United States or Czechia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"They're talkin' of turnin' this outfit into a sheep-camp," remarked another. "Ba-a-ah!" And again they laughed. Shoop motioned to Sundown who rose from beside the fire. "You can saddle up, Sun." Sundown caught up his horse and stood waiting while one of the men saddled two pack-animals. "Tony has the keys. He'll pack the stuff for you," said Corliss.
The old trappers and hunters of the Pueblo fort lived entirely upon game, and a greater part of the year without bread. As soon as their supply of meat was exhausted, they started to the mountains with two or three pack-animals, and brought back in two or three days loads of venison and buffalo. The Arkansas at the Pueblo is a clear, rapid river about a hundred yards wide.
They treated but four boxes in this way, leaving the lower two-thirds of the flume untouched, for Anvil Creek gold is coarse and the heart of the clean-up lies where it is thrown in. Gathering the sacks together, they lashed them upon the pack-animals, then mounted the second string of sluices and began as before.
Yank had ridden one of our horses; the other had been stolen in the Indian raid. We approached Don Gaspar, who had his own saddle horse and that of Vasquez, not to speak of the remaining pack-animals. To our surprise and delight he offered to accompany us; and Bagsby, too, decided to leave.
The anxiety of mind attendant on a bad state of the animals is really quite embarrassing, for it not only causes a delay in the movements, but a derangement in the loads. Other animals are overburdened, and there is no knowing where the evil will stop. In addition to the pack-animals, I would recommend the employment of a dray or cart under any practicable circumstances.
Even Indians had gone with it of the half-civilised tribes of the frontier red and white equally tempted by the yellow attractions spread out for them in California. Though large, it was what is termed a "light train" having more pack-animals than waggons. On this account, it would make way all the faster; and unless delayed by some accident, we might be a long time in coming up with it.
After crossing the line of ponds and a slight elevation beyond them we came upon a channel of considerable breadth, which contained several other very large ponds separated by quicksands, which afforded but a precarious passage for the pack-animals. Both banks were steep, the average width exceeding fifty yards. Beyond this river channel the wood consisted chiefly of casuarinae.
Numerous tribes follow. The party regains the plains. February 2. I left the camp with six men and four pack-animals, carrying nine days' rations, and proceeded along the left bank of the newly-discovered river. I found the course much more to the southward than I had expected or wished.
Ever and anon, when the climbers and builders peered down into the ragged cañon, they saw a long line of pack-animals, bipeds and quadrupeds, some hoofed and some horned, some bleeding, some blind, stumbling and staggering, fainting and falling, the fittest fighting for the trail and gaining the summit, whence the clear, green waters of the mighty Yukon would carry them down to Dawson, the Mecca of all these gold-mad men.
The whine of the wind that comes with a fire, the crackle of the fire itself, the manifold sounds that echoed between the canyon walls and the pungent, suffocating smoke, all conspired against clear thinking or hearing. I listened a moment, but heard no more. Then, with time at a premium, I hastened to straighten out the tangle of pack-animals.
Word Of The Day