"
The men have felt as glad as any of them, but have gathered wood and
made a fire, and now a camp kettle of cut up meat is boiling for our
supper. It was not yet night, but we must camp in so beautiful a place
as this, and though the food was poor, we were better off than we had
been before.
Bennett proposed that I take the mule and go back to where we saw the
track of the animal in the snow and follow it in hope that we might get
some game for we had an idea it might be an elk or bear or some large
game, good to kill and give us better meat: So I saddled the mule and
took the trail back till I came to the track, then followed it as best I
could, for it was very dull and gave me no idea what it was. I traced
out of the snow and then in a blind way through bushes as high as the
mule's back--Chaparral we called it now--among which I made my way with
difficulty. I could now see that the track was made by an ox or
cow--perhaps an elk--I could not tell for sure it was so faint. This
chaparral covered a large piece of table land, and I made my way through
it, following the track for a mile or two, till I came to the
top of a steep hill sloping down into a deep canon and a creek, on the
bank of which grew sycamore and alder trees, with large willows. I
stopped here some minutes to see if I could see or hear the movement of
of anything. Across the creek I could see a small piece of perhaps half
an acre of natural meadow, and in it some small bunches of sycamore
trees.
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