The Wilmingtonian., 1884-11-15
CORRESPONDENCE.
AN INCIDENT OF COLORADO LIFE.

much Ike calves, But why should they be
alone?
These were sudden EXPLANATIONS | made
to my brother, as, with reins loosely thrown
across our horses necks we leisuiely climbed
the side of one of those long, low ridges
called "hogs-back, so often seen in the
country lying at the foothills of the Rock
les in southern Colorado.
Harry seemed in no hurry to reply: he was
apparently occupied in watching intently
the ingenuity with which his Indian pony
of prckly pear, or the sedulous care with
which it avoided, with sudden jerky move
monts, the spiny bristles of the ''mGsqut"
or Mexican soap-weed.
Reaching the top we slackened our pace,
and leaning back in the saddle, | gladly
eased myself from the constrained position
of climbing.
From our elevated position was to be
stna characteris ic Colorado landscape.
1t was calm summer afternoon: not
sound broke the universal stiffness: ceru-
lean sky hung high overhead: the atmos-
phere, balmy with the cool, sweet breath Of
the neighboring pine woods, was so clear
that objects miles away were distinctly visi-
ble. At our feet innumerable flowers
whose remarkable variety of tints could not
fail to arrest attention, strewed the ground
in every direction.
We were on the 'Great Divide" an alti-
tude of ten thousand feet!-Towering in
front of us, like great dark wall was the
frowning mass of the Rocky Mountains, its
eliminating peaks four thousand feet high
er!-Behind, the prairie stretched miles and
miles away in rolling undulations to the
distant horizon.
That realization of the magnitude of the
physical world which sezes us with indeh-
naole awe, as, when standing on the
sea-beach we gaze for the first time on the
vast expase of limitless water came now
again .th almost greater vividness here.
The eye in one effortless sweep passing over
80 miles of prairie on to the base of the
Snowy RaDge!-To the south, past Pixies
Peak, which in the clear air seems within
stones throw, we see, in far off haze cloud,
1870 miles from where we stand. the snowy
caps of the Spanish Peaks, glistening with
the clear, slow flash of diamonds
We logged along in Indian file, in front
leading an extra horse, stray, in whose
quest We had been that morning.
Suddenly,I noticed my horses staring, with
ears picked, towards the bottom of the
guch. Glancing in that direction, at the
base Of the opposite slope, within three hum
dred yards of us, were the strange objects
which had supposed to be calves. They
were two antelopes, one lying quietly down
near bunch of scrub OAK, the other, p buck,
a few yards nearer, starding erect and bold
ly starring at us. He had perceived us first,
his manner already showing that be was
very much exc ted at our presence His
thick, hairy crest bristled with anger, he
stamped his fore-feet and whistled and
snorted, as their custhm is when alarmed.
Turning quickly around to my brother
and pointing to the bottom of the gulch l
whispered that "my calves were autelopes!"
and that intended having a shot at them.
Thi owing the picket rope of the stray horse
towards him galloped down the opposite
along parallel ridge by which l was en-
abled to keep out of sight of the antelopes.
With few minutes of hard gallopng, the
head Of the eguloh was reached. Here was our
rancho, for by that grandiose though Elusive
term, in this land Of high-sounding Spanish
appelations, the Insignificant fl teen foot by
twenty, log-built, and mud -plaStered hut is
commonly known.
Apropos of Spanish terms and their fate,
when left at the mercy of the practical but
remorseless Yankee an anecdUte was re-
lated at a campfire by the editor Of
Trinidad (Col.) paper, which, l think, is too
valuable an illustration of the strange me-
tamorphosis of words, to he allowed to
pass into oblivion. In the San Juan mining
districts is stream called the Purgateire,
so named by the early Spanish explorers,
who advancing from the South, aud having
reached point where further progress
seemed forever barred, equally by the STU
peudols mountain chains of the Sangre-
christie, Wahsatch &c., and the treacherous
tribes of Apaches and PI-Utes, halted ON
its banks giving the stream the above name,
using the beautiful smile which the etymo-
lngy of tbs word iufers, so significant aud
so graphically descriptive of the terra i'll
cognita" beyond.
Years later as our bolder and less easily
daunted pioneers came upon the scene, there
was no hesitation as to crossing, nor, with
their stronger appreciation of utiIitarian
ends than any Difference to pathological or
historical beauty of metaphor, did they hesi-
tate to shape the enphonious Spanish term
to the first practical form that suggested
itself to them. Judge of the result. 1t was
called the PIcket-wirel And so it is still
called by the miners aud prospecters of
the district, the more tolerant of whom,
among this race of Philistines, claiming,
in extenuation of themselves that they
couldn't curl their tongues round the durn-
ed NJ, KIM! So, in their ruthless man
ner do the beautiful historical landmarks,
those unwritten books of country, pass
away and drop into obscurlty, blotted out
by the arrogant and irresponsible vanguard
10 the march of civilization" There is a duty
b re that some one has to perform, which, il
omitted, posterity will Judge with no light
hand the lash will surely come, the stinging
sarcasm upon our vaunttd American civil.
zati IN. Is there any direction towards
which we may look for help. Perhaps thC
government geographers who are at present
surveying that district will retain, in the in
terest IF future historical research the olde
and more enphoninus Spanish tcrminol"gy
Having hitched the horse | ran inside