plays among the creaking pine branches and snaps them +short off, and the lightning plays round the blasted top of +Long's Peak, and the hardy hunters divert themselves with the +thought that when I go to bed I must turn out and face the storm! + +You will ask, "What is Estes Park?" This name, with the quiet +Midland Countries' sound, suggests "park palings" well lichened, +a lodge with a curtseying woman, fallow deer, and a Queen Anne +mansion. Such as it is, Estes Park is mine. It is unsurveyed, +"no man's land," and mine by right of love, appropriation, and +appreciation; by the seizure of its peerless sunrises and +sunsets, its glorious afterglow, its blazing noons, its +hurricanes sharp and furious, its wild auroras, its glories of +mountain and forest, of canyon, lake, and river, and the +stereotyping them all in my memory. Mine, too, in a better than +the sportsman's sense, are its majestic wapiti, which play and +fight under the pines in the early morning, as securely as fallow +deer under our English oaks; its graceful "black-tails," swift of +foot; its superb bighorns, whose noble leader is to be seen now +and then with his classic head against the blue sky on the top of +a colossal rock; its sneaking mountain lion with his hideous +nocturnal caterwaulings, the great "grizzly," the beautiful +skunk, the wary beaver, who is always making lakes, damming and +turning streams, cutting down young cotton-woods, and setting an +example of thrift and industry; the wolf, greedy and cowardly; +the coyote and the lynx, and all the lesser fry of mink, marten, +cat, hare, fox, squirrel, and chipmunk, as well as things that +fly, from the eagle down to the crested blue-jay. May their +number never be less, in spite of the hunter who kills for food +and gain, and the sportsman who kills and marauds for +pastime! + +But still I have not answered the natural question,[15] "What is +Estes Park?" Among the striking peculiarities of these mountains +are hundreds of high-lying valleys, large and small, at heights +varying from 6,000 to 11,000 feet. The most important are North +Park, held by hostile Indians; Middle Park, famous for hot +springs and trout; South Park is 10,000 feet high, a great +rolling prairie seventy miles long, well grassed and watered, but +nearly closed by snow in winter. But parks innumerable are +scattered throughout the mountains, most of them unnamed, and +others nicknamed by the hunters or trappers who have made them +their temporary resorts. They always lie far within the flaming +Foot Hills, their exquisite stretches of flowery pastures dotted +artistically with clumps of trees sloping lawnlike to bright +swift streams full of red-waist-coated trout, or running up in +soft glades into the dark forest, above which the snow peaks rise +in their infinite majesty. Some are bits of meadow a mile long +and very narrow, with a small stream, a beaver dam, and a pond +made by beaver industry. Hundreds of these can only be reached +by riding in the bed of a stream, or by scrambling up some narrow +canyon till it debouches on the fairy-like stretch above. These +parks are the feeding grounds of innumerable wild animals, and +some, like one three miles off, seem chosen for the process of +antler-casting, the grass being covered for at least a square +mile with the magnificent branching horns of the elk. + +[15] Nor should I at this time, had not Henry Kingsley, Lord +Dunraven, and "The Field," divulged the charms and whereabouts of +these "happy hunting grounds," with the certain result of +directing a stream of tourists into the solitary, beast-haunted +paradise. + + +Estes Park combines the beauties of all. Dismiss all thoughts of +the Midland Counties. For park palings there are mountains, +forest skirted, 9,000, 11,000, 14,000 feet high; for a lodge, two +sentinel peaks of granite guarding the only feasible entrance; +and for a Queen Anne mansion an unchinked log cabin with a vault +of sunny blue overhead. The park is most irregularly shaped, and +contains hardly any level grass. It is an aggregate of lawns, +slopes, and glades, about eighteen miles in length, but never +more than two miles in width. The Big Thompson, a bright, rapid +trout stream, snow born on Long's Peak a few miles higher, takes +all sorts of magical twists, vanishing and reappearing +unexpectedly, glancing among lawns, rushing through romantic +ravines, everywhere making music through the still, long nights. +Here and there the lawns are so smooth, the trees so artistically +grouped, a lake makes such an artistic foreground, or a waterfall +comes tumbling down with such an apparent feeling for the +picturesque, that I am almost angry with Nature for her close +imitation of art. But in another hundred yards Nature, glorious, +unapproachable, inimitable, is herself again, raising one's +thoughts reverently upwards to her Creator and ours. Grandeur +and sublimity, not softness, are the features of Estes Park. The +glades which begin so softly are soon lost in the dark primaeval +forests, with their peaks of rosy granite, and their stretches of +granite blocks piled and poised by nature in some mood of fury. +The streams are lost in canyons nearly or quite inaccessible, +awful in their blackness and darkness; every valley ends in +mystery; seven mountain ranges raise their frowning barriers +between us and the Plains, and at the south end of the park +Long's Peak rises to a height of 14,700 feet, with his bare, +scathed head slashed with eternal snow. The lowest part of the +Park is 7,500 feet high; and though the sun is hot during the +day, the mercury hovers near the freezing point every night of +the summer. An immense quantity of snow falls, but partly owing +to the tremendous winds which drift it into the deep valleys, +and partly to the bright warm sun of the winter months, the park +is never snowed up, and a number of cattle and horses are +wintered out of doors on its sun-cured saccharine grasses, of +which the gramma grass is the most valuable. + +The soil here, as elsewhere in the neighborhood, is nearly +everywhere coarse, grey, granitic dust, produced probably by the +disintegration of the surrounding mountains. It does not hold +water, and is never wet in any weather. There are no thaws here +The snow mysteriously disappears by rapid evaporation. Oats +grow, but do not ripen, and, when well advanced, are cut and +stacked for winter fodder. Potatoes yield abundantly, and, +though not very large, are of the best quality, mealy throughout. +Evans has not attempted anything else, and probably the more +succulent vegetables would require irrigation. The wild flowers +are gorgeous and innumerable, though their beauty, which +culminates in July and August, was over before I arrived, and the +recent snow flurries have finished them. The time between winter +and winter is very short, and the flowery growth and blossom of a +whole year are compressed into two months. Here are dandelions, +buttercups, larkspurs, harebells, violets, roses, blue gentian, +columbine, painter's brush, and fifty others, blue and yellow +predominating; and though their blossoms are stiffened by the +cold every morning, they are starring the grass and drooping over +the brook long before noon, making the most of their brief lives +in the sunshine. Of ferns, after many a long hunt, I have only +found the Cystopteris fragilis and the Blechnum spicant, but +I hear that the Pteris aquilina is also found. Snakes and +mosquitoes do not appear to be known here. Coming almost direct +from the tropics, one is dissatisfied with the uniformity of the +foliage; indeed, foliage can hardly be written of, as the trees +properly so called at this height are exclusively Coniferae, and +bear needles instead of leaves. In places there are patches of +spindly aspens, which have turned a lemon yellow, and along the +streams bear cherries, vines, and roses lighten the gulches with +their variegated crimson leaves. The pines are not imposing, +either from their girth or height. Their coloring is blackish +green, and though they are effective singly or in groups, they +are somber and almost funereal when densely massed, as here, +along the mountain sides. The timber line is at a height of +about 11,000 feet, and is singularly well defined. The most +attractive tree I have seen is the silver spruce, Abies +Englemanii, near of kin to what is often called the balsam fir. +Its shape and color are both beautiful. My heart warms towards +it, and I frequent all the places where I can find it. It looks +as if a soft, blue, silver powder had fallen on its deep-green +needles, or as if a bluish hoar-frost, which must melt at noon, +were resting upon it. Anyhow, one can hardly believe that the +beauty is permanent, and survives the summer heat and the winter +cold. The universal tree here is the Pinus ponderosa, but it +never attains any very considerable size, and there is nothing to +compare with the red-woods of the Sierra Nevada, far less with +the sequoias of California. + +As I have written before, Estes Park is thirty miles from +Longmount, the nearest settlement, and it can be reached on +horseback only by the steep and devious track by which I came, +passing through a narrow rift in the top of a precipitous ridge, +9,000 feet high, called the Devil's Gate. Evans takes a lumber +wagon with four horses over the mountains, and a Colorado +engineer would have no difficulty in making a wagon road. In +several of the gulches over which the track hangs there are the +remains of wagons which have come to grief in the attempt to +emulate Evans's feat, which without evidence, I should have +supposed to be impossible. It is an awful road. The only +settlers in the park are Griffith Evans, and a married man a mile +higher up. "Mountain Jim's" cabin is in the entrance gulch, four +miles off, and there is not another cabin for eighteen miles +toward the Plains. The park is unsurveyed, and the huge tract of +mountainous country beyond is almost altogether unexplored. Elk +hunters occasionally come up and camp out here; but the two +settlers, who, however, are only squatters, for various reasons +are not disposed to encourage such visitors. When Evans, who is +a very successful hunter, came here, he came on foot, and for +some time after settling here he carried the flour and +necessaries required by his family on his back over the +mountains. + +As I intend to make Estes Park my headquarters until the winter +sets in, I must make you acquainted with my surroundings and mode +of living. The "Queen Anne mansion" is represented by a log +cabin made of big hewn logs. The chinks should be filled with +mud and lime, but these are wanting. The roof is formed of +barked young spruce, then a layer of hay, and an outer coating of +mud, all nearly flat. The floors are roughly boarded. The +"living room" is about sixteen feet square, and has a rough stone +chimney in which pine logs are always burning. At one end there +is a door into a small bedroom, and at the other a door into a +small eating room, at the table of which we feed in relays. This +opens into a very small kitchen with a great American +cooking-stove, and there are two "bed closets" besides. Although +rude, it is comfortable, except for the draughts. The fine snow +drives in through the chinks and covers the floors, but sweeping +it out at intervals is both fun and exercise. There are no heaps +or rubbish places outside. Near it, on the slope under the +pines, is a pretty two-roomed cabin, and beyond that, near the +lake, is my cabin, a very rough one. My door opens into a little +room with a stone chimney, and that again into a small room with +a hay bed, a chair with a tin basin on it, a shelf and some pegs. +A small window looks on the lake, and the glories of the sunrises +which I see from it are indescribable. Neither of my doors has a +lock, and, to say the truth, neither will shut, as the wood has +swelled. Below the house, on the stream which issues from the +lake, there is a beautiful log dairy, with a water wheel outside, +used for churning. Besides this, there are a corral, a shed for +the wagon, a room for the hired man, and shelters for horses and +weakly calves. All these things are necessaries at this height. + +The ranchmen are two Welshmen, Evans and Edwards, each with a +wife and family. The men are as diverse as they can be. +"Griff," as Evans is called, is short and small, and is +hospitable, careless, reckless, jolly, social, convivial, +peppery, good natured, "nobody's enemy but his own." He had the +wit and taste to find out Estes Park, where people have found him +out, and have induced him to give them food and lodging, and add +cabin to cabin to take them in. He is a splendid shot, an expert +and successful hunter, a bold mountaineer, a good rider, a +capital cook, and a generally "jolly fellow." His cheery laugh +rings through the cabin from the early morning, and is +contagious, and when the rafters ring at night with such songs as +"D'ye ken John Peel?" "Auld Lang Syne," and "John Brown," what +would the chorus be without poor "Griff's" voice? What would +Estes Park be without him, indeed? When he went to Denver lately +we missed him as we should have missed the sunshine, and perhaps +more. In the early morning, when Long's Peak is red, and the +grass crackles with the hoar-frost, he arouses me with a cheery +thump on my door. "We're going cattle-hunting, will you come?" +or, "Will you help to drive in the cattle? You can take your +pick of the horses. I want another hand." Free-hearted, lavish, +popular, poor "Griff" loves liquor too well for his prosperity, +and is always tormented by debt. He makes lots of money, but +puts it into "a bag with holes." He has fifty horses and 1,000 +head of cattle, many of which are his own, wintering up here, and +makes no end of money by taking in people at eight dollars a +week, yet it all goes somehow. He has a most industrious wife, a +girl of seventeen, and four younger children, all musical, but +the wife has to work like a slave; and though he is a kind +husband, her lot, as compared with her lord's, is like that of a +squaw. Edwards, his partner, is his exact opposite, tall, thin, +and condemnatory looking, keen, industrious, saving, grave, a +teetotaler, grieved for all reasons at Evans's follies, and +rather grudging; as naturally unpopular as Evans is popular; a +"decent man," who, with his industrious wife, will certainly make +money as fast as Evans loses it. + +I pay eight dollars a week, which includes the unlimited use of a +horse, when one can be found and caught. We breakfast at seven +on beef, potatoes, tea, coffee, new bread, and butter. Two +pitchers of cream and two of milk are replenished as fast as they +are exhausted. Dinner at twelve is a repetition of the +breakfast, but with the coffee omitted and a gigantic pudding +added. Tea at six is a repetition of breakfast. "Eat whenever +you are hungry, you can always get milk and bread in the +kitchen," Evans says--"eat as much as you can, it'll do you +good"--and we all eat like hunters. There is no change of food. +The steer which was being killed on my arrival is now being eaten +through from head to tail, the meat being hacked off quite +promiscuously, without any regard to joints. In this dry, +rarefied air, the outside of the flesh blackens and hardens, and +though the weather may be hot, the carcass keeps sweet for two or +three months. The bread is super excellent, but the poor wives +seem to be making and baking it all day. + +The regular household living and eating together at this time +consists of a very intelligent and high-minded American couple, +Mr. and Mrs. Dewy, people whose character, culture, and society I +should value anywhere; a young Englishman, brother of a +celebrated African traveler, who, because he rides on an English +saddle, and clings to some other insular peculiarities, is called +"The Earl"; a miner prospecting for silver; a young man, the type +of intelligent, practical "Young America," whose health showed +consumptive tendencies when he was in business, and who is living +a hunter's life here; a grown-up niece of Evans; and a +melancholy-looking hired man. A mile off there is an industrious +married settler, and four miles off, in the gulch leading to the +park, "Mountain Jim," otherwise Mr. Nugent, is posted. His +business as a trapper takes him daily up to the beaver dams in +Black Canyon to look after his traps, and he generally spends +some time in or about our cabin, not, I can see, to Evans's +satisfaction. For, in truth, this blue hollow, lying solitary +at the foot of Long's Peak, is a miniature world of great +interest, in which love, jealousy, hatred, envy, pride, +unselfishness, greed, selfishness, and self-sacrifice can be +studied hourly, and there is always the unpleasantly exciting +risk of an open quarrel with the neighboring desperado, whose +"I'll shoot you!" has more than once been heard in the cabin. + +The party, however, has often been increased by "campers," either +elk hunters or "prospectors" for silver or locations, who feed +with us and join us in the evening. They get little help from +Evans, either as to elk or locations, and go away disgusted and +unsuccessful. Two Englishmen of refinement and culture camped +out here prospecting a few weeks ago, and then, contrary to +advice, crossed the mountains into North Park, where gold is said +to abound, and it is believed that they have fallen victims to +the bloodthirsty Indians of the region. Of course, we never get +letters or newspapers unless some one rides to Longmount for +them. Two or three novels and a copy of Our New West are our +literature. Our latest newspaper is seventeen days old. Somehow +the park seems to become the natural limit of our interests so +far as they appear in conversation at table. The last grand +aurora, the prospect of a snow-storm, track and sign of elk and +grizzly, rumors of a bighorn herd near the lake, the canyons in +which the Texan cattle were last seen, the merits of different +rifles, the progress of two obvious love affairs, the probability +of some one coming up from the Plains with letters, "Mountain +Jim's" latest mood or escapade, and the merits of his dog "Ring" +as compared with those of Evans's dog "Plunk," are among the +topics which are never abandoned as exhausted. + +On Sunday work is nominally laid aside, but most of the men go +out hunting or fishing till the evening, when we have the +harmonium and much sacred music and singing in parts. To be +alone in the park from the afternoon till the last glory of the +afterglow has faded, with no books but a Bible and Prayer-book, +is truly delightful. No worthier temple for a "Te Deum" or +"Gloria in Excelsis" could be found than this "temple not made +with hands," in which one may worship without being distracted by +the sight of bonnets of endless form, and curiously intricate +"back hair," and countless oddities of changing fashion. + +I shall not soon forget my first night here. + +Somewhat dazed by the rarefied air, entranced by the glorious +beauty, slightly puzzled by the motley company, whose faces +loomed not always quite distinctly through the cloud of smoke +produced by eleven pipes, I went to my solitary cabin at nine, +attended by Evans. It was very dark, and it seemed a long way +off. Something howled--Evans said it was a wolf--and owls +apparently innumerable hooted incessantly. The pole-star, +exactly opposite my cabin door, burned like a lamp. The frost +was sharp. Evans opened the door, lighted a candle, and left me, +and I was soon in my hay bed. I was frightened--that is, afraid +of being frightened, it was so eerie--but sleep soon got the +better of my fears. I was awoke by a heavy breathing, a noise +something like sawing under the floor, and a pushing and +upheaving, all very loud. My candle was all burned, and, in +truth, I dared not stir. The noise went on for an hour fully, +when, just as I thought the floor had been made sufficiently thin +for all purposes of ingress, the sounds abruptly ceased, and I +fell asleep again. My hair was not, as it ought to have been, +white in the morning! + +I was dressed by seven, our breakfast hour, and when I reached +the great cabin and told my story, Evans laughed hilariously, and +Edwards contorted his face dismally. They told me that there was +a skunk's lair under my cabin, and that they dare not make any +attempt to dislodge him for fear of rendering the cabin +untenable. They have tried to trap him since, but without +success, and each night the noisy performance is repeated. I +think he is sharpening his claws on the under side of my floor, +as the grizzlies sharpen theirs upon the trees. The odor with +which this creature, truly named Mephitis, can overpower its +assailants is truly AWFUL. We were driven out of the cabin for +some hours merely by the passage of one across the corral. The +bravest man is a coward in its neighborhood. Dogs rub their +noses on the ground till they bleed when they have touched the +fluid, and even die of the vomiting produced by the effluvia. +The odor can be smelt a mile off. If clothes are touched by the +fluid they must be destroyed. At present its fur is very +valuable. Several have been killed since I came. A shot well +aimed at the spine secures one safely, and an experienced dog +can kill one by leaping upon it suddenly without being +exposed to danger. It is a beautiful beast, about the size and +length of a fox, with long thick black or dark-brown fur, and two +white streaks from the head to the long bushy tail. The claws of +its fore-feet are long and polished. Yesterday one was seen +rushing from the dairy and was shot. "Plunk," the big dog, +touched it and has to be driven into exile. The body was +valiantly removed by a man with a long fork, and carried to a +running stream, but we are nearly choked with the odor from the +spot where it fell. I hope that my skunk will enjoy a quiet +spirit so long as we are near neighbors. + +October 3. + +This is surely one of the most entrancing spots on earth. Oh, +that I could paint with pen or brush! From my bed I look on +Mirror Lake, and with the very earliest dawn, when objects are +not discernible, it lies there absolutely still, a purplish lead +color. Then suddenly into its mirror flash inverted peaks, at +first a dawn darker all round. This is a new sight, each morning +new. Then the peaks fade, and when morning is no longer "spread +upon the mountains," the pines are mirrored in my lake almost as +solid objects, and the glory steals downwards, and a red flush +warms the clear atmosphere of the park, and the hoar-frost +sparkles and the crested blue-jays step forth daintily on the +jewelled grass. The majesty and beauty grow on me daily. As +I crossed from my cabin just now, and the long mountain shadows +lay on the grass, and form and color gained new meanings, I was +almost false to Hawaii; I couldn't go on writing for the glory of +the sunset, but went out and sat on a rock to see the deepening +blue in the dark canyons, and the peaks becoming rose color one +by one, then fading into sudden ghastliness, the awe-inspiring +heights of Long's Peak fading last. Then came the glories of the +afterglow, when the orange and lemon of the east faded into gray, +and then gradually the gray for some distance above the horizon +brightened into a cold blue, and above the blue into a broad band +of rich, warm red, with an upper band of rose color; above it +hung a big cold moon. This is the "daily miracle" of evening, as +the blazing peaks in the darkness of Mirror Lake are the miracle +of morning. Perhaps this scenery is not lovable, but, as if it +were a strong stormy character, it has an intense fascination. + +The routine of my day is breakfast at seven, then I go back and +"do" my cabin and draw water from the lake, read a little, loaf a +little, return to the big cabin and sweep it alternately with +Mrs. Dewy, after which she reads aloud till dinner at twelve. +Then I ride with Mr. Dewy, or by myself, or with Mrs. Dewy, who +is learning to ride cavalier fashion in order to accompany her +invalid husband, or go after cattle till supper at six. After +that we all sit in the living room, and I settle down to write to +you, or mend my clothes, which are dropping to pieces. Some sit +round the table playing at eucre, the strange hunters and +prospectors lie on the floor smoking, and rifles are cleaned, +bullets cast, fishing flies made, fishing tackle repaired, boots +are waterproofed, part-songs are sung, and about half-past eight +I cross the crisp grass to my cabin, always expecting to find +something in it. We all wash our own clothes, and as my stock is +so small, some part of every day has to be spent at the wash tub. +Politeness and propriety always prevail in our mixed company, and +though various grades of society are represented, true democratic +equality prevails, not its counterfeit, and there is neither +forwardness on one side nor condescension on the other. + +Evans left for Denver ten days ago, taking his wife and family to +the Plains for the winter, and the mirth of our party departed +with him. Edwards is somber, except when he lies on the floor in +the evening, and tells stories of his march through Georgia with +Sherman. I gave Evans a 100-dollar note to change, and asked him +to buy me a horse for my tour, and for three days we have +expected him. The mail depends on him. I have had no letters +from you for five weeks, and can hardly curb my impatience. I +ride or walk three or four miles out on the Longmount trail two +or three times a day to look for him. Others, for different +reasons, are nearly equally anxious. After dark we start at +every sound, and every time the dogs bark all the able-bodied of +us turn out en masse. "Wait for the wagon" has become a nearly +maddening joke. + + +October 9. + +The letter and newspaper fever has seized on every one. We have +sent at last to Longmount. The evening I rode out on the +Longmount trail towards dusk, escorted by "Mountain Jim," and in +the distance we saw a wagon with four horses and a saddle horse +behind, and the driver waved a handkerchief, the concerted signal +if I were the possessor of a horse. We turned back, galloping +down the long hill as fast as two good horses could carry us, and +gave the joyful news. It was an hour before the wagon arrived, +bringing not Evans but two "campers" of suspicious aspect, who +have pitched their camp close to my cabin! You cannot imagine +what it is to be locked in by these mountain walls, and not to +know where your letters are lying. Later on, Mr. Buchan, one of +our usual inmates, returned from Denver with papers, letters for +every one but me, and much exciting news. The financial panic +has spread out West, gathering strength on its way. The Denver +banks have all suspended business. They refuse to cash their own +checks, or to allow their customers to draw a dollar, and would +not even give green-backs for my English gold! Neither Mr. +Buchan nor Evans could get a cent. Business is suspended, and +everybody, however rich, is for the time being poor. The Indians +have taken to the "war path," and are burning ranches and killing +cattle. There is a regular "scare" among the settlers, and wagon +loads of fugitives are arriving in Colorado Springs. The Indians +say, "The white man has killed the buffalo and left them to rot +on the plains. We will be revenged." Evans had reached +Longmount, and will be here tonight. + + +October 10. + +"Wait for the wagon" still! We had a hurricane of wind and hail +last night; it was eleven before I could go to my cabin, and I +only reached it with the help of two men. The moon was not up, +and the sky overhead was black with clouds, when suddenly Long's +Peak, which had been invisible, gleamed above the dark mountains, +all glistening with new-fallen snow, on which the moon, as yet +uprisen here, was shining. The evening before, after sunset, I +saw another novel effect. My lake turned a brilliant orange in +the twilight, and in its still mirror the mountains were +reflected a deep rich blue. It is a world of wonders. To-day we +had a great storm with flurries of fine snow; and when the clouds +rolled up at noon, the Snowy Range and all the higher mountains +were pure white. I have been hard at work all day to drown my +anxieties, which are heightened by a rumor that Evans has gone +buffalo-hunting on the Platte! + +This evening, quite unexpectedly, Evans arrived with a heavy mail +in a box. I sorted it, but there was nothing for me and Evans +said he was afraid that he had left my letters, which were +separate from the others, behind at Denver, but he had written +from Longmount for them. A few hours later they were found in a +box of groceries! + +All the hilarity of the house has returned with Evans, and he has +brought a kindred spirit with him, a young man who plays and +sings splendidly, has an inexhaustible repertoire, and produces +sonatas, funeral marches, anthems, reels, strathspeys, and all +else, out of his wonderful memory. Never, surely was a chamber +organ compelled to such service. A little cask of suspicious +appearance was smuggled into the cabin from the wagon, and +heightens the hilarity a little, I fear. No churlishness could +resist Evans's unutterable jollity or the contagion of his hearty +laugh. He claps people on the back, shouts at them, will do +anything for them, and makes a perpetual breeze. "My kingdom for +a horse!" He has not got one for me, and a shadow crossed his +face when I spoke of the subject. Eventually he asked for a +private conference, when he told me, with some confusion, that he +had found himself "very hard up" in Denver, and had been obliged +to appropriate my 100-dollar note. He said he would give me, as +interest for it up to November 25th, a good horse, saddle, and +bridle for my proposed journey of 600 miles. I was somewhat +dismayed, but there was no other course, as the money was gone. + +[16]] I tried a horse, mended my clothes, reduced my pack to a +weight of twelve pounds, and was all ready for an early start, +when before daylight I was wakened by Evans's cheery voice at my +door. "I say, Miss B., we've got to drive wild cattle to-day; I +wish you'd lend a hand, there's not enough of us; I'll give you a +good horse; one day won't make much difference." So we've been +driving cattle all day, riding about twenty miles, and fording +the Big Thompson about as many times. Evans flatters me by +saying that I am "as much use as another man"; more than one of +our party, I hope, who always avoided the "ugly" cows. + +[16] In justice to Evans, I must mention here that every cent of +the money was ultimately paid, that the horse was perfection, and +that the arrangement turned out a most advantageous one for me. + + +October 12. + +I am still here, helping in the kitchen, driving cattle, and +riding four or five times a day. Evans detains me each morning +by saying, "Here's lots of horses for you to try," and after +trying five or six a day, I do not find one to my liking. Today, +as I was cantering a tall well-bred one round the lake, he threw +the bridle off by a toss of his head, leaving me with the reins +in my hands; one bucked, and two have tender feet, and tumbled +down. Such are some of our little varieties. Still I hope to +get off on my tour in a day or two, so at least as to be able to +compare Estes Park with some of the better-known parts of +Colorado. + +You would be amused if you could see our cabin just now. There +are nine men in the room and three women. For want of seats most +of the men are lying on the floor; all are smoking, and the +blithe young French Canadian who plays so beautifully, and +catches about fifty speckled trout for each meal, is playing the +harmonium with a pipe in his mouth. Three men who have camped in +Black Canyon for a week are lying like dogs on the floor. They +are all over six feet high, immovably solemn, neither smiling at +the general hilarity, nor at the absurd changes which are being +rung on the harmonium. They may be described as clothed only in +boots, for their clothes are torn to rags. They stare vacantly. +They have neither seen a woman nor slept under a roof for six +months. Negro songs are being sung, and before that "Yankee +Doodle" was played immediately after "Rule Britannia," and it +made every one but the strangers laugh, it sounded so foolish +and mean. The colder weather is bringing the beasts down from +the heights. I heard both wolves and the mountain lion as I +crossed to my cabin last night. + I. L. B. + + +LETTER IX + +"Please Ma'ams"--A desperado--A cattle hunt--The muster--A mad +cow--A snowstorm--Snowed up--Birdie--The Plains--A prairie +schooner--Denver--A find--Plum Creek--"Being +agreeable"--Snowbound--The grey mare. + +ESTES PARK, COLORADO. + +This afternoon, as I was reading in my cabin, little Sam Edwards +ran in, saying, "Mountain Jim wants to speak to you." This +brought to my mind images of infinite worry, gauche servants, +"please Ma'am," contretemps, and the habit growing out of our +elaborate and uselessly conventional life of magnifying the +importance of similar trifles. Then "things" came up, with +the tyranny they exercise. I REALLY need nothing more than this +log cabin offers. But elsewhere one must have a house and +servants, and burdens and worries--not that one may be hospitable +and comfortable, but for the "thick clay" in the shape of +"things" which one has accumulated. My log house takes me about +five minutes to "do," and you could eat off the floor, and +it needs no lock, as it contains nothing worth stealing. + +But "Mountain Jim" was waiting while I made these reflections to +ask us to take a ride; and he, Mr. and Mrs. Dewy, and I, had a +delightful stroll through colored foliage, and then, when they +were fatigued, I changed my horse for his beautiful mare, and we +galloped and raced in the beautiful twilight, in the intoxicating +frosty air. Mrs. Dewy wishes you could have seen us as we +galloped down the pass, the fearful-looking ruffian on my heavy +wagon horse, and I on his bare wooden saddle, from which beaver, +mink, and marten tails, and pieces of skin, were hanging +raggedly, with one spur, and feet not in the stirrups, the mare +looking so aristocratic and I so beggarly! Mr. Nugent is what is +called "splendid company." With a sort of breezy mountain +recklessness in everything, he passes remarkably acute judgments +on men and events; on women also. He has pathos, poetry, and +humor, an intense love of nature, strong vanity in certain +directions, an obvious desire to act and speak in character, and +sustain his reputation as a desperado, a considerable +acquaintance with literature, a wonderful verbal memory, opinions +on every person and subject, a chivalrous respect for women in +his manner, which makes it all the more amusing when he suddenly +turns round upon one with some graceful raillery, a great power +of fascination, and a singular love of children. The children of +this house run to him, and when he sits down they climb on his +broad shoulders and play with his curls. They say in the house +that "no one who has been here thinks any one worth speaking to +after Jim," but I think that this is probably an opinion which +time would alter. Somehow, he is kept always before the public +of Colorado, for one can hardly take up a newspaper without +finding a paragraph about him, a contribution by him, or a +fragment of his biography. Ruffian as he looks, the first word +he speaks--to a lady, at least--places him on a level with +educated gentlemen, and his conversation is brilliant, and full +of the light and fitfulness of genius. Yet, on the whole, he is +a most painful spectacle. His magnificent head shows so plainly +the better possibilities which might have been his. His life, in +spite of a certain dazzle which belongs to it, is a ruined and +wasted one, and one asks what of good can the future have in +store for one who has for so long chosen evil?[17] + +[17] September of the next year answered the question by laying +him down in a dishonored grave, with a rifle bullet in his brain. + + +Shall I ever get away? We were to have had a grand cattle hunt +yesterday, beginning at 6:30, but the horses were all lost. +Often out of fifty horses all that are worth anything are +marauding, and a day is lost in hunting for them in the canyons. +However, before daylight this morning Evans called through my +door, "Miss Bird, I say we've got to drive cattle fifteen miles, +I wish you'd lend a hand; there's not enough of us; I'll give you +a good horse." + +The scene of the drive is at a height of 7,500 feet, watered by +two rapid rivers. On all sides mountains rise to an altitude of +from 11,000 to 15,000 feet, their skirts shaggy with pitch-pine +forests, and scarred by deep canyons, wooded and boulder strewn, +opening upon the mountain pasture previously mentioned. Two +thousand head of half-wild Texan cattle are scattered in herds +throughout the canyons, living on more or less suspicious terms +with grizzly and brown bears, mountain lions, elk, mountain +sheep, spotted deer, wolves, lynxes, wild cats, beavers, minks, +skunks, chipmunks, eagles, rattlesnakes, and all the other +two-legged, four-legged, vertebrate, and invertebrate inhabitants +of this lonely and romantic region. On the whole, they show a +tendency rather to the habits of wild than of domestic cattle. +They march to water in Indian file, with the bulls leading, and +when threatened, take strategic advantage of ridgy ground, +slinking warily along in the hollows, the bulls acting as +sentinels, and bringing up the rear in case of an attack from +dogs. Cows have to be regularly broken in for milking, being as +wild as buffaloes in their unbroken state; but, owing to the +comparative dryness of the grasses, and the system of allowing +the calf to have the milk during the daytime, a dairy of 200 cows +does not produce as much butter as a Devonshire dairy of fifty. +Some "necessary" cruelty is involved in the stockman's business, +however humane he may be. The system is one of terrorism, and +from the time that the calf is bullied into the branding pen, and +the hot iron burns into his shrinking flesh, to the day when the +fatted ox is driven down from his boundless pastures to be +slaughtered in Chicago, "the fear and dread of man" are upon him. + +The herds are apt to penetrate the savage canyons which come down +from the Snowy Range, when they incur a risk of being snowed up +and starved, and it is necessary now and then to hunt them out +and drive them down to the "park." On this occasion, the whole +were driven down for a muster, and for the purpose of branding +the calves. + +After a 6:30 breakfast this morning, we started, the party being +composed of my host, a hunter from the Snowy Range, two stockmen +from the Plains, one of whom rode a violent buck-jumper, and was +said by his comrade to be the "best rider in North Americay," +and myself. We were all mounted on Mexican saddles, rode, as the +custom is, with light snaffle bridles, leather guards over our +feet, and broad wooden stirrups, and each carried his lunch in a +pouch slung on the lassoing horn of his saddle. Four big, +badly-trained dogs accompanied us. It was a ride of nearly +thirty miles, and of many hours, one of the most splendid I ever +took. We never got off our horses except to tighten the girths, +we ate our lunch with our bridles knotted over saddle horns, +started over the level at full gallops, leapt over trunks of +trees, dashed madly down hillsides rugged with rocks or strewn +with great stones, forded deep, rapid streams, saw lovely lakes +and views of surpassing magnificence, startled a herd of elk with +uncouth heads and in the chase, which for some time was +unsuccessful, rode to the very base of Long's Peak, over 14,000 +feet high, where the bright waters of one of the affluents of the +Platte burst from the eternal snows through a canyon of +indescribable majesty. The sun was hot, but at a height of over +8,000 feet the air was crisp and frosty, and the enjoyment of +riding a good horse under such exhilarating circumstances was +extreme. In one wild part of the ride we had to come down a +steep hill, thickly wooded with pitch pines, to leap over the +fallen timber, and steer between the dead and living trees to +avoid being "snagged," or bringing down a heavy dead branch by an +unwary touch. + +Emerging from this, we caught sight of a thousand Texan cattle +feeding in a valley below. The leaders scented us, and, taking +fright, began to move off in the direction of the open "park," +while we were about a mile from and above them. "Head them off, +boys!" our leader shouted; "all aboard; hark away!" and with +something of the "High, tally-ho in the morning!" away we all +went at a hard gallop down-hill. I could not hold my excited +animal; down-hill, up-hill, leaping over rocks and timber, faster +every moment the pace grew, and still the leader shouted, "Go it, +boys!" and the horses dashed on at racing speed, passing and +repassing each other, till my small but beautiful bay was keeping +pace with the immense strides of the great buck-jumper ridden by +"the finest rider in North Americay," and I was dizzied and +breathless by the pace at which we were going. A shorter time +than it takes to tell it brought us close to and abreast of the +surge of cattle. The bovine waves were a grand sight: huge +bulls, shaped like buffaloes, bellowed and roared, and with great +oxen and cows with yearling calves, galloped like racers, and we +galloped alongside of them, and shortly headed them and in no +time were placed as sentinels across the mouth of the valley. It +seemed like infantry awaiting the shock of cavalry as we stood +as still as our excited horses would allow. I almost quailed as +the surge came on, but when it got close to us my comrades hooted +fearfully, and we dashed forward with the dogs, and, with +bellowing, roaring, and thunder of hoofs, the wave receded as it +came. I rode up to our leader, who received me with much +laughter. He said I was "a good cattleman," and that he had +forgotten that a lady was of the party till he saw me "come +leaping over the timber, and driving with the others." + +It was not for two hours after this that the real business of +driving began, and I was obliged to change my thoroughbred for a +well-trained cattle horse--a bronco, which could double like a +hare, and go over any ground. I had not expected to work like a +vachero, but so it was, and my Hawaiian experience was very +useful. We hunted the various canyons and known "camps," driving +the herds out of them; and, until we had secured 850 head in the +corral some hours afterwards, we scarcely saw each other to speak +to. Our first difficulty was with a herd which got into some +swampy ground, when a cow, which afterwards gave me an infinity +of trouble, remained at bay for nearly an hour, tossing the dog +three times, and resisting all efforts to dislodge her. She had +a large yearling calf with her, and Evans told me that the +attachment of a cow to her first calf is sometimes so great that +she will kill her second that the first may have the milk. +I got a herd of over a hundred out of a canyon by myself, and +drove them down to the river with the aid of one badly-broken +dog, which gave me more trouble than the cattle. The getting +over was most troublesome; a few took to the water readily and +went across, but others smelt it, and then, doubling back, ran in +various directions; while some attacked the dog as he was +swimming, and others, after crossing, headed back in search of +some favorite companions which had been left behind, and one +specially vicious cow attacked my horse over and over again. It +took an hour and a half of time and much patience to gather them +all on the other side. + +It was getting late in the day, and a snowstorm was impending, +before I was joined by the other drivers and herds, and as the +former had diminished to three, with only three dogs, it was very +difficult to keep the cattle together. You drive them as gently +as possible, so as not to frighten or excite them,[18] riding +first on one side, then on the other, to guide them; and if they +deliberately go in a wrong direction, you gallop in front and +head them off. The great excitement is when one breaks away from +the herd and gallops madly up and down-hill, and you gallop after +him anywhere, over and among rocks and trees, doubling when he +doubles, and heading him till you get him back again. The bulls +were quite easily managed, but the cows with calves, old or +young, were most troublesome. By accident I rode between one cow +and her calf in a narrow place, and the cow rushed at me and was +just getting her big horns under the horse, when he reared, and +spun dexterously aside. This kind of thing happened continually. +There was one very handsome red cow which became quite mad. She +had a calf with her nearly her own size, and thought every one +its enemy, and though its horns were well developed, and it was +quite able to take care of itself, she insisted on protecting it +from all fancied dangers. One of the dogs, a young, foolish +thing, seeing that the cow was excited, took a foolish pleasure +in barking at her, and she was eventually quite infuriated. She +turned to bay forty times at least; tore up the ground with her +horns, tossed and killed the calves of two other cows, and +finally became so dangerous to the rest of the herd that, just as +the drive was ending, Evans drew his revolver and shot her, and +the calf for which she had fought so blindly lamented her +piteously. She rushed at me several times mad with rage, but +these trained cattle horses keep perfectly cool, and, nearly +without will on my part, mine jumped aside at the right moment, +and foiled the assailant. Just at dusk we reached the corral--an +acre of grass enclosed by stout post-and-rail fences seven feet +high--and by much patience and some subtlety lodged the whole +herd within its shelter, without a blow, a shout, or even a crack +of a whip, wild as the cattle were. It was fearfully cold. We +galloped the last mile and a half in four and a half minutes, +reached the cabin just as the snow began to fall, and found +strong, hot tea ready. + +[18] In several visits to America I have observed that the +Americans are far in advance of us and our colonial kinsmen in +their treatment of horses and other animals. This was very +apparent with regard to this Texan herd. There were no stock +whips, no needless worrying of the animals in the excitement of +sport. Any dog seizing a bullock by his tail or heels would have +been called off and punished, and quietness and gentleness were +the rule. The horses were ridden without whips, and with spurs +so blunt that they could not hurt even a human skin, and were +ruled by the voice and a slight pressure on the light snaffle +bridle. This is the usual plan, even where, as in Colorado, the +horses are bronchos, and inherit ineradicable vice. I never yet +saw a horse BULLIED into submission in the United States. + + +October 18. + +Snow-bound for three days! I could not write yesterday, it was +so awful. People gave up all occupation, and talked of nothing +but the storm. The hunters all kept by the great fire in the +living room, only going out to bring in logs and clear the snow +from the door and windows. I never spent a more fearful night +than two nights ago, alone in my cabin in the storm, with the +roof lifting, the mud cracking and coming off, and the fine snow +hissing through the chinks between the logs, while splittings and +breaking of dead branches, wind wrung and snow laden, went on +incessantly, with screechings, howlings, thunder and lightning, +and many unfamiliar sounds besides. After snowing fiercely all +day, another foot of it fell in the early night, and, after +drifting against my door, blocked me effectually in. About +midnight the mercury fell to zero, and soon after a gale rose, +which lasted for ten hours. My window frame is swelled, and +shuts, apparently, hermetically; and my bed is six feet from it. +I had gone to sleep with six blankets on, and a heavy sheet over +my face. Between two and three I was awoke by the cabin being +shifted from underneath by the wind, and the sheet was frozen to +my lips. I put out my hands, and the bed was thickly covered +with fine snow. Getting up to investigate matters, I found the +floor some inches deep in parts in fine snow, and a gust of fine, +needle-like snow stung my face. The bucket of water was solid +ice. I lay in bed freezing till sunrise, when some of the men +came to see if I "was alive," and to dig me out. They brought a +can of hot water, which turned to ice before I could use it. I +dressed standing in snow, and my brushes, boots, and etceteras +were covered with snow. When I ran to the house, not a mountain +or anything else could be seen, and the snow on one side was +drifted higher than the roof. The air, as high as one could see, +was one white, stinging smoke of snowdrift--a terrific sight. In +the living room, the snow was driving through the chinks, and +Mrs. Dewy was shoveling it from the floor. Mr. D.'s beard was +hoary with frost in a room with a fire all night. Evans was +lying ill, with his bed covered with snow. Returning from my +cabin after breakfast, loaded with occupations for the day, I was +lifted off my feet, and deposited in a drift, and all my things, +writing book and letter included, were carried in different +directions. Some, including a valuable photograph, were +irrecoverable. The writing book was found, some hours +afterwards, under three feet of snow. + +There are tracks of bears and deer close to the house, but no one +can hunt in this gale, and the drift is blinding. We have been +slightly overcrowded in our one room. Chess, music, and whist +have been resorted to. One hunter, for very ennui, has devoted +himself to keeping my ink from freezing. We all sat in great +cloaks and coats, and kept up an enormous fire, with the pitch +running out of the logs. The isolation is extreme, for we are +literally snowed up, and the other settler in the Park and +"Mountain Jim" are both at Denver. Late in the evening the storm +ceased. In some places the ground is bare of snow, while in +others all irregularities are leveled, and the drifts are forty +feet deep. Nature is grand under this new aspect. The cold is +awful; the high wind with the mercury at zero would skin any part +exposed to it. + + +October 19. + +Evans offers me six dollars a week if I will stay into the winter +and do the cooking after Mrs. Edwards leaves! I think I should +like playing at being a "hired girl" if it were not for the +bread-making! But it would suit me better to ride after cattle. +The men don't like "baching," as it is called in the wilds--i.e. +"doing for themselves." They washed and ironed their clothes +yesterday, and there was an incongruity about the last +performance. I really think (though for the fifteenth time) that +I shall leave to-morrow. The cold has moderated, the sky is +bluer than ever, the snow is evaporating, and a hunter who has +joined us to-day says that there are no drifts on the trail which +one cannot get through. + + +LONGMOUNT, COLORADO, October 20. + +"The Island Valley of Avillon" is left, but how shall I finally +tear myself from its freedom and enchantments? I see Long's +snowy peak rising into the night sky, and know and long after the +magnificence of the blue hollow at its base. We were to have +left at 8 but the horses were lost, so it was 9:30 before we +started, the WE being the musical young French Canadian and +myself. I have a bay Indian pony, "Birdie," a little beauty, +with legs of iron, fast, enduring, gentle, and wise; and with +luggage for some weeks, including a black silk dress, behind my +saddle, I am tolerably independent. It was a most glorious ride. +We passed through the gates of rock, through gorges where the +unsunned snow lay deep under the lemon-colored aspens; caught +glimpses of far-off, snow-clad giants rising into a sky of deep +sad blue; lunched above the Foot Hills at a cabin where two +brothers and a "hired man" were "keeping bach," where everything +was so trim, clean, and ornamental that one did not miss a woman; +crossed a deep backwater on a narrow beaver dam, because the log +bridge was broken down, and emerged from the brilliantly-colored +canyon of the St. Vrain just at dusk upon the featureless +prairies, when we had some trouble in finding Longmount in the +dark. A hospitable welcome awaited me at this inn, and an +English friend came in and spent the evening with me. + + +GREAT PLATTE CANYON, October 23. + +My letters on this tour will, I fear, be very dull, for after +riding all day, looking after my pony, getting supper, hearing +about various routes, and the pastoral, agricultural, mining, and +hunting gossip of the neighborhood, I am so sleepy and +wholesomely tired that I can hardly write. I left Longmount +pretty early on Tuesday morning, the day being sad, with the +blink of an impending snow-storm in the air. The evening before +I was introduced to a man who had been a colonel in the rebel +army, who made a most unfavorable impression upon me, and it was +a great annoyance to me when he presented himself on horse-back +to guide me "over the most intricate part of the journey." +Solitude is infinitely preferable to uncongeniality, and is bliss +when compared with repulsiveness, so I was thoroughly glad when I +got rid of my escort and set out upon the prairie alone. It is a +dreary ride of thirty miles over the low brown plains to Denver, +very little settled, and with trails going in all directions. +My sailing orders were "steer south, and keep to the best beaten +track," and it seemed like embarking on the ocean without a +compass. The rolling brown waves on which you see a horse a mile +and a half off impress one strangely, and at noon the sky +darkened up for another storm, the mountains swept down in +blackness to the Plains, and the higher peaks took on a ghastly +grimness horrid to behold. It was first very cold, then very +hot, and finally settled down to a fierce east-windy cold, +difficult to endure. It was free and breezy, however, and my +horse was companionable. Sometimes herds of cattle were browsing +on the sun-cured grass, then herds of horses. Occasionally I met +a horseman with a rifle lying across his saddle, or a wagon of +the ordinary sort, but oftener I saw a wagon with a white tilt, +of the kind known as a "Prairie Schooner," laboring across the +grass, or a train of them, accompanied by herds, mules, and +horsemen, bearing emigrants and their household goods in dreary +exodus from the Western States to the much-vaunted prairies of +Colorado. + +The host and hostess of one of these wagons invited me to join +their mid-day meal, I providing tea (which they had not tasted +for four weeks) and they hominy. They had been three months on +the journey from Illinois, and their oxen were so lean and weak +that they expected to be another month in reaching Wet Mountain +Valley. They had buried a child en route, had lost several oxen, +and were rather out of heart. Owing to their long isolation and +the monotony of the march they had lost count of events, and +seemed like people of another planet. They wanted me to join +them, but their rate of travel was too slow, so we parted with +mutual expressions of good will, and as their white tilt went +"hull down" in the distance on the lonely prairie sea, I felt +sadder than I often feel on taking leave of old acquaintances. +That night they must have been nearly frozen, camping out in the +deep snow in the fierce wind. I met afterwards 2,000 lean Texan +cattle, herded by three wild-looking men on horseback, followed +by two wagons containing women, children, and rifles. They had +traveled 1,000 miles. Then I saw two prairie wolves, like +jackals, with gray fur, cowardly creatures, which fled from me +with long leaps. + +The windy cold became intense, and for the next eleven miles I +rode a race with the coming storm. At the top of every prairie +roll I expected to see Denver, but it was not till nearly five +that from a considerable height I looked down upon the great +"City of the Plains," the metropolis of the Territories. There +the great braggart city lay spread out, brown and treeless, upon +the brown and treeless plain, which seemed to nourish nothing but +wormwood and the Spanish bayonet. The shallow Platte, shriveled +into a narrow stream with a shingly bed six times too large for +it, and fringed by shriveled cotton-wood, wound along by Denver, +and two miles up its course I saw a great sandstorm, which in a +few minutes covered the city, blotting it out with a dense brown +cloud. Then with gusts of wind the snowstorm began, and I had +to trust entirely to Birdie's sagacity for finding Evans's +shanty. She had been there once before only, but carried me +direct to it over rough ground and trenches. Gleefully Mrs. +Evans and the children ran out to welcome the pet pony, and I was +received most hospitably, and made warm and comfortable, though +the house consists only of a kitchen and two bed closets. My +budget of news from "the park" had to be brought out constantly, +and I wondered how much I had to tell. It was past eleven when +we breakfasted the next morning. It was cloudless with an +intense frost, and six inches of snow on the ground, and +everybody thought it too cold to get up and light the fire. I +had intended to leave Birdie at Denver, but Governor Hunt and Mr. +Byers of the Rocky Mountain News both advised me to travel on +horseback rather than by train and stage telling me that I should +be quite safe, and Governor Hunt drew out a route for me and gave +me a circular letter to the settlers along it. + +Denver is no longer the Denver of Hepworth Dixon. A shooting +affray in the street is as rare as in Liverpool, and one no +longer sees men dangling to the lamp-posts when one looks out in +the morning! It is a busy place, the entrepot and distributing +point for an immense district, with good shops, some factories, +fair hotels, and the usual deformities and refinements of +civilization. Peltry shops abound, and sportsman, hunter, miner, +teamster, emigrant, can be completely rigged out at fifty +different stores. At Denver, people who come from the East to +try the "camp cure" now so fashionable, get their outfit of +wagon, driver, horses, tent, bedding, and stove, and start for +the mountains. Asthmatic people are there in such numbers as to +warrant the holding of an "asthmatic convention" of patients +cured and benefited. Numbers of invalids who cannot bear the +rough life of the mountains fill its hotels and boarding-houses, +and others who have been partially restored by a summer of +camping out, go into the city in the winter to complete the cure. +It stands at a height of 5,000 feet, on an enormous plain, and +has a most glorious view of the Rocky Range. I should hate even +to spend a week there. The sight of those glories so near and +yet out of reach would make me nearly crazy. Denver is at +present the terminus of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. It has a +line connecting it with the Union Pacific Railroad at Cheyenne, +and by means of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, open for +about 200 miles, it is expecting to reach into Mexico. It has +also had the enterprise, by means of another narrow-gauge +railroad, to push its way right up into the mining districts near +Gray's Peak. The number of "saloons" in the streets impresses +one, and everywhere one meets the characteristic loafers of a +frontier town, who find it hard even for a few days or hours to +submit to the restraints of civilization, as hard as I did to +ride sidewise to Governor Hunt's office. To Denver men go to +spend the savings of months of hard work in the maddest +dissipation, and there such characters as "Comanche Bill," +"Buffalo Bill," "Wild Bill," and "Mountain Jim," go on the spree, +and find the kind of notoriety they seek. + +A large number of Indians added to the harlequin appearance of +the Denver streets the day I was there. They belonged to the Ute +tribe, through which I had to pass, and Governor Hunt introduced +me to a fine-looking young chief, very well dressed in beaded +hide, and bespoke his courtesy for me if I needed it. The Indian +stores and fur stores and fur depots interested me most. The +crowds in the streets, perhaps owing to the snow on the ground, +were almost solely masculine. I only saw five women the whole +day. There were men in every rig: hunters and trappers in +buckskin clothing; men of the Plains with belts and revolvers, in +great blue cloaks, relics of the war; teamsters in leathern +suits; horsemen in fur coats and caps and buffalo-hide boots with +the hair outside, and camping blankets behind their huge Mexican +saddles; Broadway dandies in light kid gloves; rich English +sporting tourists, clean, comely, and supercilious looking; and +hundreds of Indians on their small ponies, the men wearing +buckskin suits sewn with beads, and red blankets, with faces +painted vermilion and hair hanging lank and straight, and squaws +much bundled up, riding astride with furs over their saddles. + +Town tired and confused me, and in spite of Mrs. Evans's kind +hospitality, I was glad when a man brought Birdie at nine +yesterday morning. He said she was a little demon, she had done +nothing but buck, and had bucked him off on the bridge! I found +that he had put a curb on her, and whenever she dislikes anything +she resents it by bucking. I rode sidewise till I was well +through the town, long enough to produce a severe pain in my +spine, which was not relieved for some time even after I had +changed my position. It was a lovely Indian summer day, so warm +that the snow on the ground looked an incongruity. I rode over +the Plains for some time, then gradually reached the rolling +country along the base of the mountains, and a stream with +cottonwoods along it, and settlers' houses about every halfmile. +I passed and met wagons frequently, and picked up a muff +containing a purse with 500 dollars in it, which I afterwards had +the great pleasure of restoring to the owner. Several times I +crossed the narrow track of the quaint little Rio Grande +Railroad, so that it was a very cheerful ride. + + +RANCH, PLUM CREEK, October 24. + +You must understand that in Colorado travel, unless on the main +road and in the larger settlements, there are neither hotels nor +taverns, and that it is the custom for the settlers to receive +travelers, charging them at the usual hotel rate for +accommodation. It is a very satisfactory arrangement. However, +at Ranch, my first halting place, the host was unwilling to +receive people in this way, I afterwards found, or I certainly +should not have presented my credentials at the door of a large +frame house, with large barns and a generally prosperous look. +The host, who opened the door, looked repellent, but his wife, a +very agreeable, lady-like-looking woman, said they could give me +a bed on a sofa. The house was the most pretentious I have yet +seen, being papered and carpeted, and there were two "hired +girls." There was a lady there from Laramie, who kindly offered +to receive me into her room, a very tall, elegant person, +remarkable as being the first woman who had settled in the Rocky +Mountains. She had been trying the "camp cure" for three months, +and was then on her way home. She had a wagon with beds, tent, +tent floor, cooking-stove, and every camp luxury, a light buggy, +a man to manage everything, and a most superior "hired girl." +She was consumptive and frail in strength, but a very attractive +person, and her stories of the perils and limitation of her early +life at Fort Laramie were very interesting. Still I "wearied," +as I had arrived early in the afternoon, and could not out of +politeness retire and write to you. At meals the three "hired +men" and two "hired girls" eat with the family. I soon found +that there was a screw loose in the house, and was glad to leave +early the next morning, although it was obvious that a storm +was coming on. + +I saw the toy car of the Rio Grande Railroad whirl past, all +cushioned and warm, and rather wished I were in it, and not out +among the snow on the bleak hill side. I only got on four miles +when the storm came on so badly that I got into a kitchen where +eleven wretched travelers were taking shelter, with the snow +melting on them and dripping on the floor. I had learned the art +of "being agreeable" so well at the Chalmers's, and practiced it +so successfully during the two hours I was there, by paring +potatoes and making scones, that when I left, though the hosts +kept "an accommodation house for travelers," they would take +nothing for my entertainment, because they said I was such "good +company"! The storm moderated a little, and at one I saddled +Birdie, and rode four more miles, crossing a frozen creek, the +ice of which broke and let the pony through, to her great alarm. +I cannot describe my feelings on this ride, produced by the utter +loneliness, the silence and dumbness of all things, the snow +falling quietly without wind, the obliterated mountains, the +darkness, the intense cold, and the unusual and appalling aspect +of nature. All life was in a shroud, all work and travel +suspended. There was not a foot-mark or wheel-mark. There was +nothing to be afraid of; and though I can't exactly say that I +enjoyed the ride, yet there was the pleasant feeling of gaining +health every hour. + +When the snow darkness began to deepen towards evening, the track +became quite illegible, and when I found myself at this +romantically situated cabin, I was thankful to find that they +could give me shelter. The scene was a solemn one, and reminded +me of a description in Whittier's Snow-Bound. All the stock came +round the cabin with mute appeals for shelter. Sheep dogs got +in, and would not be kicked out. Men went out muffled up, and +came back shivering and shaking the snow from their feet. The +churn was put by the stove. Later on, a most pleasant settler, +on his way to Denver, came in his wagon having been snow blocked +two miles off, where he had been obliged to leave it and bring +his horses on here. The "Grey Mare" had a stentorian voice, +smoked a clay pipe which she passed to her children, raged at +English people, derided the courtesy of English manners, and +considered that "Please," "Thank you," and the like, were "all +bosh" when life was so short and busy. And still the snow fell +softly, and the air and earth were silent. + + +Letter X + +A white world--Bad traveling--A millionaire's home--Pleasant +Park--Perry's Park--Stock-raising--A cattle king--The +Arkansas Divide--Birdie's sagacity--Luxury--Monument +Park--Deference to prejudice--A death scene--The Manitou--A loose +shoe--The Ute Pass--Bergens Park--A settler's home--Hayden's +Divide--Sharp criticism--Speaking the truth. + +COLORADO SPRINGS, October 28. + +It is difficult to make this anything of a letter. I have +been riding for a whole week, seeing wonders and greatly enjoying +the singular adventurousness and novelty of my tour, but ten +hours or more daily spent in the saddle in this rarefied, +intoxicating air, disposes one to sleep rather than to write in +the evening, and is far from conducive to mental brilliancy. The +observing faculties are developed, and the reflective lie +dormant. + +That night on which I last wrote was the coldest I have yet felt. +I pulled the rag carpet from the floor and covered myself with +it, but could not get warm. The sun rose gloriously on a +shrouded earth. Barns, road, shrubs, fences, river, lake, all +lay under the glittering snow. It was light and powdery, and +sparkled like diamonds. Not a breath of wind stirred, there was +not a sound. I had to wait till a passing horseman had broken +the track, but soon after I set off into the new, shining world. +I soon lost the horseman's foot-marks, but kept on near the road +by means of the innumerable foot-prints of birds and ground +squirrels, which all went in one direction. After riding for an +hour I was obliged to get off and walk for another, for the snow +balled in Birdie's feet to such an extent that she could hardly +keep up even without my weight on her, and my pick was not strong +enough to remove it. Turning off the road to ask for a chisel, I +came upon the cabin of the people whose muff I had picked up a +few days before, and they received me very warmly, gave me a +tumbler of cream, and made some strong coffee. They were "old +Country folk," and I stayed too long with them. After leaving +them I rode twelve miles, but it was "bad traveling," from the +balling of the snow and the difficulty of finding the track. +There was a fearful loneliness about it. The track was +untrodden, and I saw neither man nor beast. The sky became +densely clouded, and the outlook was awful. The great Divide of +the Arkansas was in front, looming vaguely through a heavy snow +cloud, and snow began to fall, not in powder, but in heavy +flakes. Finding that there would be risk in trying to ride till +nightfall, in the early afternoon I left the road and went two +miles into the hills by an untrodden path, where there were gates +to open, and a rapid steep-sided creek to cross; and at the en- +trance to a most fantastic gorge I came upon an elegant frame +house belonging to Mr. Perry, a millionaire, to whom I had an +introduction which I did not hesitate to present, as it was +weather in which a traveler might almost ask for shelter without +one. + +Mr. Perry was away, but his daughter, a very bright-looking, +elegantly-dressed girl, invited me to dine and remain. They had +stewed venison and various luxuries on the table, which was +tasteful and refined, and an adroit, colored table-maid waited, +one of five attached Negro servants who had been their slaves +before the war. After dinner, though snow was slowly falling, a +gentleman cousin took me a ride to show me the beauties of +Pleasant Park, which takes rank among the finest scenery of +Colorado, and in good weather is very easy of access. It did +look very grand as we entered it by a narrow pass guarded by two +buttes, or isolated upright masses of rock, bright red, and about +300 feet in height. The pines were very large, and the narrow +canyons which came down on the park gloomily magnificent. It is +remarkable also from a quantity of "monumental" rocks, from 50 to +300 feet in height, bright vermilion, green, buff, orange, and +sometimes all combined, their gay tinting a contrast to the +disastrous-looking snow and the somber pines. Bear Canyon, a +gorge of singular majesty, comes down on the park, and we crossed +the Bear Creek at the foot of this on the ice, which gave way, +and both our horses broke through into pretty deep and very cold +water, and shortly afterwards Birdie put her foot into a prairie +dog's hole which was concealed by the snow, and on recovering +herself fell three times on her nose. I thought of Bishop +Wilberforce's fatal accident from a smaller stumble, and felt +sure that he would have kept his seat had he been mounted, as I +was, on a Mexican saddle. It was too threatening for a long +ride, and on returning I passed into a region of vivacious +descriptions of Egypt, Palestine, Asia Minor, Turkey, Russia, and +other countries, in which Miss Perry had traveled with her family +for three years. + +Perry's Park is one of the great cattle-raising ranches in +Colorado. This, the youngest State in the Union, a Territory +until quite recently, has an area of about 68,000,000 acres, a +great portion of which, though rich in mineral wealth, is +worthless either for stock or arable farming, and the other or +eastern part is so dry that crops can only be grown profitably +where irrigation is possible. This region is watered by the +South Fork of the Platte and its affluents, and, though subject +to the grasshopper pest, it produces wheat of the finest quality, +the yield varying according to the mode of cultivation from +eighteen to thirty bushels per acre. The necessity for +irrigation, however, will always bar the way to an indefinite +extension of the area of arable farms. The prospects of +cattle-raising seem at present practically unlimited. In 1876 +Colorado had 390,728, valued at L2:13s. per head, about half of +which were imported as young beasts from Texas. The climate is +so fine and the pasturage so ample that shelter and hand-feeding +are never resorted to except in the case of imported breeding +stock from the Eastern States, which sometimes in severe winters +need to be fed in sheds for a short time. Mr. Perry devotes +himself mainly to the breeding of graded shorthorn bulls, which +he sells when young for L6 per head. + +The cattle run at large upon the prairies; each animal being +branded, they need no herding, and are usually only mustered, +counted, and the increase branded in the summer. In the fall, +when three or four years old, they are sold lean or in tolerable +condition to dealers who take them by rail to Chicago, or +elsewhere, where the fattest lots are slaughtered for tinning or +for consumption in the Eastern cities, while the leaner are sold +to farmers for feeding up during the winter. Some of the +wealthier stockmen take their best lots to Chicago themselves. +The Colorado cattle are either pure Texan or Spanish, or crosses +between the Texan and graded shorthorns. They are nearly all +very inferior animals, being bony and ragged. The herds mix on +the vast plains at will; along the Arkansas valley 80,000 roam +about with the freedom of buffaloes, and of this number about +16,000 are exported every fall. Where cattle are killed for use +in the mining districts their average price is three cents per +lb. In the summer thousands of yearlings are driven up from +Texas, branded, and turned loose on the prairies, and are not +molested again till they are sent east at three or four years +old. These pure Texans, the old Spanish breed, weigh from 900 to +1,000 pounds, and the crossed Colorado cattle from 1,000 to 1,200 +pounds. + +The "Cattle King" of the State is Mr. Iliff, of South Platte, who +owns nine ranches, with runs of 15,000 acres, and 35,000 cattle. +He is improving his stock; and, indeed, the opening of the +dead-meat trade with this country is giving a great impetus to +the improvement of the breed of cattle among all the larger and +richer stock-owners. For this enormous herd 40 men are employed +in summer, about 12 in winter, and 200 horses. In the rare case +of a severe and protracted snowstorm the cattle get a little hay. +Owners of 6,000, 8,000 and 10,000 head of cattle are quite common +in Colorado. Sheep are now raised in the State to the extent of +half a million, and a chronic feud prevails between the "sheep +men" and the "cattle men." Sheep-raising is said to be a very +profitable business, but its risks and losses are greater, owing +to storms, while the outlay for labor, dipping materials, etc., +is considerably larger, and owing to the comparative inability of +sheep to scratch away the snow from the grass, hay has to be +provided to meet the emergency of very severe snow-storms. The +flocks are made up mostly of pure and graded Mexicans; but though +some flocks which have been graded carefully for some years show +considerable merit, the average sheep is a leggy, ragged beast. +Wether mutton, four and five years old, is sold when there is any +demand for it; but except at Charpiot's, in Denver, I never saw +mutton on any table, public or private, and wool is the great +source of profit, the old ewes being allowed to die off. The +best flocks yield an average of seven pounds. The shearing +season, which begins in early June, lasts about six weeks. +Shearers get six and a half cents a head for inferior sheep, and +seven and a half cents for the better quality, and a good hand +shears from sixty to eighty in a day. It is not likely that +sheep-raising will attain anything of the prominence which +cattle-raising is likely to assume. The potato beetle "scare" is +not of much account in the country of the potato beetle. The +farmers seem much depressed by the magnitude and persistency of +the grasshopper pest which finds their fields in the morning "as +the garden of Eden," and leaves them at night "a desolate +wilderness." + +It was so odd and novel to have a beautiful bed room, hot water, +and other luxuries. The snow began to fall in good earnest at +six in the evening, and fell all night, accompanied by intense +frost, so that in the morning there were eight inches of it +glittering in the sun. Miss P. gave me a pair of men's socks to +draw on over my boots, and I set out tolerably early, and broke +my own way for two miles. Then a single wagon had passed, making +a legible track for thirty miles, otherwise the snow was +pathless. The sky was absolutely cloudless, and as I made the +long ascent of the Arkansas Divide, the mountains, gashed by deep +canyons, came sweeping down to the valley on my right, and on my +left the Foot Hills were crowned with colored fantastic rocks +like castles. Everything was buried under a glittering shroud of +snow. The babble of the streams was bound by fetters of ice. No +branches creaked in the still air. No birds sang. No one passed +or met me. There were no cabins near or far. The only sound was +the crunch of the snow under Birdie's feet. We came to a river +over which some logs were laid with some young trees across them. +Birdie put one foot on this, then drew it back and put another +on, then smelt the bridge noisily. Persuasions were useless; she +only smelt, snorted, held back, and turned her cunning head and +looked at me. It was useless to argue the point with so +sagacious a beast. To the right of the bridge the ice was much +broken, and we forded the river there; but as it was deep enough +to come up to her body, and was icy cold to my feet, I wondered +at her preference. Afterwards I heard that the bridge was +dangerous. She is the queen of ponies, and is very gentle, +though she has not only wild horse blood, but is herself the wild +horse. She is always cheerful and hungry, never tired, looks +intelligently at everything, and her legs are like rocks. Her +one trick is that when the saddle is put on she swells herself to +a very large size, so that if any one not accustomed to her +saddles her I soon find the girth three or four inches too large. +When I saddle her a gentle slap on her side, or any slight start +which makes her cease to hold her breath, puts it all right. She +is quite a companion, and bathing her back, sponging her +nostrils, and seeing her fed after my day's ride, is always my +first care. + +At last I reached a log cabin where I got a feed for us both and +further directions. The rest of the day's ride was awful enough. +The snow was thirteen inches deep, and grew deeper as I ascended +in silence and loneliness, but just as the sun sank behind a +snowy peak I reached the top of the Divide, 7,975 feet above the +sea level. There, in unspeakable solitude, lay a frozen lake. +Owls hooted among the pines, the trail was obscure, the country +was not settled, the mercury was 9 degrees below zero, my feet +had lost all sensation, and one of them was frozen to the wooden +stirrup. I found that owing to the depth of the snow I had only +ridden fifteen miles in eight and a half hours, and must look +about for a place to sleep in. The eastern sky was unlike +anything I ever saw before. It had been chrysoprase, then it +turned to aquamarine, and that to the bright full green of an +emerald. Unless I am color-blind, this is true. Then suddenly +the whole changed, and flushed with the pure, bright, rose color +of the afterglow. Birdie was sliding at every step, and I was +nearly paralyzed with the cold when I reached a cabin which had +been mentioned to me, but they said that seventeen snow-bound men +were lying on the floor, and they advised me to ride half a mile +farther, which I did, and reached the house of a German from +Eisenau, with a sweet young wife and a venerable mother-in-law. +Though the house was very poor, it was made attractive by +ornaments, and the simple, loving, German ways gave it a sweet +home atmosphere. My room was reached by a ladder, but I had it +to myself and had the luxury of a basin to wash in. Under the +kindly treatment of the two women my feet came to themselves, but +with an amount of pain that almost deserved the name of torture. + +The next morning was gray and sour, but brightened and warmed as +the day went on. After riding twelve miles I got bread and milk +for myself and a feed for Birdie at a large house where there +were eight boarders, each one looking nearer the grave than the +other, and on remounting was directed to leave the main road and +diverge through Monument Park, a ride of twelve miles among +fantastic rocks, but I lost my way, and came to an end of all +tracks in a wild canyon. Returning about six miles, I took +another track, and rode about eight miles without seeing a +creature. I then came to strange gorges with wonderful upright +rocks of all shapes and colors, and turning through a gate of +rock, came upon what I knew must be Glen Eyrie, as wild and +romantic a glen as imagination ever pictured. The track then +passed down a valley close under some ghastly peaks, wild, cold, +awe-inspiring scenery. After fording a creek several times, I +came upon a decayed-looking cluster of houses bearing the +arrogant name of Colorado City, and two miles farther on, from +the top of one of the Foot Hill ridges, I saw the bleak-looking +scattered houses of the ambitious watering place of Colorado +Springs, the goal of my journey of 150 miles. I got off, put on +a long skirt, and rode sidewise, though the settlement scarcely +looked like a place where any deference to prejudices was +necessary. A queer embryo-looking place it is, out on the bare +Plains, yet it is rising and likely to rise, and has some big +hotels much resorted to. It has a fine view of the mountains, +specially of Pike's Peak, but the celebrated springs are at +Manitou, three miles off, in really fine scenery. To me no place +could be more unattractive than Colorado Springs, from its utter +treelessness. + +I found the -----s living in a small room which served for +parlor, bedroom, and kitchen, and combined the comforts of all. +It is inhabited also by two prairie dogs, a kitten, and a +deerhound. It was truly homelike. Mrs. ----- walked with me to +the boarding-house where I slept, and we sat some time in the +parlor talking with the landlady. Opposite to me there was a +door wide open into a bed room, and on a bed opposite to the door +a very sick-looking young man was half-lying, half-sitting, fully +dressed, supported by another, and a very sick-looking young man +much resembling him passed in and out occasionally, or leaned on +the chimney piece in an attitude of extreme dejection. Soon the +door was half-closed, and some one came to it, saying rapidly, +"Shields, quick, a candle!" and then there were movings about in +the room. All this time the seven or eight people in the room in +which I was were talking, laughing, and playing backgammon, and +none laughed louder than the landlady, who was sitting where she +saw that mysterious door as plainly as I did. All this time, and +during the movings in the room, I saw two large white feet +sticking up at the end of the bed. I watched and watched, hoping +those feet would move, but they did not; and somehow, to my +thinking, they grew stiffer and whiter, and then my horrible +suspicion deepened, and while we were sitting there a human +spirit untended and desolate had passed forth into the night. +Then a man came out with a bundle of clothes, and then the sick +young man, groaning and sobbing, and then a third, who said to +me, with some feeling, that the man who had just died was the +sick young man's only brother. And still the landlady laughed +and talked, and afterwards said to me, "It turns the house upside +down when they just come here and die; we shall be half the night +laying him out." I could not sleep for the bitter cold and the +sound of the sobs and groans of the bereaved brother. The next +day the landlady, in a fashionably-made black dress, was bustling +about, proud of the prospective arrival of a handsome coffin. I +went into the parlor to get a needle, and the door of THAT room +was open, and children were running in and out, and the landlady, +who was sweeping there, called cheerily to me to come in for the +needle, and there, to my horror, not even covered with a face +cloth, and with the sun blazing in through the unblinded window, +lay that thing of terror, a corpse, on some chairs which were not +even placed straight. It was buried in the afternoon, and from +the looks of the brother, who continued to sob and moan, his end +cannot be far off. + +The -----s say that many go to the Springs in the last stage of +consumption, thinking that the Colorado climate will cure them, +without money enough to pay for even the coarsest board. We +talked most of that day, and I equipped myself with arctics and +warm gloves for the mountain tour which has been planned for me, +and I gave Birdie the Sabbath she was entitled to on Tuesday, for +I found, on arriving at the Springs, that the day I crossed the +Arkansas Divide was Sunday, though I did not know it. Several +friends of Miss Kingsley called on me; she is much remembered and +beloved. This is not an expensive tour; we cost about ten +shillings a day, and the five days which I have spent en route +from Denver have cost something less than the fare for the few +hours' journey by the cars. There are no real difficulties. It +is a splendid life for health and enjoyment. All my luggage +being in a pack, and my conveyance being a horse, we can go +anywhere where we can get food and shelter. + + +GREAT GORGE OF THE MANITOU, October 29. + +This is a highly picturesque place, with several springs, still +and effervescing, the virtues of which were well known to the +Indians. Near it are places, the names of which are familiar to +every one--the Garden of the Gods, Glen Eyrie, Pike's Peak, +Monument Park, and the Ute Pass. It has two or three immense +hotels, and a few houses picturesquely situated. It is thronged +by thousands of people in the summer who come to drink the +waters, try the camp cure, and make mountain excursions; but it +is all quiet now, and there are only a few lingerers in this +immense hotel. There is a rushing torrent in a valley, with +mountains, covered with snow and rising to a height of nearly +15,000 feet, overhanging it. It is grand and awful, and has a +strange, solemn beauty like death. And the Snowy Mountains are +pierced by the torrent which has excavated the Ute Pass, by +which, to-morrow, I hope to go into the higher regions. But all +may be "lost for want of a horseshoe nail." One of Birdie's +shoes is loose, and not a nail is to be got here, or can be got +till I have ridden for ten miles up the Pass. Birdie amuses +every one with her funny ways. She always follows me closely, +and to-day got quite into a house and pushed the parlor door +open. She walks after me with her head laid on my shoulder, +licking my face and teasing me for sugar, and sometimes, when any +one else takes hold of her, she rears and kicks, and the vicious +bronco soul comes into her eyes. Her face is cunning and pretty, +and she makes a funny, blarneying noise when I go up to her. The +men at all the stables make a fuss with her, and call her "Pet." +She gallops up and down hill, and never stumbles even on the +roughest ground, or requires even a touch with a whip. + +The weather is again perfect, with a cloudless sky and a hot sun, +and the snow is all off the plains and lower valleys. After +lunch, the -----s in a buggy, and I on Birdie, left Colorado +Springs, crossing the Mesa, a high hill with a table top, with a +view of extraordinary laminated rocks, LEAVES of rock a bright +vermilion color, against a background of snowy mountains, +surmounted by Pike's Peak. Then we plunged into cavernous Glen +Eyrie, with its fantastic needles of colored rock, and were +entertained at General Palmer's "baronial mansion," a perfect +eyrie, the fine hall filled with buffalo, elk, and deer heads, +skins of wild animals, stuffed birds, bear robes, and numerous +Indian and other weapons and trophies. Then through a gate of +huge red rocks, we passed into the valley, called fantastically, +Garden of the Gods, in which, were I a divinity, I certainly +would not choose to dwell. Many places in this neighborhood are +also vulgarized by grotesque names. From this we passed into a +ravine, down which the Fountain River rushed, and there I left my +friends with regret, and rode into this chill and solemn gorge, +from which the mountains, reddening in the sunset, are only seen +afar off. I put Birdie up at a stable, and as there was no place +to put myself up but this huge hotel, I came here to have a last +taste of luxury. They charge six dollars a day in the season, +but it is now half-price; and instead of four hundred fashionable +guests there are only fifteen, most of whom are speaking in the +weak, rapid accents of consumption, and are coughing their hearts +out. There are seven medicinal springs. It is strange to have +the luxuries of life in my room. It will be only the fourth +night in Colorado that I have slept on anything better than hay +or straw. I am glad that there are so few inns. As it is, I get +a good deal of insight into the homes and modes of living of the +settlers. + + +BERGENS PARK, October 31. + +This cabin was so dark, and I so sleepy last night, that I could +not write; but the frost during the night has been very severe, +and I am detained until the bright, hot sun melts the ice and +renders traveling safe. I left the great Manitou at ten +yesterday. Birdie, who was loose in the stable, came trotting +down the middle of it when she saw me for her sugar and biscuits. +No nails could be got, and her shoe was hanging by two, which +doomed me to a foot's pace and the dismal clink of a loose shoe +for three hours. There was not a cloud on the bright blue sky +the whole day, and though it froze hard in the shade, it was +summer heat in the sun. The mineral fountains were sparkling in +their basins and sending up their full perennial jets but the +snow-clad, pine-skirted mountains frowned and darkened over the +Ute Pass as I entered it to ascend it for twenty miles. A narrow +pass it is, with barely room for the torrent and the wagon road +which has been blasted out of its steep sides. All the time I +was in sight of the Fountain River, brighter than any stream, +because it tumbles over rose-red granite, rocky or disintegrated, +a truly fair stream, cutting and forcing its way through hard +rocks, under arches of alabaster ice, through fringes of +crystalline ice, thumping with a hollow sound in cavernous +recesses cold and dark, or leaping in foam from heights with rush +and swish; always bright and riotous, never pausing in still +pools to rest, dashing through gates of rock, pine hung, pine +bridged, pine buried; twinkling and laughing in the sunshine, +or frowning in "dowie dens" in the blue pine gloom. And there, +for a mile or two in a sheltered spot, owing to the more southern +latitude, the everlasting northern pine met the trees of other +climates. There were dwarf oaks, willows, hazel, and spruce; the +white cedar and the trailing juniper jostled each other for a +precarious foothold; the majestic redwood tree of the Pacific met +the exquisite balsam pine of the Atlantic slopes, and among them +all the pale gold foliage of the large aspen trembled (as the +legend goes) in endless remorse. And above them towered the +toothy peaks of the glittering mountains, rising in pure white +against the sunny blue. Grand! glorious! sublime! but not +lovable. I would give all for the luxurious redundance of one +Hilo gulch, or for one day of those soft dreamy "skies whose +very tears are balm." + + +Bergens Park + +Up ever! the road being blasted out of the red rock which often +overhung it, the canyon only from fifteen to twenty feet wide, +the thunder of the Fountain, which is crossed eight times, nearly +deafening. Sometimes the sun struck the road, and then it was +absolutely hot; then one entered unsunned gorges where the snow +lay deep, and the crowded pines made dark twilight, and the river +roared under ice bridges fringed by icicles. At last the Pass +opened out upon a sunlit upland park, where there was a forge, +and with Birdie's shoe put on, and some shoe nails in my purse, I +rode on cheerfully, getting food for us both at a ranch belonging +to some very pleasant people, who, like all Western folk, when +they are not taciturn, asked a legion of questions. There I met +a Colonel Kittridge, who said that he believed his valley, twelve +miles off the track, to be the loveliest valley in Colorado, and +invited me to his house. Leaving the road, I went up a long +ascent deep in snow, but as it did not seem to be the way, I tied +up the pony, and walked on to a cabin at some distance, which I +had hardly reached when I found her trotting like a dog by my +side, pulling my sleeve and laying her soft gray nose on my +shoulder. Does it all mean sugar? We had eight miles farther to +go--most of the way through a forest, which I always dislike when +alone, from the fear of being frightened by something which may +appear from behind a tree. I saw a beautiful white fox, several +skunks, some chipmunks and gray squirrels, owls, crows, and +crested blue-jays. As the sun was getting low I reached Bergens +Park, which was to put me out of conceit with Estes Park. Never! +It is long and featureless, and its immediate surroundings are +mean. It reminded me in itself of some dismal Highland +strath--Glenshee, possibly. I looked at it with special +interest, as it was the place at which Miss Kingsley had +suggested that I might remain. The evening was glorious, and the +distant views were very fine. A stream fringed with cotton-wood +runs through the park; low ranges come down upon it. The south +end is completely closed up, but at a considerable distance, by +the great mass of Pike's Peak, while far beyond the other end are +peaks and towers, wonderful in blue and violet in the lovely +evening, and beyond these, sharply defined against the clear +green sky, was the serrated ridge of the Snowy Range, said to be +200 miles away. Bergens Park had been bought by Dr. Bell, of +London, but its present occupant is Mr. Thornton, an English +gentleman, who has a worthy married Englishman as his manager. +Mr. Thornton is building a good house, and purposes to build +other cabins, with the intention of making the park a resort for +strangers. I thought of the blue hollow lying solitary at the +foot of Long's Peak, and rejoiced that I had "happened into it." + +The cabin is long, low, mud roofed, and very dark. The middle +place is full of raw meat, fowls, and gear. One end, almost +dark, contains the cooking-stove, milk, crockery, a long deal +table, two benches, and some wooden stools; the other end houses +the English manager or partner, his wife, and three children, +another cooking-stove, gear of all kinds, and sacks of beans and +flour. They put up a sheet for a partition, and made me a +shake-down on the gravel floor of this room. Ten hired men sat +down to meals with us. It was all very rough, dark, and +comfortless, but Mr. T., who is not only a gentleman by birth, +but an M.A. of Cambridge, seems to like it. Much in this way (a +little smoother if a lady is in the case) every man must begin +life here. Seven large dogs--three of them with cats upon their +backs--are usually warming themselves at the fire. + + +TWIN ROCK, SOUTH FORK OF THE PLATTE, November 1. + +I did not leave Mr. Thornton's till ten, because of the +slipperiness. I rode four miles along a back trail, and then was +so tired that I stayed for two hours at a ranch, where I heard, +to my dismay, that I must ride twenty-four miles farther before I +could find any place to sleep at. I did not enjoy yesterday's +ride. I was both tired and rheumatic, and Birdie was not so +sprightly as usual. After starting again I came on a hideous +place, of which I had not heard before, Hayden's Divide, one of +the great back-bones of the region, a weary expanse of deep snow +eleven miles across, and fearfully lonely. I saw nothing the +whole way but a mule lately dead lying by the road. I was very +nervous somehow, and towards evening believed that I had lost the +road, for I came upon wild pine forests, with huge masses of rock +from 100 to 700 feet high, cast here and there among them; beyond +these pine-sprinkled grass hills; these, in their turn, were +bounded by interminable ranges, ghastly in the lurid evening, +with the Spanish Peaks quite clear, and the colossal summit of +Mount Lincoln, the King of the Rocky Mountains, distinctly +visible, though seventy miles away. It seemed awful to be alone +on that ghastly ridge, surrounded by interminable mountains, in +the deep snow, knowing that a party of thirty had been lost here +a month ago. Just at nightfall the descent of a steep hill took +me out of the forest and upon a clean log cabin, where, finding +that the proper halting place was two miles farther on, I +remained. A truly pleasing, superior-looking woman placed me in +a rocking chair; would not let me help her otherwise than by +rocking the cradle, and made me "feel at home." The room, though +it serves them and their two children for kitchen, parlor, and +bed room, is the pattern of brightness, cleanliness, and comfort. +At supper there were canned raspberries, rolls, butter, tea, +venison, and fried rabbit, and at seven I went to bed in a +carpeted log room, with a thick feather bed on a mattress, +sheets, ruffled pillow slips, and a pile of warm white blankets! +I slept for eleven hours. They discourage me much about the +route which Governor Hunt has projected for me. They think that +it is impassable, owing to snow, and that another storm is +brewing. + + +HALL'S GULCH, November 6. + +I have ridden 150 miles since I wrote last. On leaving Twin Rock +on Saturday I had a short day's ride to Colonel Kittridge's cabin +at Oil Creek, where I spent a quiet Sunday with agreeable people. +The ride was all through parks and gorges, and among pine-clothed +hills, about 9,000 feet high, with Pike's Peak always in sight. +I have developed much sagacity in finding a trail, or I should +not be able to make use of such directions as these: "Keep along +a gulch four or five miles till you get Pike's Peak on your left, +then follow some wheel-marks till you get to some timber, and +keep to the north till you come to a creek, where you'll find a +great many elk tracks; then go to your right and cross the creek +three times, then you'll see a red rock to your left," etc., etc. +The K's cabin was very small and lonely, and the life seemed a +hard grind for an educated and refined woman. There were snow +flurries after I arrived, but the first Sunday of November was as +bright and warm as June, and the atmosphere had resumed its +exquisite purity. Three peaks of Pike's Peak are seen from Oil +Creek, above the nearer hills, and by them they tell the time. +We had been in the evening shadows for half an hour before those +peaks ceased to be transparent gold. + +On leaving Colonel Kittridge's hospitable cabin I dismounted, as +I had often done before, to lower a bar, and, on looking round, +Birdie was gone! I spent an hour in trying to catch her, but she +had taken an "ugly fit," and would not let me go near her; and I +was getting tired and vexed, when two passing trappers, on mules, +circumvented and caught her. I rode the twelve miles back to +Twin Rock, and then went on, a kindly teamster, who was going in +the same direction, taking my pack. I must explain that every +mile I have traveled since leaving Colorado Springs has taken me +farther and higher into the mountains. That afternoon I rode +through lawnlike upland parks, with the great snow mass of Pike's +Peak behind, and in front mountains bathed in rich atmospheric +coloring of blue and violet, all very fine, but threatening to +become monotonous, when the wagon road turned abruptly to the +left, and crossed a broad, swift, mountain river, the head- +waters of the Platte. There I found the ranch to which I had +been recommended, the quarters of a great hunter named Link, +which much resembled a good country inn. There was a pleasant, +friendly woman, but the men were all away, a thing I always +regret, as it gives me half an hour's work at the horse before I +can write to you. I had hardly come in when a very pleasant +German lady, whom I met at Manitou, with three gentlemen, +arrived, and we were as sociable as people could be. We had a +splendid though rude supper. While Mrs. Link was serving us, and +urging her good things upon us, she was orating on the greediness +of English people, saying that "you would think they traveled +through the country only to gratify their palates"; and addressed +me, asking me if I had not observed it! I am nearly always taken +for a Dane or a Swede, never for an Englishwoman, so I often hear +a good deal of outspoken criticism. + +In the evening Mr. Link returned, and there was a most vehement +discussion between him, an old hunter, a miner, and the teamster +who brought my pack, as to the route by which I should ride +through the mountains for the next three or four days--because at +that point I was to leave the wagon road--and it was renewed +with increased violence the next morning, so that if my nerves +had not been of steel I should have been appalled. The old +hunter acrimoniously said he "must speak the truth," the miner +was directing me over a track where for twenty-five miles there +was not a house, and where, if snow came on, I should never be +heard of again. The miner said he "must speak the truth," the +hunter was directing me over a pass where there were five feet of +snow, and no trail. The teamster said that the only road +possible for a horse was so-and-so, and advised me to take the +wagon road into South Park, which I was determined not to do. +Mr. Link said he was the oldest hunter and settler in the +district, and he could not cross any of the trails in snow. And +so they went on. At last they partially agreed on a route--"the +worst road in the Rocky Mountains," the old hunter said, with two +feet of snow upon it, but a hunter had hauled an elk over part of +it, at any rate. The upshot of the whole you shall have in my +next letter. + I. L. B. + + +Letter XI + +Tarryall Creek--The Red Range--Excelsior--Importunate +pedlars--Snow and heat--A bison calf--Deep drifts--South +Park--The Great Divide--Comanche Bill--Difficulties--Hall's +Gulch--A Lord Dundreary--Ridiculous fears. + +HALL'S GULCH, COLORADO, November 6. + +It was another cloudless morning, one of the many here on which +one awakes early, refreshed, and ready to enjoy the fatigues of +another day. In our sunless, misty climate you do not know the +influence which persistent fine weather exercises on the spirits. +I have been ten months in almost perpetual sunshine, and now a +single cloudy day makes me feel quite depressed. I did not leave +till 9:30, because of the slipperiness, and shortly after +starting turned off into the wilderness on a very dim trail. +Soon seeing a man riding a mile ahead, I rode on and overtook +him, and we rode eight miles together, which was convenient to +me, as without him I should several times have lost the trail +altogether. Then his fine American horse, on which he had only +ridden two days, broke down, while my "mad, bad bronco," on which +I had been traveling for a fortnight, cantered lightly over the +snow. He was the only traveler I saw in a day of nearly twelve +hours. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of that ride. I +concentrated all my faculties of admiration and of locality, for +truly the track was a difficult one. I sometimes thought it +deserved the bad name given to it at Link's. For the most part +it keeps in sight of Tarryall Creek, one of the large affluents +of the Platte, and is walled in on both sides by mountains, which +are sometimes so close together as to leave only the narrowest +canyon between them, at others breaking wide apart, till, after +winding and climbing up and down for twenty-five miles, it +lands one on a barren rock-girdled park, watered by a rapid +fordable stream as broad as the Ouse at Huntingdon, snow fed and +ice fringed, the park bordered by fantastic rocky hills, snow +covered and brightened only by a dwarf growth of the beautiful +silver spruce. I have not seen anything hitherto so thoroughly +wild and unlike the rest of these parts. + +I rode up one great ascent where hills were tumbled about +confusedly; and suddenly across the broad ravine, rising above +the sunny grass and the deep green pines, rose in glowing and +shaded red against the glittering blue heaven a magnificent and +unearthly range of mountains, as shapely as could be seen, rising +into colossal points, cleft by deep blue ravines, broken up into +sharks' teeth, with gigantic knobs and pinnacles rising from +their inaccessible sides, very fair to look upon--a glowing, +heavenly, unforgettable sight, and only four miles off. +Mountains they looked not of this earth, but such as one sees in +dreams alone, the blessed ranges of "the land which is very far +off." They were more brilliant than those incredible colors in +which painters array the fiery hills of Moab and the Desert, and +one could not believe them for ever uninhabited, for on them +rose, as in the East, the similitude of stately fortresses, not +the gray castellated towers of feudal Europe, but gay, massive, +Saracenic architecture, the outgrowth of the solid rock. They +were vast ranges, apparently of enormous height, their color +indescribable, deepest and reddest near the pine-draped bases, +then gradually softening into wonderful tenderness, till the +highest summits rose all flushed, and with an illusion of +transparency, so that one might believe that they were taking on +the hue of sunset. Below them lay broken ravines of fantastic +rocks, cleft and canyoned by the river, with a tender unearthly +light over all, the apparent warmth of a glowing clime, while I +on the north side was in the shadow among the pure unsullied +snow. + + With us the damp, the chill, the gloom; + With them the sunset's rosy bloom. + +The dimness of earth with me, the light of heaven with them. +Here, again, worship seemed the only attitude for a human spirit, +and the question was ever present, "Lord, what is man, that Thou +art mindful of him; or the son of man, that Thou visitest him?" +I rode up and down hills laboriously in snow-drifts, getting off +often to ease my faithful Birdie by walking down ice-clad slopes, +stopping constantly to feast my eyes upon that changeless glory, +always seeing some new ravine, with its depths of color or +miraculous brilliancy of red, or phantasy of form. Then below, +where the trail was locked into a deep canyon where there was +scarcely room for it and the river, there was a beauty of an- +other kind in solemn gloom. There the stream curved and twisted +marvellously, widening into shallows, narrowing into deep boiling +eddies, with pyramidal firs and the beautiful silver spruce +fringing its banks, and often falling across it in artistic +grace, the gloom chill and deep, with only now and then a light +trickling through the pines upon the cold snow, when suddenly +turning round I saw behind, as if in the glory of an eternal +sunset, those flaming and fantastic peaks. The effect of the +combination of winter and summer was singular. The trail ran on +the north side the whole time, and the snow lay deep and pure +white, while not a wreath of it lay on the south side, where +abundant lawns basked in the warm sun. + +The pitch pine, with its monotonous and somewhat rigid form, had +disappeared; the white pine became scarce, both being displayed +by the slim spires and silvery green of the miniature silver +spruce. Valley and canyon were passed, the flaming ranges were +left behind, the upper altitudes became grim and mysterious. I +crossed a lake on the ice, and then came on a park surrounded by +barren contorted hills, overtopped by snow mountains. There, in +some brushwood, we crossed a deepish stream on the ice, which +gave way, and the fearful cold of the water stiffened my limbs +for the rest of the ride. All these streams become bigger as you +draw nearer to their source, and shortly the trail disappeared +in a broad rapid river, which we forded twice. The trail was +very difficult to recover. It ascended ever in frost and snow, +amidst scanty timber dwarfed by cold and twisted by storms, +amidst solitudes such as one reads of in the High Alps; there +were no sounds to be heard but the crackle of ice and snow, the +pitiful howling of wolves, and the hoot of owls. The sun to me +had long set; the peaks which had blushed were pale and sad; the +twilight deepened into green; but still "Excelsior!" There were +no happy homes with light of household fires; above, the spectral +mountains lifted their cold summits. As darkness came on I began +to fear that I had confused the cabin to which I had been +directed with the rocks. To confess the truth, I was cold, for +my boots and stockings had frozen on my feet, and I was hungry +too, having eaten nothing but raisins for fourteen hours. After +riding thirty miles I saw a light a little way from the track, +and found it to be the cabin of the daughter of the pleasant +people with whom I had spent the previous night. Her husband had +gone to the Plains, yet she, with two infant children, was living +there in perfect security. Two pedlars, who were peddling their +way down from the mines, came in for a night's shelter soon after +I arrived--ill-looking fellows enough. They admired Birdie in a +suspicious fashion, and offered to "swop" their pack horse for +her. I went out the last thing at night and the first thing in +the morning to see that "the powny" was safe, for they were very +importunate on the subject of the "swop." I had before been +offered 150 dollars for her. I was obliged to sleep with the +mother and children, and the pedlars occupied a room within ours. +It was hot and airless. The cabin was papered with the +Phrenological Journal, and in the morning I opened my eyes on the +very best portrait of Dr. Candlish I ever saw, and grieved truly +that I should never see that massive brow and fantastic face +again. + +Mrs. Link was an educated and very intelligent young woman. The +pedlars were Irish Yankees, and the way in which they "traded" +was as amusing as "Sam Slick." They not only wanted to "swop" my +pony, but to "trade" my watch. They trade their souls, I know. +They displayed their wares for an hour with much dexterous +flattery and persuasiveness, but Mrs. Link was untemptable, and I +was only tempted into buying a handkerchief to keep the sun off. +There was another dispute about my route. It was the most +critical day of my journey. If a snowstorm came on, I might be +detained in the mountains for many weeks; but if I got through +the snow and reached the Denver wagon road, no detention would +signify much. The pedlars insisted that I could not get through, +for the road was not broken. Mrs. L. thought I could, and +advised me to try, so I saddled Birdie and rode away. + +More than half of the day was far from enjoyable. The morning +was magnificent, but the light too dazzling, the sun too fierce. +As soon as I got out I felt as if I should drop off the horse. +My large handkerchief kept the sun from my neck, but the fierce +heat caused soul and sense, brain and eye, to reel. I never saw +or felt the like of it. I was at a height of 12,000 feet, where, +of course, the air was highly rarefied, and the snow was so pure +and dazzling that I was obliged to keep my eyes shut as much as +possible to avoid snow blindness. The sky was a different and +terribly fierce color; and when I caught a glimpse of the sun, he +was white and unwinking like a lime-ball light, yet threw off +wicked scintillations. I suffered so from nausea, exhaustion, +and pains from head to foot, that I felt as if I must lie down in +the snow. It may have been partly the early stage of soroche, or +mountain sickness. We plodded on for four hours, snow all round, +and nothing else to be seen but an ocean of glistening peaks +against that sky of infuriated blue. How I found my way I shall +never know, for the only marks on the snow were occasional +footprints of a man, and I had no means of knowing whether they +led in the direction I ought to take. Earlier, before the snow +became so deep, I passed the last great haunt of the magnificent +mountain bison, but, unfortunately, saw nothing but horns and +bones. Two months ago Mr. Link succeeded in separating a calf +from the herd, and has partially domesticated it. It is a very +ugly thing at seven months old, with a thick beard, and a short, +thick, dark mane on its heavy shoulders. It makes a loud grunt +like a pig. It can outrun their fastest horse, and it sometimes +leaps over the high fence of the corral, and takes all the milk +of five cows. + +The snow grew seriously deep. Birdie fell thirty times, I am +sure. She seemed unable to keep up at all, so I was obliged to +get off and stumble along in her footmarks. By that time my +spirit for overcoming difficulties had somewhat returned, for I +saw a lie of country which I knew must contain South Park, and we +had got under cover of a hill which kept off the sun. The trail +had ceased; it was only one of those hunter's tracks which +continually mislead one. The getting through the snow was awful +work. I think we accomplished a mile in something over two +hours. The snow was two feet eight inches deep, and once we went +down in a drift the surface of which was rippled like sea sand, +Birdie up to her back, and I up to my shoulders! + +At last we got through, and I beheld, with some sadness, the goal +of my journey, "The Great Divide," the Snowy Range, and between +me and it South Park, a rolling prairie seventy-five miles long +and over 10,000 feet high, treeless, bounded by mountains, and so +rich in sun-cured hay that one might fancy that all the herds +of Colorado could find pasture there. Its chief center is the +rough mining town of Fairplay, but there are rumors of great +mineral wealth in various quarters. The region has been +"rushed," and mining camps have risen at Alma and elsewhere, so +lawless and brutal that vigilance committees are forming as a +matter of necessity. South Park is closed, or nearly so, by snow +during an ordinary winter; and just now the great freight wagons +are carrying up the last supplies of the season, and taking down +women and other temporary inhabitants. A great many people come +up here in the summer. The rarefied air produces great +oppression on the lungs, accompanied with bleeding. It is said +that you can tell a new arrival by seeing him go about holding a +blood-stained handkerchief to his mouth. But I came down upon it +from regions of ice and snow; and as the snow which had fallen on +it had all disappeared by evaporation and drifting, it looked to +me quite lowland and livable, though lonely and indescribably +mournful, "a silent sea," suggestive of "the muffled oar." I +cantered across the narrow end of it, delighted to have got +through the snow; and when I struck the "Denver stage road" I +supposed that all the difficulties of mountain travel were at an +end, but this has not turned out to be exactly the case. + +A horseman shortly joined me and rode with me, got me a fresh +horse, and accompanied me for ten miles. He was a picturesque +figure and rode a very good horse. He wore a big slouch hat, +from under which a number of fair curls hung nearly to his waist. +His beard was fair, his eyes blue, and his complexion ruddy. +There was nothing sinister in his expression, and his manner was +respectful and frank. He was dressed in a hunter's buckskin suit +ornamented with beads, and wore a pair of exceptionally big brass +spurs. His saddle was very highly ornamented. What was unusual +was the number of weapons he carried. Besides a rifle laid +across his saddle and a pair of pistols in the holsters, he +carried two revolvers and a knife in his belt, and a carbine +slung behind him. I found him what is termed "good company." He +told me a great deal about the country and its wild animals, with +some hunting adventures, and a great deal about Indians and their +cruelty and treachery. All this time, having crossed South Park, +we were ascending the Continental Divide by what I think is +termed the Breckenridge Pass, on a fairly good wagon road. We +stopped at a cabin, where the woman seemed to know my companion, +and, in addition to bread and milk, produced some venison steaks. +We rode on again, and reached the crest of the Divide (see +engraving), and saw snow-born streams starting within a quarter +of a mile from each other, one for the Colorado and the Pacific, +the other for the Platte and the Atlantic. Here I wished the +hunter good-bye, and reluctantly turned north-east. It was not +wise to go up the Divide at all, and it was necessary to do it in +haste. On my way down I spoke to the woman at whose cabin I had +dined, and she said, "I am sure you found Comanche Bill a real +gentleman"; and I then knew that, if she gave me correct +information, my intelligent, courteous companion was one of the +most notorious desperadoes of the Rocky Mountains, and the +greatest Indian exterminator on the frontier--a man whose father +and family fell in a massacre at Spirit Lake by the hands of +Indians, who carried away his sister, then a child of eleven. +His life has since been mainly devoted to a search for this +child, and to killing Indians wherever he can find them. + +After riding twenty miles, which made the distance for that day +fifty, I remounted Birdie to ride six miles farther, to a house +which had been mentioned to me as a stopping place. The road +ascended to a height of 11,000 feet, and from thence I looked my +last at the lonely, uplifted prairie sea. "Denver stage road!" +The worst, rudest, dismallest, darkest road I have yet traveled +on, nothing but a winding ravine, the Platte canyon, pine crowded +and pine darkened, walled in on both sides for six miles by +pine-skirted mountains 12,000 feet high! Along this abyss for +fifty miles there are said to be only five houses, and were it +not for miners going down, and freight wagons going up, the +solitude would be awful. As it was, I did not see a creature. +It was four when I left South Park, and between those mountain +walls and under the pines it soon became quite dark, a darkness +which could be felt. The snow which had melted in the sun had +re-frozen, and was one sheet of smooth ice. Birdie slipped so +alarmingly that I got off and walked, but then neither of us +could keep our feet, and in the darkness she seemed so likely to +fall upon me, that I took out of my pack the man's socks which +had been given me at Perry's Park, and drew them on over her +fore-feet--an expedient which for a time succeeded admirably, and +which I commend to all travelers similarly circumstanced. It was +unutterably dark, and all these operations had to be performed by +the sense of touch only. I remounted, allowed her to take her +own way, as I could not see even her ears, and though her hind +legs slipped badly, we contrived to get along through the +narrowest part of the canyon, with a tumbling river close to the +road. The pines were very dense, and sighed and creaked +mournfully in the severe frost, and there were other EERIE noises +not easy to explain. At last, when the socks were nearly worn +out, I saw the blaze of a camp-fire, with two hunters sitting by +it, on the hill side, and at the mouth of a gulch something which +looked like buildings. We got across the river partly on ice and +partly by fording, and I found that this was the place where, in +spite of its somewhat dubious reputation, I had been told that I +could put up. + +A man came out in the sapient and good-natured stage of +intoxication, and, the door being opened, I was confronted by a +rough bar and a smoking, blazing kerosene lamp without a chimney. +This is the worst place I have put up at as to food, lodging, and +general character; an old and very dirty log cabin, not chinked, +with one dingy room used for cooking and feeding, in which a +miner was lying very ill of fever; then a large roofless shed +with a canvas side, which is to be an addition, and then the bar. +They accounted for the disorder by the building operations. They +asked me if I were the English lady written of in the Denver +News, and for once I was glad that my fame had preceded me, as it +seemed to secure me against being quietly "put out of the way." +A horrible meal was served--dirty, greasy, disgusting. A +celebrated hunter, Bob Craik, came in to supper with a young man +in tow, whom, in spite of his rough hunter's or miner's dress, I +at once recognized as an English gentleman. It was their +camp-fire which I had seen on the hill side. This gentleman was +lording it in true caricature fashion, with a Lord Dundreary +drawl and a general execration of everything; while I sat in the +chimney corner, speculating on the reason why many of the upper +class of my countrymen--"High Toners," as they are called out +here--make themselves so ludicrously absurd. They neither know +how to hold their tongues or to carry their personal pretensions. +An American is nationally assumptive, an Englishman personally +so. He took no notice of me till something passed which showed +him I was English, when his manner at once changed into courtesy, +and his drawl was shortened by a half. He took pains to let me +know that he was an officer in the Guards, of good family, on +four months' leave, which he was spending in slaying buffalo and +elk, and also that he had a profound contempt for everything +American. I cannot think why Englishmen put on these broad, +mouthing tones, and give so many personal details. They retired +to their camp, and the landlord having passed into the sodden, +sleepy stage of drunkenness, his wife asked if I should be afraid +to sleep in the large canvas-sided, unceiled, doorless shed, as +they could not move the sick miner. So, I slept there on a +shake-down, with the stars winking overhead through the roof, and +the mercury showing 30 degrees of frost. + +I never told you that I once gave an unwary promise that I would +not travel alone in Colorado unarmed, and that in consequence I +left Estes Park with a Sharp's revolver loaded with ball +cartridge in my pocket, which has been the plague of my life. +Its bright ominous barrel peeped out in quiet Denver shops, +children pulled it out to play with, or when my riding dress hung +up with it in the pocket, pulled the whole from the peg to the +floor; and I cannot conceive of any circumstances in which I +could feel it right to make any use of it, or in which it could +do me any possible good. Last night, however, I took it out, +cleaned and oiled it, and laid it under my pillow, resolving to +keep awake all night. I slept as soon as I lay down, and never +woke till the bright morning sun shone through the roof, making +me ridicule my own fears and abjure pistols for ever. + I. L. B. + + +Letter XII + +Deer Valley--Lynch law--Vigilance committees--The silver +spruce--Taste and abstinence--The whisky fiend--Smartness-- +Turkey creek Canyon--The Indian problem--Public +rascality--Friendly meetings--The way to the Golden City--A +rising settlement--Clear Creek Canyon--Staging--Swearing--A +mountain town. + +DEER VALLEY, November. + +To-night I am in a beautiful place like a Dutch farm--large, +warm, bright, clean, with abundance of clean food, and a clean, +cold little bedroom to myself. But it is very hard to write, for +two free-tongued, noisy Irish women, who keep a miners' +boarding-house in South Park, and are going to winter quarters in +a freight wagon, are telling the most fearful stories of +violence, vigilance committees, Lynch law, and "stringing," that +I ever heard. It turns one's blood cold only to think that where +I travel in perfect security, only a short time ago men were +being shot like skunks. At the mining towns up above this nobody +is thought anything of who has not killed a man--i.e. in a +certain set. These women had a boarder, only fifteen, who +thought he could not be anything till he had shot somebody, and +they gave an absurd account of the lad dodging about with a +revolver, and not getting up courage enough to insult any one, +till at last he hid himself in the stable and shot the first +Chinaman who entered. Things up there are just in that initial +state which desperadoes love. A man accidentally shoves another +in a saloon, or says a rough word at meals, and the challenge, +"first finger on the trigger," warrants either in shooting the +other at any subsequent time without the formality of a duel. +Nearly all the shooting affrays arise from the most trivial +causes in saloons and bar-rooms. The deeper quarrels, arising +from jealousy or revenge, are few, and are usually about some +woman not worth fighting for. At Alma and Fairplay vigilance +committees have been lately formed, and when men act outrageously +and make themselves generally obnoxious they receive a letter +with a drawing of a tree, a man hanging from it, and a coffin +below, on which is written "Forewarned." They "git" in a few +hours. + +When I said I spent last night at Hall's Gulch there was quite a +chorus of exclamations. My host there, they all said, would be +"strung" before long. Did I know that a man was "strung" there +yesterday? Had I not seen him hanging? He was on the big tree +by the house, they said. Certainly, had I known what a ghastly +burden that tree bore, I would have encountered the ice and gloom +of the gulch rather than have slept there. They then told me a +horrid tale of crime and violence. This man had even shocked the +morals of the Alma crowd, and had a notice served on him by the +vigilants, which had the desired effect, and he migrated to +Hall's Gulch. As the tale runs, the Hall's Gulch miners were +resolved either not to have a groggery or to limit the number of +such places, and when this ruffian set one up he was +"forewarned." It seems, however, to have been merely a pretext +for getting rid of him, for it was hardly a crime of which even +Lynch law could take cognizance. He was overpowered by numbers, +and, with circumstances of great horror, was tried and strung on +that tree within an hour.[19] + +[19] Public opinion approved this execution, regarding it +as a fitting retribution for a series of crimes. + + +I left the place this morning at ten, and have had a very +pleasant day, for the hills shut out the hot sun. I only rode +twenty-two miles, for the difficulty of riding on ice was great, +and there is no blacksmith within thirty-five miles of Hall's +Gulch. I met two freighters just after I left, who gave me the +unwelcome news that there were thirty-miles of ice between that +and Denver. "You'll have a tough trip," they said. The road +runs up and down hill, walled in along with a rushing river by +high mountains. The scenery is very grand, but I hate being shut +into these deep gorges, and always expect to see some startling +object moving among the trees. I met no one the whole day after +passing the teams except two men with a "pack-jack," Birdie hates +jacks, and rears and shies as soon as she sees one. It was a bad +road, one shelving sheet of ice, and awfully lonely, and between +the peril of the mare breaking her leg on the ice and that of +being crushed by windfalls of timber, I had to look out all day. +Towards sunset I came to a cabin where they "keep travelers," but +the woman looked so vinegar faced that I preferred to ride four +miles farther, up a beautiful road winding along a sunny gulch +filled with silver spruce, bluer and more silvery than any I have +yet seen, and then crossed a divide, from which the view in all +the ecstasy of sunset color was perfectly glorious. It was +enjoyment also in itself to get out of the deep chasm in which I +had been immured all day. There is a train of twelve freight +wagons here, each wagon with six horses, but the teamsters carry +their own camping blankets and sleep either in their wagons or +on the floor, so the house is not crowded. + +It is a pleasant two-story log house, not only chinked but lined +with planed timber. Each room has a great open chimney with logs +burning in it; there are pretty engravings on the walls, and +baskets full of creepers hanging from the ceiling. This is the +first settler's house I have been in in which the ornamental has +had any place. There is a door to each room, the oak chairs +are bright with rubbing, and the floor, though unplaned, is so +clean that one might eat off it. The table is clean and +abundant, and the mother and daughter, though they do all the +work, look as trim as if they did none, and actually laugh +heartily. The ranchman neither allows drink to be brought into +the house nor to be drunk outside, and on this condition only he +"keeps travelers." The freighters come in to supper quite well +washed, and though twelve of them slept in the kitchen, by nine +o'clock there was not a sound. This freighting business is most +profitable. I think that the charge is three cents per pound +from Denver to South Park, and there much of the freight is +transferred to "pack-jacks" and carried up to the mines. A +railroad, however, is contemplated. I breakfasted with the +family after the freight train left, and instead of sitting down +to gobble up the remains of a meal, they had a fresh table-cloth +and hot food. The buckets are all polished oak, with polished +brass bands; the kitchen utensils are bright as rubbing can make +them; and, more wonderful still, the girls black their boots. +Blacking usually is an unused luxury, and frequently is not kept +in houses. My boots have only been blacked once during the last +two months. + + +DENVER, November 9. + +I could not make out whether the superiority of the Deer Valley +settlers extended beyond material things, but a teamster I met in +the evening said it "made him more of a man to spend a night in +such a house." In Colorado whisky is significant of all evil and +violence and is the cause of most of the shooting affrays in the +mining camps. There are few moderate drinkers; it is seldom +taken except to excess. The great local question in the +Territory, and just now the great electoral issue, is drink or no +drink, and some of the papers are openly advocating a prohibitive +liquor law. Some of the districts, such as Greeley, in which +liquor is prohibited, are without crime, and in several of the +stock-raising and agricultural regions through which I have +traveled where it is practically excluded the doors are never +locked, and the miners leave their silver bricks in their wagons +unprotected at night. People say that on coming from the Eastern +States they hardly realize at first the security in which they +live. There is no danger and no fear. But the truth of the +proverbial saying, "There is no God west of the Missouri" is +everywhere manifest. The "almighty dollar" is the true divinity, +and its worship is universal. "Smartness" is the quality thought +most of. The boy who "gets on" by cheating at his lessons is +praised for being a "smart boy," and his satisfied parents +foretell that he will make a "smart man." A man who overreaches +his neighbor, but who does it so cleverly that the law cannot +take hold of him, wins an envied reputation as a "smart man," and +stories of this species of smartness are told admiringly round +every stove. Smartness is but the initial stage of swindling, +and the clever swindler who evades or defines the weak and often +corruptly administered laws of the States excites unmeasured +admiration among the masses.[20] + +[20] May, 1878.--I am copying this letter in the city of San +Francisco, and regretfully add a strong emphasis to what I have +written above. The best and most thoughtful among Americans +would endorse these remarks with shame and pain.--I. L. B. + + +I left Deer Valley at ten the next morning on a glorious day, +with rich atmospheric coloring, had to spend three hours sitting +on a barrel in a forge after I had ridden twelve miles, waiting +while twenty-four oxen were shod, and then rode on twenty-three +miles through streams and canyons of great beauty till I reached +a grocery store, where I had to share a room with a large family +and three teamsters; and being almost suffocated by the curtain +partition, got up at four, before any one was stirring, saddled +Birdie, and rode away in the darkness, leaving my money on the +table! It was a short eighteen miles' ride to Denver down the +Turkey Creek Canyon, which contains some magnificent scenery, and +then the road ascends and hangs on the ledge of a precipice 600 +feet in depth, such a narrow road that on meeting a wagon I had +to dismount for fear of hurting my feet with the wheels. From +thence there was a wonderful view through the rolling Foot Hills +and over the gray-brown plains to Denver. Not a tree or shrub +was to be seen, everything was rioting in summer heat and +drought, while behind lay the last grand canyon of the mountains, +dark with pines and cool with snow. I left the track and took a +short cut over the prairie to Denver, passing through an +encampment of the Ute Indians about 500 strong, a disorderly and +dirty huddle of lodges, ponies, men, squaws, children, skins, +bones, and raw meat. + +The Americans will never solve the Indian problem till the Indian +is extinct. They have treated them after a fashion which has +intensified their treachery and "devilry" as enemies, and as +friends reduces them to a degraded pauperism, devoid of the very +first elements of civilization. The only difference between the +savage and the civilized Indian is that the latter carries +firearms and gets drunk on whisky. The Indian Agency has been a +sink of fraud and corruption; it is said that barely thirty per +cent of the allowance ever reaches those for whom it is voted; +and the complaints of shoddy blankets, damaged flour, and +worthless firearms are universal. "To get rid of the Injuns" is +the phrase used everywhere. Even their "reservations" do not +escape seizure practically; for if gold "breaks out" on them they +are "rushed," and their possessors are either compelled to accept +land farther west or are shot off and driven off. One of the +surest agents in their destruction is vitriolized whisky. An +attempt has recently been made to cleanse the Augean stable of +the Indian Department, but it has met with signal failure, the +usual result in America of every effort to purify the official +atmosphere. Americans specially love superlatives. The phrases +"biggest in the world," "finest in the world," are on all lips. +Unless President Hayes is a strong man they will soon come to +boast that their government is composed of the "biggest +scoundrels" in the world. + +As I rode into Denver and away from the mountains the view became +glorious, as range above range crowned with snow came into sight. +I was sure that three glistening peaks seventy miles north were +the peerless shapeliness of Long's Peak, the king of the Rocky +Mountains, and the "mountain fever" returned so severely that I +grudged every hour spent on the dry, hot plains. The Range +looked lovelier and sublimer than when I first saw it from +Greeley, all spiritualized in the wonderful atmosphere. I went +direct to Evans's house, where I found a hearty welcome, as they +had been anxious about my safety, and Evans almost at once +arrived from Estes Park with three elk, one grizzly, and one +bighorn in his wagon. Regarding a place and life one likes (in +spite of all lessons) one is sure to think, "To-morrow shall be +as this day, and much more abundant"; and all through my tour I +had thought of returning to Estes Park and finding everything +just as it was. Evans brought the unwelcome news that the goodly +fellowship was broken up. The Dewys and Mr. Waller were in +Denver, and the house was dismantled, Mr. and Mrs. Edwards alone +remaining, who were, however, expecting me back. Saturday, +though like a blazing summer day, was wonderful in its beauty, +and after sunset the afterglow was richer and redder than I have +ever seen it, but the heavy crimson betokened severe heat, which +came on yesterday, and was hardly bearable. + +I attended service twice at the Episcopal church, where the +service was beautifully read and sung; but in a city in which men +preponderate the congregation was mainly composed of women, who +fluttered their fans in a truly distracting way. Except for the +church-going there were few perceptible signs of Sunday in +Denver, which was full of rowdies from the mountain mining camps. +You can hardly imagine the delight of joining in those grand old +prayers after so long a deprivation. The "Te Deum" sounded +heavenly in its magnificence; but the heat was so tremendous that +it was hard to "warstle" through the day. They say that they +have similar outbreaks of solar fury all through the winter. + + +GOLDEN CITY, November 13. + +Pleasant as Denver was, with the Dewys and so many kind friends +there, it was too much of the "wearying world" either for my +health or taste, and I left for my sixteen miles' ride to this +place at four on Monday afternoon with the sun still hot. +Passing by a bare, desolate-looking cemetery, I asked a +sad-looking woman who was leaning on the gate if she could direct +me to Golden City. I repeated the question twice before I got an +answer, and then, though easily to be accounted for, it was wide +of the mark. In most doleful tones she said, "Oh, go to the +minister; I might tell you, may be, but it's too great a +responsibility; go to the ministers, they can tell you!" And she +returned to her tears for some one whose spirit she was doubtless +thinking of as in the Golden City of our hopes. That sixteen +miles seemed like one mile, after sunset, in the rapturous +freshness of the Colorado air, and Birdie, after her two days' +rest and with a lightened load, galloped across the prairie as if +she enjoyed it. I did not reach this gorge till late, and it was +an hour after dark before I groped my way into this dark, +unlighted mining town, where, however, we were most fortunate +both as to stable and accommodation for myself. + + +BOULDER, November 16. + +I fear you will grow tired of the details of these journal +letters. To a person sitting quietly at home, Rocky Mountain +traveling, like Rocky Mountain scenery, must seem very +monotonous; but not so to me, to whom the pure, dry mountain air +is the elixir of life. At Golden City I parted for a time from +my faithful pony, as Clear Creek Canyon, which leads from it to +Idaho, is entirely monopolized by a narrow-gauge railroad, and is +inaccessible for horses or mules. To be without a horse in these +mountains is to be reduced to complete helplessness. My great +wish was to see Green Lake, situated near the timber line above +Georgetown (said to be the highest town in the United States), at +a height of 9,000 feet. A single day took me from the heat of +summer into the intense cold of winter. + +Golden City by daylight showed its meanness and belied its name. +It is ungraded, with here and there a piece of wooden sidewalk, +supported on posts, up to which you ascend by planks. Brick, +pine, and log houses are huddled together, every other house is a +saloon, and hardly a woman is to be seen. My landlady apologized +for the very exquisite little bedroom which she gave me by saying +"it was not quite as she would like it, but she had never had a +lady in her house before." The young "lady" who waited at +breakfast said, "I've been thinking about you, and I'm certain +sure you're an authoress." The day, as usual, was glorious. +Think of November half through and scarcely even a cloud in the +sky, except the vermilion cloudlets which accompany the sun at +his rising and setting! They say that winter never "sets in" +there in the Foot Hills, but that there are spells of cold, +alternating with bright, hot weather, and that the snow never +lies on the ground so as to interfere with the feed of cattle. +Golden City rang with oaths and curses, especially at the depot. +Americans are given over to the most atrocious swearing, and the +blasphemous use of our Savior's name is peculiarly revolting. + +Golden City stands at the mouth of Toughcuss, otherwise Clear +Creek Canyon, which many people think the grandest scenery in the +mountains, as it twists and turns marvellously, and its +stupendous sides are nearly perpendicular, while farther progress +is to all appearance continually blocked by great masses of rock +and piles of snow-covered mountains. Unfortunately, its sides +have been almost entirely denuded of timber, mining operations +consuming any quantity of it. The narrow-gauge, steel-grade +railroad, which runs up the canyon for the convenience of the +rich mining districts of Georgetown, Black Hawk, and Central +City, is a curiosity of engineering. The track has partly been +blasted out of the sides of the canyon, and has partly been +"built" by making a bed of stones in the creek itself, and laying +the track across them. I have never seen such churlishness and +incivility as in the officials of that railroad and the state +lines which connect with it, or met with such preposterous +charges. They have handsome little cars on the route, but though +the passengers paid full fare, they put us into a baggage car +because the season was over, and in order to see anything I was +obliged to sit on the floor at the door. The singular grandeur +cannot be described. It is a mere gash cut by the torrent, +twisted, walled, chasmed, weather stained with the most brilliant +coloring, generally dark with shadow, but its utter desolation +occasionally revealed by a beam of intense sunshine. A few +stunted pines and cedars, spared because of their inaccessiblity, +hung here and there out of the rifts. Sometimes the walls of the +abyss seemed to meet overhead, and then widening out, the rocks +assumed fantastic forms, all grandeur, sublimity, and almost +terror. After two hours of this, the track came to an end, and +the canyon widened sufficiently for a road, all stones, holes, +and sidings. There a great "Concord coach" waited for us, +intended for twenty passengers, and a mountain of luggage in +addition, and the four passengers without any luggage sat on the +seat behind the driver, so that the huge thing bounced and swung +upon the straps on which it was hung so as to recall the worst +horrors of New Zealand staging. The driver never spoke without +an oath, and though two ladies were passengers, cursed his +splendid horses the whole time. Formerly, even the most profane +men intermitted their profanity in the presence of women, but +they "have changed all that." Every one I saw up there seemed in +a bad temper. I suspect that all their "smart tricks" in mining +shares had gone wrong. + +The road pursued the canyon to Idaho Springs, a fashionable +mountain resort in the summer, but deserted now, where we took a +superb team of six horses, with which we attained a height of +10,000 feet, and then a descent of 1,000 took us into Georgetown, +crowded into as remarkable a gorge as was ever selected for the +site of a town, the canyon beyond APPARENTLY terminating in +precipitous and inaccessible mountains, sprinkled with pines up +to the timber line, and thinly covered with snow. The area on +which it is possible to build is so circumcised and steep, and +the unpainted gable-ended houses are so perched here and there, +and the water rushes so impetuously among them, that it reminded +me slightly of a Swiss town. All the smaller houses are shored +up with young pines on one side, to prevent them from being blown +away by the fierce gusts which sweep the canyon. It is the only +town I have seen in America to which the epithet picturesque +could be applied. But truly, seated in that deep hollow in the +cold and darkness, it is in a terrible situation, with the alpine +heights towering round it. I arrived at three, but its sun had +set, and it lay in deep shadow. In fact, twilight seemed coming +on, and as I had been unable to get my circular notes cashed at +Denver, I had no money to stay over the next day, and much feared +that I should lose Green Lake, the goal of my journey. We drove +through the narrow, piled-up, irregular street, crowded with +miners standing in groups, or drinking and gaming under the +verandas, to a good hotel declivitously situated, where I at once +inquired if I could get to Green Lake. The landlord said he +thought not; the snow was very deep, and no one had been up for +five weeks, but for my satisfaction he would send to a stable and +inquire. The amusing answer came back, "If it's the English lady +traveling in the mountains, she can have a horse, but not any one +else." + + +Letter XIII + +The blight of mining--Green Lake--Golden +City--Benighted--Vertigo--Boulder Canyon--Financial straits--A +hard ride--The last cent--A bachelor's home--"Mountain Jim"--A +surprise--A night arrival--Making the best of it--Scanty fare. + +BOULDER, November. + +The answer regarding a horse (at the end of my former letter) was +given to the landlord outside the hotel, and presently he came in +and asked my name and if I were the lady who had crossed from +Link's to South Park by Tarryall Creek; so news travels fast. In +five minutes the horse was at the door, with a clumsy two-horned +side-saddle, and I started at once for the upper regions. It was +an exciting ride, much spiced with apprehension. The evening +shadows had darkened over Georgetown, and I had 2,000 feet to +climb, or give up Green Lake. I shall forget many things, but +never the awfulness and hugeness of the scenery. I went up a +steep track by Clear Creek, then a succession of frozen +waterfalls in a widened and then narrowed valley, whose frozen +sides looked 5,000 feet high. That is the region of enormous +mineral wealth in silver. There are the "Terrible" and other +mines whose shares you can see quoted daily in the share lists in +the Times, sometimes at cent per cent premium, and then down to +25 discount. + +These mines, with their prolonged subterranean workings, their +stamping and crushing mills, and the smelting works which have +been established near them, fill the district with noise, hubbub, +and smoke by night and day; but I had turned altogether aside +from them into a still region, where each miner in solitude was +grubbing for himself, and confiding to none his finds or +disappointments. Agriculture restores and beautifies, mining +destroys and devastates, turning the earth inside out, making it +hideous, and blighting every green thing, as it usually blights +man's heart and soul. There was mining everywhere along that +grand road, with all its destruction and devastation, its +digging, burrowing, gulching, and sluicing; and up all along the +seemingly inaccessible heights were holes with their roofs log +supported, in which solitary and patient men were selling their +lives for treasure. Down by the stream, all among the icicles, +men were sluicing and washing, and everywhere along the heights +were the scars of hardly-passable trails, too steep even for +pack-jacks, leading to the holes, and down which the miner packs +the ore on his back. Many a heart has been broken for the few +finds which have been made along those hill sides. All the +ledges are covered with charred stumps, a picture of desolation, +where nature had made everything grand and fair. But even from +all this I turned. The last miner I saw gave me explicit +directions, and I left the track and struck upwards into the icy +solitudes--sheets of ice at first, then snow, over a foot deep, +pure and powdery, then a very difficult ascent through a pine +forest, where it was nearly dark, the horse tumbling about in +deep snowdrifts. But the goal was reached, and none too soon. + +At a height of nearly 12,000 feet I halted on a steep declivity, +and below me, completely girdled by dense forests of pines, with +mountains red and glorified in the sunset rising above them, was +Green Lake, looking like water, but in reality a sheet of ice two +feet thick. From the gloom and chill below I had come up into +the pure air and sunset light, and the glory of the unprofaned +works of God. It brought to my mind the verse, "The darkness is +past, and the true light now shineth"; and, as if in commentary +upon it, were the hundreds and thousands of men delving in dark +holes in the gloom of the twilight below. + + O earth, so full of dreary noises! + O men, with wailing in your voices, + O delved gold, the wailer's heap, + God strikes a silence through you all, + He giveth His beloved sleep. + + +It was something to reach that height and see the far off glory +of the sunset, and by it to be reminded that neither God nor His +sun had yet deserted the world. But the sun was fast going down, +and even as I gazed upon the wonderful vision the glory vanished, +and the peaks became sad and grey. It was strange to be the only +human being at that glacial altitude, and to descend again +through a foot of untrodden snow and over sloping sheets of ice +into the darkness, and to see the hill sides like a firmament of +stars, each showing the place where a solitary man in his hole +was delving for silver. The view, as long as I could see it, was +quite awful. It looked as if one could not reach Georgetown +without tumbling down a precipice. Precipices there were in +plenty along the road, skirted with ice to their verge. It was +the only ride which required nerve that I have taken in Colorado, +and it was long after dark when I returned from my exploit. + +I left Georgetown at eight the next morning on the Idaho stage, +in glorious cold. In this dry air it is quite warm if there are +only a few degrees of frost. The sun does not rise in Georgetown +till eleven now; I doubt if it rises there at all in the winter! +After four hours' fearful bouncing, the baggage car again +received us, but this time the conductor, remarking that he +supposed I was just traveling to see the country, gave me his +chair and put it on the platform, so that I had an excellent view +of that truly sublime canyon. For economy I dined in a +restaurant in Golden City, and at three remounted my trusty +Birdie, intending to arrive here that night. The adventure I met +with is almost too silly to tell. + +When I left Golden City it was a brilliant summer afternoon, and +not too hot. They could not give any directions at the stable, +and told me to go out on the Denver track till I met some one who +could direct me, which started me off wrong from the first. +After riding about two miles I met a man who told me I was all +wrong, and directed me across the prairie till I met another, who +gave me so many directions that I forgot them, and was +irretrievably lost. The afterglow, seen to perfection on the +open plain, was wonderful. Just as it grew dark I rode after a +teamster who said I was then four miles farther from Boulder than +when I left Golden, and directed me to a house seven miles off. +I suppose he thought I should know, for he told me to cross the +prairie till I came to a place where three tracks are seen, and +there to take the best-traveled one, steering all the time by the +north star. His directions did bring me to tracks, but it was +then so dark that I could see nothing, and soon became so dark +that I could not even see Birdie's ears, and was lost and +benighted. I rode on, hour after hour, in the darkness and +solitude, the prairie all round and a firmament of frosty stars +overhead. The prairie wolf howled now and then, and occasionally +the lowing of cattle gave me hope of human proximity. But there +was nothing but the lone wild plain. You can hardly imagine the +longing to see a light, to hear a voice, the intensely eerie +feeling of being alone in that vast solitude. It was freezing +very sharply and was very cold, and I was making up my mind to +steer all night for the pole-star, much fearing that I should be +brought up by one of the affluents of the Platte, or that Birdie +would tire, when I heard the undertoned bellowing of a bull, +which, from the snorting rooting up of earth, seemed to be +disputing the right of way, and the pony was afraid to pass. +While she was scuffling about, I heard a dog bark and a man +swear; then I saw a light, and in another minute found myself at +a large house, where I knew the people, only eleven miles from +Denver! It was nearly midnight, and light, warmth, and a good +bed were truly welcome. + +You can form no idea of what the glory on the Plains is just +before sunrise. Like the afterglow, for a great height above the +horizon there is a shaded band of the most intense and glowing +orange, while the mountains which reflect the yet unrisen sun +have the purple light of amethysts. I left early, but soon lost +the track and was lost; but knowing that a sublime gash in the +mountains was Bear Canyon, quite near Boulder, I struck across +the prairie for it, and then found the Boulder track. "The +best-laid schemes of men and mice gang aft agley," and my +exploits came to an untimely end to-day. On arriving here, +instead of going into the mountains, I was obliged to go to bed +in consequence of vertigo, headache, and faintness, produced by +the intense heat of the sun. In all that weary land there was no +"shadow of a great rock" under which to rest. The gravelly, +baked soil reflected the fiery sun, and it was nearly maddening +to look up at the cool blue of the mountains, with their +stretches of pines and their deep indigo shadows. Boulder is a +hideous collection of frame +houses on the burning plain, but it aspires to be a "city" in +virtue of being a "distributing point" for the settlements up the +Boulder Canyon, and of the discovery of a coal seam. + + +LONGMOUNT, November. + +I got up very early this morning, and on a hired horse went nine +miles up the Boulder Canyon, which is much extolled, but I was +greatly disappointed with everything except its superb wagon +road, and much disgusted with the laziness of the horse. A ride +of fifteen miles across the prairie brought me here early in the +afternoon, but of the budget of letters which I expected there is +not one. Birdie looks in such capital condition that my host +here can hardly believe that she has traveled over 500 miles. I +am feeling "the pinch of poverty" rather severely. When I have +paid my bill here I shall have exactly twenty-six cents left. +Evans was quite unable to pay the hundred dollars which he owed +me, and, to save themselves, the Denver banks, though they remain +open, have suspended payment, and would not +cash my circular notes. The financial straits are very serious, +and the unreasoning panic which has set in makes them worse. The +present state of matters is--nobody has any money, so nothing is +worth anything. The result to me is that, nolens volens, I must +go up to Estes Park, where I can live without ready money, and +remain there till things change for the better. It does not seem +a very hard fate! Long's Peak rises in purple gloom, and I long +for the cool air and unfettered life of the solitary blue hollow +at its base. + + +ESTES PARK, November 20. + +Would that three notes of admiration were all I need give to my +grand, solitary, uplifted, sublime, remote, beast-haunted lair, +which seems more indescribable than ever; but you will wish to +know how I have sped, and I wish you to know my present singular +circumstances. I left Longmount at eight on Saturday morning, +rather heavily loaded, for in addition to my own luggage I was +asked to carry the mail-bag, which was heavy with newspapers. +Edwards, with his wife and family, were still believed to be +here. A heavy snow-storm was expected, and all the sky--that +vast dome which spans the Plains--was overcast; but over the +mountains it was a deep, still, sad blue, into which snowy peaks +rose sunlighted. It was a lonely, mournful-looking morning, but +when I reached the beautiful canyon of the St. Vrain, the sad +blue became brilliant, and the sun warm and scintillating. Ah, +how beautiful and incomparable the ride up here is, infinitely +more beautiful than the much-vaunted parts I have seen elsewhere. + +There is, first, this beautiful hill-girdled valley of fair +savannas, through which the bright St. Vrain curves in and out +amidst a tangle of cotton-wood and withered clematis and Virginia +creeper, which two months ago made the valley gay with their +scarlet and gold. Then the canyon, with its +fantastically-stained walls; then the long ascent through +sweeping foot hills to the gates of rock at a height of 9,000 +feet; then the wildest and most wonderful scenery for twenty +miles, in which you cross thirteen ranges from 9,000 to 11,000 +feet high, pass through countless canyons and gulches, cross +thirteen dark fords, and finally descend, through M'Ginn's Gulch, +upon this, the gem of the Rocky Mountains. It was a weird ride. +I got on very slowly. The road is a hard one for any horse, +specially for a heavily-loaded one, and at the end of several +weeks of severe travel. When I had ridden fifteen miles I +stopped at the ranch where people usually get food, but it was +empty, and the next was also deserted. So I was compelled to go +to the last house, where two young men are "baching." + +There I had to decide between getting a meal for myself or a feed +for the pony; but the young man, on hearing of my sore poverty, +trusted me "till next time." His house, for order and neatness, +and a sort of sprightliness of cleanliness--the comfort of +cleanliness without its severity--is a pattern to all women, +while the clear eyes and manly self-respect which the habit of +total abstinence gives in this country are a pattern to all men. +He cooked me a splendid dinner, with good tea. After dinner I +opened the mail-bag, and was delighted to find an accumulation of +letters from you; but I sat much too long there, forgetting that +I had twenty miles to ride, which could hardly be done in less +than six hours. It was then brilliant. I had not realized the +magnificence of that ride when I took it before, but the pony was +tired, and I could not hurry her, and the distance seemed +interminable, as after every range I crossed another range. Then +came a region of deep, dark, densely-wooded gulches, only a few +feet wide, and many fords, and from their cold depths I saw the +last sunlight fade from the brows of precipices 4,000 feet high. +It was eerie, as darkness came on, to wind in and out in the +pine-shadowed gloom, sometimes on ice, sometimes in snow, at the +bottom of these tremendous chasms. Wolves howled in all +directions. This is said to denote the approach of a storm. +During this twenty-mile ride I met a hunter with an elk packed on +his horse, and he told me not only that the Edwardses were at the +cabin yesterday, but that they were going to remain for two +weeks longer, no matter how uncongenial. The ride did seem +endless after darkness came on. Finally the last huge range was +conquered, the last deep chasm passed, and with an eeriness which +craved for human companionship, I rode up to "Mountain Jim's" +den, but no light shone through the chinks, and all was silent. +So I rode tediously down M'Ginn's Gulch, which was full of +crackings and other strange mountain noises, and was pitch dark, +though the stars were bright overhead. + +Soon I heard the welcome sound of a barking dog. I supposed it +to denote strange hunters, but calling "Ring" at a venture, the +noble dog's large paws and grand head were in a moment on my +saddle, and he greeted me with all those inarticulate but +perfectly comprehensible noises with which dogs welcome their +human friends. Of the two men on horses who accompanied him, one +was his master, as I knew by the musical voice and grace of +manner, but it was too dark to see anyone, though he struck a +light to show me the valuable furs with which one of the horses +was loaded. The desperado was heartily glad to see me, and +sending the man and fur-laden horse on to his cabin, he turned +with me to Evans's; and as the cold was very severe, and Birdie +was very tired, we dismounted and walked the remaining three +miles. All my visions of a comfortable reception and good meal +after my long ride vanished with his first words. The Edwardses +had left for the winter on the previous morning, but had not +passed through Longmount; the cabin was dismantled, the stores +were low, and two young men, Mr. Kavan, a miner, and Mr. Buchan, +whom I was slightly acquainted with before, were "baching" there +to look after the stock until Evans, who was daily expected, +returned. The other settler and his wife had left the park, so +there was not a woman within twenty-five miles. A fierce wind +had arisen, and the cold was awful, which seemed to make matters +darker. I did not care in the least about myself. I could rough +it, and enjoy doing so, but I was very sorry for the young men, +who, I knew, would be much embarrassed by the sudden appearance +of a lady for an indefinite time. But the difficulty had to be +faced, and I walked in and took them by surprise as they were +sitting smoking by the fire in the living room, which was +dismantled, unswept, and wretched looking. + +The young men did not show any annoyance, but exerted themselves +to prepare a meal, and courteously made Jim share it. After he +had gone, I boldly confessed my impecunious circumstances, and +told them that I must stay there till things changed, that I +hoped not to inconvenience them in any way, and that by dividing +the work among us they would be free to be out hunting. So we +agreed to make the best of it. (Our arrangements, which we +supposed would last only two or three days, extended over nearly +a month. Nothing could exceed the courtesy and good feeling +which these young men showed. It was a very pleasant time on the +whole and when we separated they told me that though they were +much "taken aback" at first, they felt at last that we could get +on in the same way for a year, in which I cordially agreed.) +Sundry practical difficulties had to be faced and overcome. +There was one of the common spring mattresses of the country in +the little room which opened from the living room, but nothing +upon it. This was remedied by making a large bag and filling it +with hay. Then there were neither sheets, towels, nor +table-clothes. This was irremediable, and I never missed the +first or last. Candles were another loss, and we had only one +paraffin lamp. I slept all night in spite of a gale which blew +all Sunday and into Monday afternoon, threatening to lift the +cabin from the ground, and actually removing part of the roof +from the little room between the kitchen and living room, in +which we used to dine. Sunday was brilliant, but nearly a +hurricane, and I dared not stir outside the cabin. The parlor +was two inches deep in the mud from the roof. We nominally +divide the cooking. Mr. Kavan makes the best bread I ever ate; +they bring in wood and water, and wash the supper things, and I +"do" my room and the parlor, wash the breakfast things, and +number of etceteras. My room is easily "done," but the parlor +is a never-ending business. I have swept shovelfuls of mud out +of it three times to-day. There is nothing to dust it with but a +buffalo's tail, and every now and then a gust descends the open +chimney and drives the wood ashes all over the room. However, I +have found an old shawl which answers for a table-cloth, and have +made our "parlor" look a little more habitable. Jim came in +yesterday in a silent mood, and sat looking vacantly into the +fire. The young men said that this mood was the usual precursor +of an "ugly fit." + +Food is a great difficulty. Of thirty milch cows only one is +left, and she does not give milk enough for us to drink. The +only meat is some pickled pork, very salt and hard, which I +cannot eat, and the hens lay less than one egg a day. Yesterday +morning I made some rolls, and made the last bread into a +bread-and-butter pudding, which we all enjoyed. To-day I found +part of a leg of beef hanging in the wagon shed, and we were +elated with the prospect of fresh meat, but on cutting into it we +found it green and uneatable. Had it not been for some tea which +was bestowed upon me at the inn at Longmount we should have had +none. In this superb air and physically active life I can eat +everything but pickled pork. We breakfast about nine, dine at +two, and have supper at seven, but our MENU never varies. + +To-day I have been all alone in the park, as the men left to hunt +elk after breakfast, after bringing in wood and water. The sky +is brilliant and the light intense, or else the solitude would be +oppressive. I keep two horses in the corral so as to be able to +explore, but except Birdie, who is turned out, none of the +animals are worth much now from want of shoes, and tender feet. + + +Letter XIV + +A dismal ride--A desperado's tale--"Lost! Lost! Lost!"--Winter +glories--Solitude--Hard times--Intense cold--A pack of +wolves--The beaver dams--Ghastly scenes--Venison steaks--Our +evenings. + +ESTES PARK. + +I must attempt to put down the trifling events of each day just +as they occur. The second time that I was left alone Mr. Nugent +came in looking very black, and asked me to ride with him to see +the beaver dams on the Black Canyon. No more whistling or +singing, or talking to his beautiful mare, or sparkling repartee. + +His mood was as dark as the sky overhead, which was black with +an impending snowstorm. He was quite silent, struck his horse +often, started off on a furious gallop, and then throwing his +mare on her haunches close to me, said, "You're the first man or +woman who's treated me like a human being for many a year." So +he said in this dark mood, but Mr. and Mrs. Dewy, who took a very +deep interest in his welfare, always treated him as a rational, +intelligent gentleman, and in his better moments he spoke of them +with the warmest appreciation. "If you want to know," he +continued, "how nearly a man can become a devil, I'll tell you +now." There was no choice, and we rode up the canyon, and I +listened to one of the darkest tales of ruin I have ever heard or +read. + +Its early features were very simple. His father was a British +officer quartered at Montreal, of a good old Irish family. From +his account he was an ungovernable boy, imperfectly educated, and +tyrannizing over a loving but weak mother. When seventeen years +old he saw a young girl at church whose appearance he described +as being of angelic beauty, and fell in love with her with all +the intensity of an uncontrolled nature. He saw her three times, +but scarcely spoke to her. On his mother opposing his wish and +treating it as a boyish folly, he took to drink "to spite her," +and almost as soon as he was eighteen, maddened by the girl's +death, he ran away from home, entered the service of the Hudson's +Bay Company, and remained in it for several years, only leaving +it because he found even that lawless life too strict for him. +Then, being as I suppose about twenty-seven, he entered the +service of the United States Government, and became one of the +famous Indian scouts of the Plains, distinguishing himself by +some of the most daring deeds on record, and some of the +bloodiest crimes. Some of these tales I have heard before, but +never so terribly told. Years must have passed in that service, +till he became a character known through all the West, and much +dreaded for his readiness to take offence, and his equal +readiness with his revolver. Vain, even in his dark mood, he +told me that he was idolized by women, and that in his worst +hours he was always chivalrous to good women. He described +himself as riding through camps in his scout's dress with a red +scarf round his waist, and sixteen golden curls, eighteen inches +long, hanging over his shoulders. The handsome, even superbly +handsome, side of his face was towards me as he spoke. As a +scout and as an armed escort of emigrant parties he was evidently +implicated in all the blood and broil of a lawless region and +period, and went from bad to worse, varying his life by drunken +sprees, which brought nothing but violence and loss. + +The narrative seemed to lack some link, for I next found him on a +homestead in Missouri, from whence he came to Colorado a few +years ago. There, again, something was dropped out, but I +suspect, and not without reason, that he joined one or more of +those gangs of "border ruffians" which for so long raided through +Kansas, perpetrating such massacres and outrages as that of the +Marais du Cygne. His fame for violence and ruffianism preceded +him into Colorado, where his knowledge of and love of the +mountains have earned him the sobriquet he now bears. He has a +squatter's claim and forty head of cattle, and is a successful +trapper besides, but envy and vindictiveness are raging within +him. He gets money, goes to Denver, and spends large sums in the +maddest dissipation, making himself a terror, and going beyond +even such desperadoes as "Texas Jack" and "Wild Bill"; and when +the money is done returns to his mountain den, full of hatred and +self-scorn, till the next time. Of course I cannot give details. + +The story took three hours to tell, and was crowded with terrific +illustrations of a desperado's career, told with a rush of wild +eloquence that was truly thrilling. + +When the snow, which for some time had been falling, compelled +him to break off and guide me to a sheltered place from which I +could make my own way back again, he stopped his horse and said, +"Now you see a man who has made a devil of himself! Lost! Lost! +Lost! I believe in God. I've given Him no choice but to put me +with 'the devil and his angel.' I'm afraid to die. You've +stirred the better nature in me too late. I can't change. If +ever a man were a slave, I am. Don't speak to me of repentance +and reformation. I can't reform. Your voice reminded me of +-----." Then in feverish tones, "How dare you ride with me? You +won't speak to me again, will you?" He made me promise to keep +one or two things secret whether he were living or dead, and I +promised, for I had no choice; but they come between me and the +sunshine sometimes, and I wake at night to think of them. I wish +I had been spared the regret and excitement of that afternoon. A +less ungovernable nature would never have spoken as he did, nor +told me what he did; but his proud, fierce soul all poured itself +out then, with hatred and self-loathing, blood on his hands and +murder in his heart, though even then he could not be altogether +other than a gentleman, or altogether divest himself of +fascination, even when so tempestuously revealing the darkest +points of his character. My soul dissolved in pity for his dark, +lost, self-ruined life, as he left me and turned away in the +blinding storm to the Snowy Range, where he said he was going to +camp out for a fortnight; a man of great abilities, real genius, +singular gifts, and with all the chances in life which other men +have had. How far more terrible than the "Actum est: periisti" +of Cowper is his exclamation, "Lost! Lost! Lost!" + +The storm was very severe, and the landmarks being blotted out, I +lost my way in the snow, and when I reached the cabin after dark +I found it still empty, for the two hunters, on returning, +finding that I had gone out, had gone in search of me. The snow +cleared off late, and intense frost set in. My room is nearly +the open air, being built of unchinked logs, and, as in the open +air, one requires to sleep with the head buried in blankets, or +the eyelids and breath freeze. The sunshine has been brilliant +to-day. I took a most beautiful ride to Black Canyon to look for +the horses. Every day some new beauty, or effect of snow and +light, is to be seen. Nothing that I have seen in Colorado +compares with Estes Park; and now that the weather is +magnificent, and the mountain tops above the pine woods are pure +white, there is nothing of beauty or grandeur for which the heart +can wish that is not here; and it is health giving, with pure +air, pure water, and absolute dryness. But there is something +very solemn, at times almost overwhelming, in the winter +solitude. I have never experienced anything like it even when I +lived on the slopes of Hualalai. When the men are out hunting +I know not where, or at night, when storms sweep down from Long's +Peak, and the air is full of stinging, tempest-driven snow, and +there is barely a probability of any one coming, or of my +communication with the world at all, then the stupendous mountain +ranges which lie between us and the Plains grow in height till +they become impassable barriers, and the bridgeless rivers grow +in depth, and I wonder if all my life is to be spent here in +washing and sweeping and baking. + +To-day has been one of manual labor. We did not breakfast till +9:30, then the men went out, and I never sat down till two. I +cleaned the living room and the kitchen, swept a path through the +rubbish in the passage room, washed up, made and baked a batch of +rolls and four pounds of sweet biscuits, cleaned some tins and +pans, washed some clothes, and gave things generally a "redding +up." There is a little thick buttermilk, fully six weeks old, at +the bottom of a churn, which I use for raising the rolls; but Mr. +Kavan, who makes "lovely" bread, puts some flour and water to +turn sour near the stove, and this succeeds admirably. + +I also made a most unsatisfactory investigation into the state of +my apparel. I came to Colorado now nearly three months ago, with +a small carpet-bag containing clothes, none of them new; and +these, by legitimate wear, the depredations of calves, and the +necessity of tearing some of them up for dish-cloths, are reduced +to a single change! I have a solitary pocket handkerchief and +one pair of stockings, such a mass of darns that hardly a trace +of the original wool remains. Owing to my inability to get money +in Denver I am almost without shoes, have nothing but a pair of +slippers and some "arctics." For outer garments--well, I have a +trained black silk dress, with a black silk polonaise! and +nothing else but my old flannel riding suit, which is quite +threadbare, and requires such frequent mending that I am +sometimes obliged to "dress" for supper, and patch and darn it +during the evening. You will laugh, but it is singular that one +can face the bitter winds with the mercury at zero and below it, +in exactly the same clothing which I wore in the tropics! It is +only the extreme dryness of the air which renders it possible to +live in such clothing. We have arranged the work better. Mr. +Buchan was doing too much, and it was hard for him, as he is very +delicate. You will wonder how three people here in the +wilderness can have much to do. There are the horses which we +keep in the corral to feed on sheaf oats and take to water twice +a day, the fowls and dogs to feed, the cow to milk, the bread to +make, and to keep a general knowledge of the whereabouts of the +stock in the event of a severe snow-storm coming on. Then there +is all the wood to cut, as there is no wood pile, and we burn a +great deal, and besides the cooking, washing, and mending, which +each one does, the men must hunt and fish for their living. Then +two sick cows have had to be attended to. + +We were with one when it died yesterday. It suffered terribly, +and looked at us with the pathetically pleading eyes of a +creature "made subject to vanity." The disposal of its carcass +was a difficulty. The wagon horses were in Denver, and when we +tried to get the others to pull the dead beast away, they only +kicked and plunged, so we managed to get it outside the shed, +and according to Mr. Kavan's prediction, a pack of wolves came +down, and before daylight nothing was left but the bones. They +were so close to the cabin that their noise was most disturbing, +and on looking out several times I could see them all in a heap +wrangling and tumbling over each other. They are much larger +than the prairie wolf, but equally cowardly, I believe. This +morning was black with clouds, and a snowstorm was threatened, +and about 700 cattle and a number of horses came in long files +from the valleys and canyons where they maraud, their instinct +teaching them to seek the open and the protection of man. + +I was alone in the cabin this afternoon when Mr. Nugent, whom we +believed to be on the Snowy Range, walked in very pale and +haggard looking, and coughing severely. He offered to show me +the trail up one of the grandest of the canyons, and I could not +refuse to go. The Fall River has had its source completely +altered by the operations of the beavers. Their engineering +skill is wonderful. In one place they have made a lake by +damming up the stream; in another their works have created an +island, and they have made several falls. Their storehouses, of +course, are carefully concealed. By this time they are about +full for the winter. We saw quantities of young cotton-wood and +aspen trees, with stems about as thick as my arm, lying where +these industrious creatures have felled them ready for their use. +They always work at night and in concert. Their long, sharp +teeth are used for gnawing down the trees, but their mason-work +is done entirely with their flat, trowel-like tails. In its +natural state the fur is very durable, and is as full of long +black hairs as that of the sable, but as sold, all these hairs +have been plucked out of it. + +The canyon was glorious, ah! glorious beyond any other, but it +was a dismal and depressing ride. The dead past buried its dead. + +Not an allusion was made to the conversation previously. "Jim's" +manner was courteous, but freezing, and when I left home on my +return he said he hardly thought he should be back from the +Snowy Range before I left. Essentially an actor, was he, I +wonder, posing on the previous day in the attitude of desperate +remorse, to impose on my credulity or frighten me; or was it a +genuine and unpremeditated outburst of passionate regret for the +life which he had thrown away? I cannot tell, but I think it was +the last. As I cautiously rode back, the sunset glories were +reddening the mountain tops, and the park lay in violet gloom. +It was wonderfully magnificent, but oh, so solemn, so lonely! I +rode a very large, well-bred mare, with three shoes loose and one +off, and she fell with me twice and was very clumsy in crossing +the Thompson, which was partly ice and partly a deep ford, but +when we reached comparatively level grassy ground I had a gallop +of nearly two miles which I enjoyed thoroughly, her great +swinging stride being so easy and exhilarating after Birdie's +short action. + + +Friday. + +This is a piteous day, quite black, freezing hard, and with a +fierce north-east wind. The absence of sunshine here, where it +is nearly perpetual, has a very depressing effect, and all the +scenery appears in its grimness of black and gray. We have lost +three horses, including Birdie, and have nothing to entice them +with, and not an animal to go and drive them in with. I put my +great mare in the corral myself, and Mr. Kavan put his in +afterwards and secured the bars, but the wolves were holding a +carnival again last night, and we think that the horses were +scared and stampeded, as otherwise they would not have leaped the +fence. The men are losing their whole day in looking for them. +On their return they said that they had seen Mr. Nugent returning +to his cabin by the other side and the lower ford of the +Thompson, and that he had "an awfully ugly fit on him," so that +they were glad that he did not come near us. The evening is +setting in sublime in its blackness. Late in the afternoon I +caught a horse which was snuffing at the sheaf oats, and had a +splendid gallop on the Longmount trail with the two great hunting +dogs. In returning, in the grimness of the coming storm, I had +that view of the park which I saw first in the glories of an +autumn sunset. Life was all dead; the dragon-flies no longer +darted in the sunshine, the cotton-woods had shed their last +amber leaves, the crimson trailers of the wild vines were bare, +the stream itself had ceased its tinkle and was numb in fetters +of ice, a few withered flower stalks only told of the brief +bright glory of the summer. The park never had looked so utterly +walled in; it was fearful in its loneliness, the ghastliest of +white peaks lay sharply outlined against the black snow clouds, +the bright river was ice bound, the pines were all black, the +world was absolutely shut out. How can you expect me to write +letters from such a place, from a life "in which nothing +happens"? It really is strange that neither Evans nor Edwards +come back. The young men are grumbling, for they were asked to +stay here for five days, and they have been here five weeks, and +they are anxious to be away camping out for the hunting, on which +they depend. There are two calves dying, and we don't know what +to do for them; and if a very severe snow-storm comes on, we +can't bring in and feed eight hundred head of cattle. + + +Saturday. + +The snow began to fall early this morning, and as it is +unaccompanied by wind we have the novel spectacle of a smooth +white world; still it does not look like anything serious. We +have been gradually growing later at night and later in the +morning. To-day we did not breakfast till ten. We have been +becoming so disgusted with the pickled pork, that we were glad to +find it just at an end yesterday, even though we were left +without meat for which in this climate the system craves. You +can fancy my surprise, on going into the kitchen, to find a dish +of smoking steaks of venison on the table. We ate like famished +people, and enjoyed our meal thoroughly. Just before I came the +young men had shot an elk, which they intended to sell in Denver, +and the grand carcass, with great branching antlers, hung outside +the shed. Often while vainly trying to swallow some pickled pork +I had looked across to the tantalizing animal, but it was not to +be thought of. However, this morning, as the young men felt the +pinch of hunger even more than I did, and the prospects of +packing it to Denver became worse, they decided on cutting into +one side, so we shall luxuriate in venison while it lasts. We +think that Edwards will surely be up to-night, but unless he +brings supplies our case is looking serious. The flour is +running low, there is only coffee for one week, and I have only a +scanty three ounces of tea left. The baking powder is nearly at +an end. We have agreed to economize by breakfasting very late, +and having two meals a day instead of three. The young men +went out hunting as usual, and I went out and found Birdie, and +on her brought in four other horses, but the snow balled so badly +that I went out and walked across the river on a very passable +ice bridge, and got some new views of the unique grandeur of this +place. + +Our evenings are social and pleasant. We finish supper about +eight, and make up a huge fire. The men smoke while I write to +you. Then we draw near the fire and I take my endless mending, +and we talk or read aloud. Both are very intelligent, and Mr. +Buchan has very extended information and a good deal of insight +into character. Of course our circumstances, the likelihood of +release, the prospects of snow blocking us in and of our supplies +holding out, the sick calves, "Jim's" mood, the possible +intentions of a man whose footprints we have found and traced for +three miles, are all topics that often recur, and few of which +can be worn threadbare. + + +Letter XV + +A whisky slave--The pleasures of monotony--The mountain +lion--"Another mouth to feed"--A tiresome boy--An outcast-- +Thanksgiving Day--The newcomer--A literary humbug--Milking a dry +cow--Trout-fishing--A snow-storm--A desperado's den. + +ESTES PARK, Sunday. + +A trapper passing last night brought us the news that Mr. Nugent +is ill; so, after washing up the things after our late breakfast, +I rode to his cabin, but I met him in the gulch coming down to +see us. He said he had caught cold on the Range, and was +suffering from an old arrow wound in the lung. We had a long +conversation without adverting to the former one, and he told me +some of the present circumstances of his ruined life. It is +piteous that a man like him, in the prime of life, should be +destitute of home and love, and live a life of darkness in a den +with no companions but guilty memories, and a dog which many +people think is the nobler animal of the two. I urged him to +give up the whisky which at present is his ruin, and his answer +had the ring of a sad truth in it: "I cannot, it binds me hand +and foot--I cannot give up the only pleasure I have." His ideas +of right are the queerest possible. He says that he believes in +God, but what he knows or believes of God's law I know not. To +resent insult with your revolver, to revenge yourself on those +who have injured you, to be true to a comrade and share your last +crust with him, to be chivalrous to good women, to be generous +and hospitable, and at the last to die game--these are the +articles of his creed, and I suppose they are received by men of +his stamp. He hates Evans with a bitter hatred, and Evans +returns it, having undergone much provocation from Jim in his +moods of lawlessness and violence, and being not a little envious +of the fascination which his manners and conversation have for +the strangers who come up here. + +On returning down the gulch the view was grander than I have ever +seen it, the gulch in dark shadow, the park below lying in +intense sunlight, with all the majestic canyons which sweep down +upon it in depths of infinite blue gloom, and above, the pearly +peaks, dazzling in purity and glorious in form, cleft the +turquoise blue of the sky. How shall I ever leave this "land +which is very far off"? How CAN I ever leave it? is the real +question. We are going on the principle, "Let us eat and drink, +for to-morrow we die," and the stores are melting away. The two +meals are not an economical plan, for we are so much more hungry +that we eat more than when we had three. We had a good deal of +sacred music to-day, to make it as like Sunday as possible. The +"faint melancholy" of this winter loneliness is very fascinating. + +How glorious the amber fires of the winter dawns are, and how +gloriously to-night the crimson clouds descended just to the +mountain tops and were reflected on the pure surface of the snow! + +The door of this room looks due north, and as I write the Pole +Star blazes, and a cold crescent moon hangs over the ghastliness +of Long's Peak. + + +ESTES PARK, COLORADO, November. + +We have lost count of time, and can only agree on the fact that +the date is somewhere near the end of November. Our life has +settled down into serenity, and our singular and enforced +partnership is very pleasant. We might be three men living +together, but for the unvarying courtesy and consideration which +they show to me. Our work goes on like clockwork; the only +difficulty which ever arises is that the men do not like me to do +anything that they think hard or unsuitable, such as saddling a +horse or bringing in water. The days go very fast; it was 3:30 +today before I knew that it was 1. It is a calm life without +worries. The men are so easy to live with; they never fuss, or +grumble, or sigh, or make a trouble of anything. It would amuse +you to come into our wretched little kitchen before our +disgracefully late breakfast, and find Mr. Kavan busy at the +stove frying venison, myself washing the supper dishes, and Mr. +Buchan drying them, or both the men busy at the stove while I +sweep the floor. Our food is a great object of interest to us, +and we are ravenously hungry now that we have only two meals a +day. About sundown each goes forth to his "chores"--Mr. K. to +chop wood, Mr. B. to haul water, I to wash the milk pans and +water the horses. On Saturday the men shot a deer, and on going +for it to-day they found nothing but the hind legs, and following +a track which they expected would lead them to a beast's hole, +they came quite carelessly upon a large mountain lion, which, +however, took itself out of their reach before they were +sufficiently recovered from their surprise to fire at it. These +lions, which are really a species of puma, are bloodthirsty as +well as cowardly. Lately one got into a sheepfold in the canyon +of the St. Vrain, and killed thirty sheep, sucking the blood from +their throats. + + +November ? + +This has been a day of minor events, as well as a busy one. I +was so busy that I never sat down from 10:30 till 1:30. I had +washed my one change of raiment, and though I never iron my +clothes, I like to bleach them till they are as white as snow, +and they were whitening on the line when some furious gusts +came down from Long's Peak, against which I could not stand, and +when I did get out all my clothes were blown into strips from an +inch to four inches in width, literally destroyed! One learns +how very little is necessary either for comfort or happiness. I +made a four-pound spiced ginger cake, baked some bread, mended +my riding dress, cleaned up generally, wrote some letters with +the hope that some day they might be posted and took a +magnificent walk, reaching the cabin again in the melancholy +glory which now immediately precedes the darkness. + +We were all busy getting our supper ready when the dogs began to +bark furiously, and we heard the noise of horses. "Evans at +last!" we exclaimed, but we were wrong. Mr. Kavan went out, and +returned saying that it was a young man who had come up with +Evans's wagon and team, and that the wagon had gone over into +a gulch seven miles from here. Mr. Kavan looked very grave. +"It's another mouth to feed," he said. They asked no questions, +and brought the lad in, a slangy, assured fellow of twenty, who, +having fallen into delicate health at a theological college, had +been sent up here by Evans to work for his board. The men were +too courteous to ask him what he was doing up here, but I boldly +asked him where he lived, and to our dismay he replied, "I've +come to live here." We discussed the food question gravely, as +it presented a real difficulty. We put him into a bed-closet +opening from the kitchen, and decided to see what he was fit for +before giving him work. We were very much amazed, in truth, at +his coming here. He is evidently a shallow, arrogant youth. + +We have decided that to-day is November 26th; to-morrow is +Thanksgiving Day, and we are planning a feast, though Mr. K. said +to me again this morning, with a doleful face, "You see there's +another mouth to feed." This "mouth" has come up to try the +panacea of manual labor, but he is town bred, and I see that he +will do nothing. He is writing poetry, and while I was busy +to-day began to read it aloud to me, asking for my criticism. He +is just at the age when everything literary has a fascination, +and every literary person is a hero, specially Dr. Holland. Last +night was fearful from the lifting of the cabin and the breaking +of the mud from the roof. We sat with fine gravel driving in our +faces, and this morning I carried four shovelfuls of mud out of +my room. After breakfast, Mr. Kavan, Mr. Lyman, and I, with the +two wagon horses, rode the seven miles to the scene of +yesterday's disaster in a perfect gale of wind. I felt like a +servant going out for a day's "pleasuring," hurrying "through my +dishes," and leaving my room in disorder. The wagon lay half-way +down the side of a ravine, kept from destruction by having caught +on some trees. + +It was too cold to hang about while the men hauled it up and +fixed it, so I went slowly back, encountering Mr. Nugent in a +most bitter mood--almost in an "ugly fit" --hating everybody, and +contrasting his own generosity and reckless kindness with the +selfishness and carefully-weighed kindnesses of others. People +do give him credit for having "as kind a heart as ever beat." +Lately a child in the other cabin was taken ill, and though there +were idle men and horses at hand, it was only the "desperado" who +rode sixty miles in "the shortest time ever made" to bring the +doctor. While we were talking he was sitting on a stone outside +his den mending a saddle, shins, bones, and skulls lying about +him, "Ring" watching him with jealous and idolatrous affection, +the wind lifting his thin curls from as grand a head as was ever +modeled--a ruin of a man. Yet the sun which shines "on the evil +and the good" was lighting up the gold of his hair. May our +Father which is in heaven yet show mercy to His outcast child! + +Mr. Kavan soon overtook me, and we had an exciting race of two +miles, getting home just before the wind fell and the snow began. + +Thanksgiving Day. The thing dreaded has come at last, a +snow-storm, with a north-east wind. It ceased about midnight, +but not till it had covered my bed. Then the mercury fell below +zero, and everything froze. I melted a tin of water for washing +by the fire, but it was hard frozen before I could use it. My +hair, which was thoroughly wet with the thawed snow of yesterday, +is hard frozen in plaits. The milk and treacle are like rock, +the eggs have to be kept on the coolest part of the stove to keep +them fluid. Two calves in the shed were frozen to death. Half +our floor is deep in snow, and it is so cold that we cannot open +the door to shovel it out. The snow began again at eight this +morning, very fine and hard. It blows in through the chinks and +dusts this letter while I write. Mr. Kavan keeps my ink bottle +close to the fire, and hands it to me every time that I need to +dip my pen. We have a huge fire, but cannot raise the +temperature above 20 degrees. Ever since I returned the lake has +been hard enough to bear a wagon, but to-day it is difficult to +keep the water hole open by the constant use of the axe. The +snow may either melt or block us in. Our only anxiety is about +the supplies. We have tea and coffee enough to last over +to-morrow, the sugar is just done, and the flour is getting low. +It is really serious that we have "another mouth to feed," and +the newcomer is a ravenous creature, eating more than the three +of us. It dismays me to see his hungry eyes gauging the supply +at breakfast, and to see the loaf disappear. He told me this +morning that he could eat the whole of what was on the table. He +is mad after food, and I see that Mr. K. is starving himself to +make it hold out. Mr. Buchan is very far from well, and dreads +the prospect of "half rations." All this sounds laughable, but +we shall not laugh if we have to look hunger in the face! Now in +the evening the snow clouds, which have blotted out all things, +are lifting, and the winter scene is wonderful. The mercury is 5 +degrees below zero, and the aurora is glorious. In my unchinked +room the mercury is 1 degrees below zero. Mr. Buchan can hardly +get his breath; the dryness is intense. We spent the afternoon +cooking the Thanksgiving dinner. I made a wonderful pudding, for +which I had saved eggs and cream for days, and dried and stoned +cherries supplied the place of currants. I made a bowl of +custard for sauce, which the men said was "splendid"; also a +rolled pudding, with molasses; and we had venison steak and +potatoes, but for tea we were obliged to use the tea leaves of +the morning again. I should think that few people in America +have enjoyed their Thanksgiving dinner more. We had urged Mr. +Nugent to join us, but he refused, almost savagely, which we +regretted. My four-pound cake made yesterday is all gone! This +wretched boy confesses that he was so hungry in the night that he +got up and ate nearly half of it. He is trying to cajole me into +making another. + + +November 29. + +Before the boy came I had mistaken some faded cayenne pepper for +ginger, and had made a cake with it. Last evening I put half of +it into the cupboard and left the door open. During the night we +heard a commotion in the kitchen and much choking, coughing, and +groaning, and at breakfast the boy was unable to swallow food +with his usual ravenousness. After breakfast he came to me +whimpering, and asking for something soothing for his throat, +admitting that he had seen the "gingerbread," and "felt so +starved" in the night that he got up to eat it. + +I tried to make him feel that it was "real mean" to eat so much +and be so useless, and he said he would do anything to help me, +but the men were so "down on him." I never saw men so patient +with a lad before. He is a most vexing addition to our party, +yet one cannot help laughing at him. He is not honorable, +though. I dare not leave this letter lying on the table, as he +would read it. He writes for two Western periodicals (at least +he says so), and he shows us long pieces of his published poetry. + +In one there are twenty lines copied (as Mr. Kavan has shown me) +without alteration from Paradise Lost; in another there are two +stanzas from Resignation, with only the alteration of "stray" for +"dead"; and he has passed the whole of Bonar's Meeting-place off +as his own. Again, he lent me an essay by himself, called The +Function of the Novelist, which is nothing but a mosaic of +unacknowledged quotations. The men tell me that he has "bragged" +to them that on his way here he took shelter in Mr. Nugent's +cabin, found out where he hides his key, opened his box, and read +his letters and MSS. He is a perfect plague with his ignorance +and SELF-sufficiency. The first day after he came while I was +washing up the breakfast things he told me that he intended to do +all the dirty work, so I left the knives and forks in the tub and +asked him to wipe and lay them aside. Two hours afterwards I +found them untouched. Again the men went out hunting, and he +said he would chop the wood for several days' use, and after a +few strokes, which were only successful in chipping off some +shavings, he came in and strummed on the harmonium, leaving me +without any wood with which to make the fire for supper. He +talked about his skill with the lasso, but could not even catch +one of our quietest horses. Worse than all, he does not know one +cow from another. Two days ago he lost our milch cow in driving +her in to be milked, and Mr. Kavan lost hours of valuable time in +hunting for her without success. To-day he told us triumphantly +that he had found her, and he was sent out to milk her. After +two hours he returned with a rueful face and a few drops of +whitish fluid in the milk pail, saying that that was all he could +get. On Mr. K. going out, he found, instead of our "calico" cow, +a brindled one that had been dry since the spring! Our cow has +gone off to the wild cattle, and we are looking very grim at +Lyman, who says that he expected he should live on milk. I told +him to fill up the four-gallon kettle, and an hour afterwards +found it red-hot on the stove. Nothing can be kept from him +unless it is hidden in my room. He has eaten two pounds of dried +cherries from the shelf, half of my second four-pound spice loaf +before it was cold, licked up my custard sauce in the night, and +privately devoured the pudding which was to be for supper. He +confesses to it all, and says, "I suppose you think me a cure." +Mr. K. says that the first thing he said to him this morning was, +"Will Miss B. make us a nice pudding to-day?" This is all +harmless, but the plagiarism and want of honor are disgusting, +and quite out of keeping with his profession of being a +theological student. + +This life is in some respects like being on board ship--there are +no mails, and one knows nothing beyond one's little world, a very +little one in this case. We find each other true, and have +learnt to esteem and trust each other. I should, for instance, +go out of this room leaving this book open on the table, knowing +that the men would not read my letter. They are discreet, +reticent, observant, and on many subjects well informed, but they +are of a type which has no antitype at home. All women work in +this region, so there is no fuss about my working, or saying, +"Oh, you mustn't do that," or "Oh, let me do that." + + +November 30. + +We sat up till eleven last night, so confident were we that +Edwards would leave Denver the day after Thanksgiving and get up +here. This morning we came to the resolution that we must break +up. Tea, coffee, and sugar are done, the venison is turning +sour, and the men have only one month left for the hunting on +which their winter living depends. I cannot leave the Territory +till I get money, but I can go to Longmount for the mail and hear +whether the panic is abating. Yesterday I was alone all day, and +after riding to the base of Long's Peak, made two roly-poly +puddings for supper, having nothing else. The men, however, came +back perfectly loaded with trout, and we had a feast. Epicures +at home would have envied us. Mr. Kavan kept the frying pan with +boiling butter on the stove, butter enough thoroughly to cover +the trout, rolled them in coarse corn meal, plunged them into the +butter, turned them once, and took them out, thoroughly done, +fizzing, and lemon colored. For once young Lyman was satisfied, +for the dish was replenished as often as it was emptied. They +caught 40 lbs., and have packed them in ice until they can be +sent to Denver for sale. The winter fishing is very rich. In +the hardest frost, men who fish not for sport, but gain, take +their axes and camping blankets, and go up to the hard-frozen +waters which lie in fifty places round the park, and choosing a +likely spot, a little sheltered from the wind, hack a hole in the +ice, and fastening a foot-link to a cotton-wood tree, bait the +hook with maggots or bits of easily-gotten fresh meat. Often the +trout are caught as fast as the hook can be baited, and looking +through the ice hole in the track of a sunbeam, you see a mass of +tails, silver fins, bright eyes, and crimson spots, a perfect +shoal of fish, and truly beautiful the crimson-spotted creatures +look, lying still and dead on the blue ice under the sunshine. +Sometimes two men bring home 60 lbs. of trout as the result of +one day's winter fishing. It is a cold and silent sport, +however. + +How a cook at home would despise our scanty appliances, with +which we turn out luxuries. We have only a cooking-stove, which +requires incessant feeding with wood, a kettle, a frying pan, a +six-gallon brass pan, and a bottle for a rolling pin. The cold +has been very severe, but I do not suffer from it even in my +insufficient clothing. I take a piece of granite made very hot +to bed, draw the blankets over my head and sleep eight hours, +though the snow often covers me. One day of snow, mist, and +darkness was rather depressing, and yesterday a hurricane began +about five in the morning, and the whole park was one swirl of +drifting snow, like stinging wood smoke. My bed and room were +white, and the frost was so intense that water brought in a +kettle hot from the fire froze as I poured it into the basin. +Then the snow ceased, and a fierce wind blew most of it out of +the park, lifting it from the mountains in such clouds as to make +Long's Peak look like a smoking volcano. To-day the sky has +resumed its delicious blue, and the park its unrivalled beauty. +I have cleaned all the windows, which, ever since I have been +here, I supposed were of discolored glass, so opaque and dirty +they were; and when the men came home from fishing they found a +cheerful new world. We had a great deal of sacred music and +singing on Sunday. Mr. Buchan asked me if I knew a tune called +"America," and began the grand roll of our National Anthem to the +words: + + My country, 'tis of thee, + Sweet land of liberty, etc. + + +December 1. + +I was to have started for Canyon to-day, but was awoke by snow as +stinging as pinpoints beating on my hand. We all got up early, +but it did not improve until nearly noon. In the afternoon Lyman +and I rode to Mr. Nugent's cabin. I wanted him to read and +correct my letter to you, giving the account of our ascent of +Long's Peak, but he said he could not, and insisted on our +going in for which young Lyman was more anxious than I was, as +Mr. Kavan had seen "Jim" in the morning, and departed from his +usual reticence so far as to say, "There's something wrong with +that man; he'll either shoot himself or somebody else." However, +the "ugly fit" had passed off, and he was so very pleasant and +courteous that we remained the whole afternoon. Lyman's one +thought was that he could make capital out of the interview, and +write an account of the celebrated desperado for a Western paper. + +The interior of the den was frightful, yet among his black and +hideous surroundings the grace of his manner and the genius of +his conversation were only more apparent. I read my letter +aloud--or rather "The Ascent of Long's Peak," which I have +written for Out West--and was sincerely interested with the taste +and acumen of his criticisms on the style. He is a true child of +nature; his eye brightened and his whole face became radiant, and +at last tears rolled down his cheek when I read the account of +the glory of the sunrise. Then he read us a very able paper on +Spiritualism which he was writing. The den was dense with smoke, +and very dark, littered with hay, old blankets, skins, bones, +tins, logs, powder flasks, magazines, old books, old moccasins, +horseshoes, and relics of all kinds. He had no better seat to +offer me than a log, but offered it with a graceful +unconsciousness that it was anything less luxurious than an easy +chair. Two valuable rifles and a Sharp's revolver hung on the +wall, and the sash and badge of a scout. I could not help +looking at "Jim" as he stood talking to me. He goes mad with +drink at times, swears fearfully, has an ungovernable temper. He +has formerly led a desperate life, and is at times even now +undoubtedly a ruffian. There is hardly a fireside in Colorado +where fearful stories of him as an Indian fighter are not told; +mothers frighten their naughty children by telling them that +"Mountain Jim" will get them, and doubtless his faults are +glaring, but he is undoubtedly fascinating, and enjoys a +popularity or notoriety which no other person has. He offered to +be my guide to the Plains when I go away. Lyman asked me if I +should not be afraid of being murdered, but one could not be +safer than with him I have often been told. + +The cold was truly awful. I had caught a chill in the morning +from putting on my clothes before they were dry, and the warmth +of the smoky den was most agreeable; but we had a fearful ride +back in the dusk, a gale nearly blowing us off our horses, +drifting snow nearly blinding us, and the mercury below zero. I +felt as if I were going to be laid up with a severe cold, but the +men suggested a trapper's remedy--a tumbler of hot water, with a +pinch of cayenne pepper in it--which proved a very rapid cure. +They kindly say that if the snow detains me here they also will +remain. They tell me that they were horrified when I arrived, as +they thought that they could not make me comfortable, and that I +had never been used to do anything for myself, and then we +complimented each other all round. To-morrow, weather +permitting, I set off for a ride of 100 miles, and my next letter +will be my last from the Rocky Mountains. + I. L. B. + + +Letter XVI + +A harmonious home--Intense cold--A purple sun--A grim jest--A +perilous ride--Frozen eyelids--Longmount--The pathless +prairie--Hardships of emigrant life--A trapper's advice--The +Little Thompson--Evans and "Jim." + +DR. HUGHES'S, LOWER CANYON, COLORADO, December 4. + +Once again here, in refined and cultured society, with harmonious +voices about me, and dear, sweet, loving children whose winning +ways make this cabin a true English home. "England, with all thy +faults, I love thee still!" I can truly say, + + Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see. + My heart, untraveled, fondly turns to thee. + +If it swerved a little in the Sandwich Islands, it is true to the +Pole now! Surely one advantage of traveling is that, while it +removes much prejudice against foreigners and their customs, it +intensifies tenfold one's appreciation of the good at home, and, +above all, of the quietness and purity of English domestic life. +These reflections are forced upon me by the sweet child-voices +about me, and by the exquisite consideration and tenderness which +are the atmosphere (some would call it the hothouse atmosphere) +of this house. But with the bare, hard life, and the bare, bleak +mountains around, who could find fault with even a hothouse +atmosphere, if it can nourish such a flower of Paradise as sacred +human love? + +The mercury is eleven degrees below zero, and I have to keep my +ink on the stove to prevent it from freezing. The cold is +intense--a clear, brilliant, stimulating cold, so dry that even +in my threadbare flannel riding dress I do not suffer from it. I +must now take up my narrative of the nothings which have all the +interest of SOMETHINGS to me. We all got up before daybreak on +Tuesday, and breakfasted at seven. I have not seen the dawn for +some time, with its amber fires deepening into red, and the snow +peaks flushing one by one, and it seemed a new miracle. It was a +west wind, and we all thought it promised well. I took only two +pounds of luggage, some raisins, the mailbag, and an additional +blanket under my saddle. I had not been up from the park at +sunrise before, and it was quite glorious, the purple depths of +M'Ginn's Gulch, from which at a height of 9,000 feet you look +down on the sunlit park 1,500 feet below, lying in a red haze, +with its pearly needle-shaped peaks, framed by mountain sides +dark with pines--my glorious, solitary, unique mountain home! +The purple sun rose in front. Had I known what made it purple I +should certainly have gone no farther. Then clouds, the morning +mist as I supposed, lifted themselves up rose lighted, showing +the sun's disc as purple as one of the jars in a chemist's +window, and having permitted this glimpse of their king, came +down again as a dense mist, the wind chopped round, and the mist +began to freeze hard. Soon Birdie and myself were a mass of +acicular crystals; it was a true easterly fog. I galloped on, +hoping to get through it, unable to see a yard before me; but it +thickened, and I was obliged to subside into a jog-trot. + +As I rode on, about four miles from the cabin, a human figure, +looking gigantic like the spectre of the Brocken, with long hair +white as snow, appeared close to me, and at the same moment there +was the flash of a pistol close to my ear, and I recognized +"Mountain Jim" frozen from head to foot, looking a century old +with his snowy hair. It was "ugly" altogether certainly, a +"desperado's" grim jest, and it was best to accept it as such, +though I had just cause for displeasure. He stormed and scolded, +dragged me off the pony--for my hands and feet were numb with +cold--took the bridle, and went off at a rapid stride, so that I +had to run to keep them in sight in the darkness, for we were off +the road in a thicket of scrub, looking like white branch coral, +I knew not where. Then we came suddenly on his cabin, and dear +old "Ring," white like all else; and the "ruffian" insisted on my +going in, and he made a good fire, and heated some coffee, raging +all the time. He said everything against my going forward, +except that it was dangerous; all he said came true, and here I +am safe! Your letters, however, outweighed everything but +danger, and I decided on going on, when he said, "I've seen many +foolish people, but never one so foolish as you--you haven't a +grain of sense. Why, I, an old mountaineer, wouldn't go down to +the Plains to-day." I told him he could not, though he would +like it very much, for that he had turned his horses loose; on +which he laughed heartily, and more heartily still at the stories +I told him of young Lyman, so that I have still a doubt how much +of the dark moods I have lately seen was assumed. + +He took me back to the track; and the interview which began with +a pistol shot, ended quite pleasantly. It was an eerie ride, one +not to be forgotten, though there was no danger. I could not +recognize any localities. Every tree was silvered, and the +fir-tree tufts of needles looked like white chrysanthemums. The +snow lay a foot deep in the gulches, with its hard, smooth +surface marked by the feet of innumerable birds and beasts. Ice +bridges had formed across all the streams, and I crossed them +without knowing when. Gulches looked fathomless abysses, with +clouds boiling up out of them, and shaggy mountain summits, half +seen for a moment through the eddies, as quickly vanished. +Everything looked vast and indefinite. Then a huge creation, +like one of Dore's phantom illustrations, with much breathing of +wings, came sailing towards me in a temporary opening in the +mist. As with a strange rustle it passed close over my head, I +saw, for the first time, the great mountain eagle, carrying a +good-sized beast in his talons. It was a noble vision. Then +there were ten miles of metamorphosed gulches--silent, +awful--many ice bridges, then a frozen drizzle, and then the +winds changed from east to north-east. Birdie was covered with +exquisite crystals, and her long mane and the long beard which +covers her throat were pure white. I saw that I must give up +crossing the mountains to this place by an unknown trail; and I +struck the old trail to the St. Vrain, which I had never traveled +before, but which I knew to be more legible than the new one. +The fog grew darker and thicker, the day colder and windier, the +drifts deeper; but Birdie, whose four cunning feet had carried me +600 miles, and who in all difficulties proves her value, never +flinched or made a false step, or gave me reason to be sorry that +I had come on. + +I got down to the St. Vrain Canyon in good time, and stopped at a +house thirteen miles from Longmount to get oats. I was white +from head to foot, and my clothes were frozen stiff. The women +gave me the usual invitation, "Put your feet in the oven"; and I +got my clothes thawed and dried, and a delicious meal consisting +of a basin of cream and bread. They said it would be worse on +the plains, for it was an easterly storm; but as I was so used to +riding, I could get on, so we started at 2:30. Not far off I met +Edwards going up at last to Estes Park, and soon after the +snow-storm began in earnest--or rather I entered the storm, which +had been going on there for several hours. By that time I had +reached the prairie, only eight miles from Longmount, and pushed +on. It was simply fearful. It was twilight from the thick snow, +and I faced a furious east wind loaded with fine, hard-frozen +crystals, which literally made my face bleed. I could only see a +very short distance anywhere; the drifts were often two feet +deep, and only now and then, through the blinding whirl, I caught +a glimpse of snow through which withered sunflowers did not +protrude, and then I knew that I was on the track. But reaching +a wild place, I lost it, and still cantered on, trusting to the +pony's sagacity. It failed for once, for she took me on a lake +and we fell through the ice into the water, 100 yards from land, +and had a hard fight back again. It grew worse and worse. I had +wrapped up my face, but the sharp, hard snow beat on my eyes--the +only exposed part--bringing tears into them, which froze and +closed up my eye-lids at once. You cannot imagine what that was. + +I had to take off one glove to pick one eye open, for as to the +other, the storm beat so savagely against it that I left it +frozen, and drew over it the double piece of flannel which +protected my face. I could hardly keep the other open by picking +the ice from it constantly with my numb fingers, in doing which I +got the back of my hand slightly frostbitten. It was truly awful +at the time. I often thought, "Suppose I am going south instead +of east? Suppose Birdie should fail? Suppose it should grow +quite dark?" I was mountaineer enough to shake these fears off +and keep up my spirits, but I knew how many had perished on the +prairie in similar storms. I calculated that if I did not reach +Longmount in half an hour it would be quite dark, and that I +should be so frozen or paralyzed with cold that I should fall +off. + +Not a quarter of an hour after I had wondered how long I could +hold on I saw, to my surprise, close to me, half-smothered in +snow, the scattered houses and blessed lights of Longmount, and +welcome, indeed, its wide, dreary, lifeless, soundless road +looked! When I reached the hotel I was so benumbed that I could +not get off, and the worthy host lifted me off and carried me in. + +Not expecting any travelers, they had no fire except in the +bar-room, so they took me to the stove in their own room, gave me +a hot drink and plenty of blankets and in half an hour I was all +right and ready for a ferocious meal. "If there's a traveler on +the prairie to-night, God help him!" the host had said to his +wife just before I came in. + +I found Evans there, storm stayed, and that--to his great credit +at the time--my money matters were all right. After the sound +and refreshing sleep which one gets in this splendid climate, I +was ready for an early start, but, warned by yesterday's +experience, waited till twelve to be sure of the weather. The +air was intensely clear, and the mercury SEVENTEEN DEGREES BELOW +ZERO! The snow sparkled and snapped under one's feet. It was +gloriously beautiful! In this climate, if you only go out for a +short time you do not feel cold even without a hat, or any +additional wrappings. I bought a cardigan for myself, however, +and some thick socks, got some stout snow-shoes for Birdie's hind +feet, had a pleasant talk with some English friends, did some +commissions for the men in the park, and hung about waiting for a +freight train to break the track, but eventually, inspirited by +the good news from you, left Longmount alone, and for the last +time. I little thought that miserable, broiling day on which I +arrived at it with Dr. and Mrs. Hughes, of the glories of which +it was the gate, and of the "good times" I should have. Now I am +at home in it; every one in it and along the St. Vrain Canyon +addresses me in a friendly way by name; and the newspapers, with +their intolerable personality, have made me and my riding +exploits so notorious, that travelers speak courteously to me +when they meet me on the prairie, doubtless wishing to see what +sort of monster I am! I have met nothing but civility, both of +manner and speech, except that distraught pistol shot. It looked +icily beautiful, the snow so pure and the sky such a bright, +sharp blue! The snow was so deep and level that after a few +miles I left the track, and steering for Storm Peak, rode sixteen +miles over the pathless prairie without seeing man, bird, or +beast--a solitude awful even in the bright sunshine. The cold, +always great, became piteous. I increased the frostbite of +yesterday by exposing my hand in mending the stirrup; and when +the sun sank in indescribable beauty behind the mountains, and +color rioted in the sky, I got off and walked the last four +miles, and stole in here in the colored twilight without any one +seeing me. + +The life of which I wrote before is scarcely less severe, though +lightened by a hope of change, and this weather brings out some +special severities. The stove has to be in the living-room, the +children cannot go out, and, good and delightful as they are, it +is hard for them to be shut up all day with four adults. It is +more of a trouble than you would think for a lady in precarious +health that before each meal, eggs, butter, milk, preserves, and +pickles have to be unfrozen. Unless they are kept on the stove, +there is no part of the room in which they do not freeze. It is +uninteresting down here in the Foot Hills. I long for the +rushing winds, the piled-up peaks, the great pines, the wild +night noises, the poetry and the prose of the free, jolly life of +my unrivalled eyrie. I can hardly realize that the river which +lies ice bound outside this house is the same which flashes +through Estes Park, and which I saw snow born on Long's Peak. + +Yesterday morning the mercury had disappeared, so it was 20 +degrees below zero at least. I lay awake from cold all night, +but such is the wonderful effect of the climate, that when I got +up at half-past five to waken the household for my early start, I +felt quite refreshed. We breakfasted on buffalo beef, and I left +at eight to ride forty-five miles before night, Dr. Hughes and a +gentleman who was staying there convoying me the first fifteen +miles. I did like that ride, racing with the other riders, +careering through the intoxicating air in that indescribable +sunshine, the powdery snow spurned from the horses' feet like +dust! I was soon warm. We stopped at a trapper's ranch to feed, +and the old trapper amused me by seeming to think Estes Park +almost inaccessible in winter. The distance was greater than I +had been told, and he said that I could not get there before +eleven at night, and not at all if there was much drift. I +wanted the gentlemen to go on with me as far as the Devil's Gate, +but they could not because their horses were tired; and when the +trapper heard that he exclaimed, indignantly, "What! that woman +going into the mountains alone? She'll lose the track or be +froze to death!" But when I told him I had ridden the trail in +the storm of Tuesday, and had ridden over 600 miles alone in the +mountains, he treated me with great respect as a fellow +mountaineer, and gave me some matches, saying, "You'll have to +camp out anyhow; you'd better make a fire than be froze to +death." The idea of my spending the night in the forest alone, +by a fire, struck me as most grotesque. + +We did not start again till one, and the two gentlemen rode the +first two miles with me. On that track, the Little Thompson, +there a full stream, has to be crossed eighteen times, and they +had been hauling wood across it, breaking it, and it had broken +and refrozen several times, making thick and thin places--indeed, +there were crossings which even I thought bad, where the ice let +us through, and it was hard for the horses to struggle upon it +again; and one of the gentlemen who, though a most accomplished +man, was not a horseman, was once or twice in the ludicrous +position of hesitating on the bank with an anxious face, not +daring to spur his horse upon the ice. After they left me I had +eight more crossings, and then a ride of six miles, before I +reached the old trail; but though there were several drifts up to +the saddle, and no one had broken a track, Birdie showed such a +pluck, that instead of spending the night by a camp-fire, or not +getting in till midnight, I reached Mr. Nugent's cabin, four +miles from Estes Park, only an hour after dark, very cold, and +with the pony so tired that she could hardly put one foot before +another. Indeed, I walked the last three miles. I saw light +through the chinks but, hearing an earnest conversation within, +was just about to withdraw, when "Ring" barked, and on his master +coming to the door I found that the solitary man was talking to +his dog. He was looking out for me, and had some coffee ready, +and a large fire, which were very pleasant; and I was very glad +to get the latest news from the park. He said that Evans told +him that it would be most difficult for any one of them to take +me down to the Plains, but that he would go, which is a great +relief. According to the Scotch proverb, "Better a finger off +than aye wagging," and as I cannot live here (for you would not +like the life or climate), the sooner I leave the better. + +The solitary ride to Evans's was very eerie. It was very dark, +and the noises were unintelligible. Young Lyman rushed out to +take my horse, and the light and warmth within were delightful, +but there was a stiffness about the new regime. Evans, though +steeped in difficulties, was as hearty and generous as ever; but +Edwards, who had assumed the management, is prudent, if not +parsimonious, thinks we wasted the supplies recklessly, and the +limitations as to milk, etc., are painfully apparent. A young +ex-Guardsman has come up with Evans, of whom the sanguine +creature forms great expectations, to be disappointed doubtless. +In the afternoon of yesterday a gentleman came who I thought was +another stranger, strikingly handsome, well dressed, and barely +forty, with sixteen shining gold curls falling down his collar; +he walked in, and it was only after a careful second look that I +recognized in our visitor the redoubtable "desperado." Evans +courteously pressed him to stay and dine with us, and not only +did he show the most singular conversational dexterity in talking +with the stranger, who was a very well-informed man, and had seen +a great deal of the world, but, though he lives and eats like a +savage, his manners and way of eating were as refined as +possible. I notice that Evans is never quite himself or +perfectly comfortable when he is there; and on the part of the +other there is a sort of stiffly-assumed cordiality, significant, +I fear of lurking hatred on both sides. I was in the kitchen +after dinner making rolled puddings, young Lyman was eating up +the relics as usual, "Jim" was singing one of Moore's melodies, +the others being in the living-room, when Mr. Kavan and Mr. +Buchan came from "up the creek" to wish me good-bye. They said +it was not half so much like home now, and recalled the "good +time" we had had for three weeks. Lyman having lost the ow, we +have no milk. No one makes bread; they dry the venison into +chips, and getting the meals at all seems a work of toil and +difficulty, instead of the pleasure it used to be to us. Evans, +since tea, has told me all his troubles and worries. He is a +kind, generous, whole-hearted, unsuspicious man, a worse enemy to +himself, I believe, than to any other; but I feel sadly that the +future of a man who has not stronger principles than he has must +be at the best very insecure. + I. L. B. + + +Letter XVII + +Woman's mission--The last morning--Crossing the St. +Vrain--Miller--The St. Vrain again--Crossing the prairie--"Jim's" +dream--"Keeping strangers"--The inn kitchen--A reputed +child-eater--Notoriety--A quiet dance--"Jim's" resolve--The +frost-fall--An unfortunate introduction. + +CHEYENNE, WYOMING, December 12. + +The last evening came. I did not wish to realize it, as I looked +at the snow-peaks glistening in the moonlight. No woman will be +seen in the park till next May. Young Lyman talked in a +"hifalutin" style, but with some truth in it, of the influence of +a woman's presence, how "low, mean, vulgar talk" had died out on +my return, how they had "all pulled themselves up," and how Mr. +Kavan and Mr. Buchan had said they would like always to be as +quiet and gentlemanly as when a lady was with them. "By May," he +said, "we shall be little better than brutes, in our manners at +least." I have seen a great deal of the roughest class of men +both on sea and land during the last two years, and the more +important I think the "mission" of every quiet, refined, +self-respecting woman--the more mistaken I think those who would +forfeit it by noisy self-assertion, masculinity, or fastness. In +all this wild West the influence of woman is second only in its +benefits to the influence of religion, and where the last +unhappily does not exist the first continually exerts its +restraining power. The last morning came. I cleaned up my room +and sat at the window watching the red and gold of one of the +most glorious of winter sunrises, and the slow lighting-up of one +peak after another. I have written that this scenery is not +lovable, but I love it. + +I left on Birdie at 11 o'clock, Evans riding with me as far as +Mr. Nugent's. He was telling me so many things, that at the top +of the hill I forgot to turn round and take a last look at my +colossal, resplendent, lonely, sunlit den, but it was needless, +for I carry it away with me. I should not have been able to +leave if Mr. Nugent had not offered his services. His chivalry +to women is so well known, that Evans said I could be safer and +better cared for with no one. He added, "His heart is good and +kind, as kind a heart as ever beat. He's a great enemy of his +own, but he's been living pretty quietly for the last four +years." At the door of his den I took leave of Birdie, who had +been my faithful companion for more than 700 miles of traveling, +and of Evans, who had been uniformly kind to me and just in all +his dealings, even to paying to me at that moment the very last +dollar he owed me. May God bless him and his! He was obliged to +return before I could get off, and as he commended me to Mr. +Nugent's care, the two men shook hands kindly.[21] + +[21]Some months later "Mountain Jim" fell by Evans's hand, shot +from Evans's doorstep while riding past his cabin. The story of +the previous weeks is dark, sad, and evil. Of the five differing +versions which have been written to me of the act itself and its +immediate causes, it is best to give none. The tragedy is too +painful to dwell upon. "Jim" lived long enough to give his own +statement, and to appeal to the judgment of God, but died in low +delirium before the case reached a human tribunal. + + +Rich spoils of beavers' skins were lying on the cabin floor, and +the trapper took the finest, a mouse-colored kitten beaver's +skin, and presented it to me. I hired his beautiful Arab mare, +whose springy step and long easy stride was a relief after +Birdie's short sturdy gait. We had a very pleasant ride, and I +seldom had to walk. We took neither of the trails, but cut right +through the forest to a place where, through an opening in the +Foot Hills, the Plains stretched to the horizon covered with +snow, the surface of which, having melted and frozen, reflected +as water would the pure blue of the sky, presenting a complete +optical illusion. It required my knowledge of fact to assure me +that I was not looking at the ocean. "Jim" shortened the way by +repeating a great deal of poetry, and by earnest, reasonable +conversation, so that I was quite surprised when it grew dark. +He told me that he never lay down to sleep without prayer--prayer +chiefly that God would give him a happy death. He had previously +promised that he would not hurry or scold, but "fyking" had not +been included in the arrangement, and when in the early darkness +we reached the steep hill, at whose foot the rapid deep St. Vrain +flows, he "fyked" unreasonably about me, the mare, and the +crossing generally, and seemed to think I could not get through, +for the ice had been cut with an axe, and we could not see +whether "glaze" had formed since or not. + +I was to have slept at the house of a woman farther down the +canyon, who never ceases talking, but Miller, the young man whose +attractive house and admirable habits I have mentioned before, +came out and said his house was "now fixed for ladies," so we +stayed there, and I was "made as comfortable" as could be. His +house is a model. He cleans everything as soon as it is used, so +nothing is ever dirty, and his stove and cooking gear in their +bright parts look like polished silver. It was amusing to hear +the two men talk like two women about various ways of making +bread and biscuits, one even writing out a recipe for the other. +It was almost grievous that a solitary man should have the power +of making a house so comfortable! They heated a stone for my +feet, warmed a blanket for me to sleep in, and put logs enough on +the fire to burn all night, for the mercury was eleven below +zero. The stars were intensely bright, and a well-defined +auroral arch, throwing off fantastic coruscations, lighted the +whole northern sky. Yet I was only in the Foot Hills, and Long's +glorious Peak was not to be seen. Miller had all his things +"washed up" and his "pots and pans" cleaned in ten minutes after +supper, and then had the whole evening in which to smoke and +enjoy himself--a poor woman would probably have been "fussing +round" till 10 o'clock about the same work. Besides Ring there +was another gigantic dog craving for notice, and two large cats, +which, the whole evening, were on their master's knee. Cold as +the night was, the house was chinked, and the rooms felt quite +warm. I even missed the free currents of air which I had been +used to! This was my last evening in what may be called a +mountainous region. + +The next morning, as soon as the sun was well risen, we left for +our journey of 30 miles, which had to be done nearly at a foot's +pace, owing to one horse being encumbered with my luggage. I did +not wish to realize that it was my last ride, and my last +association with any of the men of the mountains whom I had +learned to trust, and in some respects to admire. No more +hunters' tales told while the pine knots crack and blaze; no more +thrilling narratives of adventures with Indians and bears; and +never again shall I hear that strange talk of Nature and her +doings which is the speech of those who live with her and her +alone. Already the dismalness of a level land comes over me. +The canyon of the St. Vrain was in all its glory of color, but we +had a remarkably ugly crossing of that brilliant river, which was +frozen all over, except an unpleasant gap of about two feet in +the middle. Mr. Nugent had to drive the frightened horses +through, while I, having crossed on some logs lower down, had to +catch them on the other side as they plunged to shore trembling +with fear. Then we emerged on the vast expanse of the glittering +Plains, and a sudden sweep of wind made the cold so intolerable +that I had to go into a house to get warm. This was the last +house we saw till we reached our destination that night. I never +saw the mountain range look so beautiful--uplifted in every shade +of transparent blue, till the sublimity of Long's Peak, and the +lofty crest of Storm Peak, bore only unsullied snow against the +sky. Peaks gleamed in living light; canyons lay in depths of +purple shade; 100 miles away Pike's Peak rose a lump of blue, and +over all, through that glorious afternoon, a veil of blue +spiritualized without dimming the outlines of that most glorious +range, making it look like the dreamed-of mountains of "the land +which is very far off," till at sunset it stood out sharp in +glories of violet and opal, and the whole horizon up to a great +height was suffused with the deep rose and pure orange of the +afterglow. It seemed all dream-like as we passed through the +sunlit solitude, on the right the prairie waves lessening towards +the far horizon, while on the left they broke in great snowy +surges against the Rocky Mountains. All that day we neither saw +man, beast, nor bird. "Jim" was silent mostly. Like all true +children of the mountains, he pined even when temporarily absent +from them. + +At sunset we reached a cluster of houses called Namaqua, where, +to my dismay, I heard that there was to be a dance at the one +little inn to which we were going at St. Louis. I pictured to +myself no privacy, no peace, no sleep, drinking, low sounds, and +worse than all, "Jim" getting into a quarrel and using his +pistols. He was uncomfortable about it for another reason. He +said he had dreamt the night before that there was to be a dance, +and that he had to shoot a man for making "an unpleasant remark." + +For the last three miles which we accomplished after sunset the +cold was most severe, but nothing could exceed the beauty of the +afterglow, and the strange look of the rolling plains of snow +beneath it. When we got to the queer little place where they +"keep strangers" at St. Louis, they were very civil, and said +that after supper we could have the kitchen to ourselves. I +found a large, prononcee, competent, bustling widow, hugely +stout, able to manage all men and everything else, and a very +florid sister like herself, top heavy with hair. There were +besides two naughty children in the kitchen, who cried +incessantly, and kept opening and shutting the door. There was +no place to sit down but a wooden chair by the side of the +kitchen stove, at which supper was being cooked for ten men. The +bustle and clatter were indescribable, and the landlady asked +innumerable questions, and seemed to fill the whole room. The +only expedient for me for the night was to sleep on a shake-down +in a very small room occupied by the two women and the children, +and even this was not available till midnight, when the dance +terminated; and there was no place in which to wash except a bowl +in the kitchen. I sat by the stove till supper, wearying of the +noise and bustle after the quiet of Estes Park. + +The landlady asked, with great eagerness, who the gentleman was +who was with me, and said that the men outside were saying that +they were sure that it was "Rocky Mountain Jim," but she was sure +it was not. When I told her that the men were right, she +exclaimed, "Do tell! I want to know! that quiet, kind +gentleman!" and she said she used to frighten her children when +they were naughty by telling them that "he would get them, for he +came down from the mountains every week, and took back a child +with him to eat!" She was as proud of having him in her house as +if he had been the President, and I gained a reflected +importance! All the men in the settlement assembled in the front +room, hoping he would go and smoke there, and when he remained in +the kitchen they came round the window and into the doorway to +look at him. The children got on his knee, and, to my great +relief, he kept them good and quiet, and let them play with his +curls, to the great delight of the two women, who never took +their eyes off him. At last the bad-smelling supper was served, +and ten silent men came in and gobbled it up, staring steadily at +"Jim" as they gobbled. Afterwards, there seemed no hope of +quiet, so we went to the post-office, and while waiting for +stamps were shown into the prettiest and most ladylike-looking +room I have seen in the West, created by a pretty and +refined-looking woman. She made an opportunity for asking me if +it were true that the gentleman with me was "Mountain Jim," and +added that so very gentlemanly a person could not be guilty of +the misdeeds attributed to him. + +When we returned, the kitchen was much quieter. It was cleared +by eight, as the landlady promised; we had it to ourselves till +twelve, and could scarcely hear the music. It was a most +respectable dance, a fortnightly gathering got up by the +neighboring settlers, most of them young married people, and +there was no drinking at all. I wrote to you for some time, +while Mr. Nugent copied for himself the poems "In the Glen" and +the latter half of "The River without a Bridge," which he recited +with deep feeling. It was altogether very quiet and peaceful. +He repeated to me several poems of great merit which he had +composed, and told me much more about his life. I knew that no +one else could or would speak to him as I could, and for the last +time I urged upon him the necessity of a reformation in his life, +beginning with the giving up of whisky, going so far as to tell +him that I despised a man of his intellect for being a slave to +such a vice. "Too late! too late!" he always answered, "for such +a change." Ay, TOO LATE. He shed tears quietly. "It might have +been once," he said. Ay, MIGHT have been. He has excellent +sense for every one but himself, and, as I have seen him with a +single exception, a gentleness, propriety, and considerateness of +manner surprising in any man, but especially so in a man +associating only with the rough men of the West. As I looked at +him, I felt a pity such as I never before felt for a human being. + +My thought at the moment was, Will not our Father in heaven, "who +spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all," be far +more pitiful? For the time a desire for self-respect, better +aspirations, and even hope itself, entered his dark life; and he +said, suddenly, that he had made up his mind to give up whisky +and his reputation as a desperado. But it is "too late." A +little before twelve the dance was over, and I got to the crowded +little bedroom, which only allowed of one person standing in it +at a time, to sleep soundly and dream of "ninety-and-nine just +persons who need no repentance." The landlady was quite taken up +with her "distinguished guest." "That kind, quiet gentleman, +Mountain Jim! Well, I never! he must be a very good man!" + +Yesterday morning the mercury was 20 degrees below zero. I think +I never saw such a brilliant atmosphere. That curious phenomenon +called frost-fall was occurring, in which, whatever moisture may +exist in the air, somehow aggregates into feathers and fern +leaves, the loveliest of creations, only seen in rarefied air and +intense cold. One breath and they vanish. The air was filled +with diamond sparks quite intangible. They seemed just glitter +and no more. It was still and cloudless, and the shapes of +violet mountains were softened by a veil of the tenderest blue. +When the Greeley stage wagon came up, Mr. Fodder, whom I met at +Lower Canyon, was on it. He had expressed a great wish to go to +Estes Park, and to hunt with "Mountain Jim," if it would be safe +to do the latter. He was now dressed in the extreme of English +dandyism, and when I introduced them, he put out a small hand +cased in a perfectly-fitting lemon-colored kid glove.[22] As the +trapper stood there in his grotesque rags and odds and ends of +apparel, his gentlemanliness of deportment brought into relief +the innate vulgarity of a rich parvenu. Mr. Fodder rattled so +amusingly as we drove away that I never realized that my Rocky +Mountain life was at an end, not even when I saw "Mountain Jim," +with his golden hair yellow in the sunshine, slowly leading the +beautiful mare over the snowy Plains back to Estes Park, equipped +with the saddle on which I had ridden 800 miles! + +[22] This was a truly unfortunate introduction. It was the first +link in the chain of circumstances which brought about Mr. +Nugent's untimely end, and it was at this person's instigation +(when overcome by fear) that Evans fired the shot which proved +fatal. + +A drive of several hours over the Plains brought us to Greeley, +and a few hours later, in the far blue distance, the Rocky +Mountains, and all that they enclose, went down below the prairie +sea. + +I. L. B. + + + + + +End Project Gutenberg Etext of A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains + + + + + + diff --git a/old/llirm10.zip b/old/llirm10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ab7e43f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/llirm10.zip |