Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-11-09

no 70 make alone.
 But 1t was hard. steep. slick as glass in places, for all this was passable, so many feet polished these icy steps by day; no one daring to try the pass by night for fear of sudden storms, in which at least dozen men had already died right along here. It was only the dreaded Camas prairie, now far behind me, that cut them off entirely from the world. For no one, not even an Indian, would cross the sea of snow by night. And no one could possibly cross it by day, as have explained.
 The snow on either side of the mar row, steep and dark trail reached my armpits, often my hat rim.
 The bottom of this trail and all the little benches and breaks on either side were black from millions and bill lions of snow-heas. What these little creatures are, or for what, who shall sayP But they, by their myriad pres ence, have helped many a poor fellow from suffering from that one most in- describable agony-snow blindness. For as long as the eye can rest on some dark object the glittering lances from the snow do not pierce the eyes and drive men mad from intense pain. And 
 flea But how shall we explain any use for the red snow-fea on Mount Shastap They are inAnitesimally smaller than the black snow-feas of the far north and comparatively inert. You can hardly see the red flea move, while the black heas cover and make as black as 8 hat the bottom of the footprint in the snow from the man who precedes you. And they remain there almost until your descending foot touches them, when they jump out in cloud and blacken the snow all around the footprint But come along.
 got to the top exhausted, dazed-in fact, dizzy-from walking, climbing, corkscrewing that black and slippery serpent. My hands were both bleeding from contact with the sharp edges of the walls of snow, and had long since stuck my pistol in my belt to surely keep the powder dry. But only three miles more and would hail and shout above the pine tops down Dead Horse hill, and knew I would have answer.
 I felt there was something behind me; had turned not my head. I was too nearly dizzy already, and all my sense and strength were now in demand for A had not looked back.
 Now, I have met plenty of people who have felt the nearness or the com ing of some person. This is not new. Speak of the devil and he will appear is an adage born of this and is old. but I have never met anyone who has felt the presence of a beast I will not dwell further on this than to say briefly hot closely followed by beasts, but knew they were black; and I knew there were three of them; and I knew they were not down in the trail. I did not know what they were. But the one thing that most startled me was the ghostlY fact that they made no noise. A dog makes scratching sort of noise on the snow crust as he moves over it A bears claws will rattle like bones on the snow as he walks; all beasts, in fact, except those of the cat family, can be heard on occasions like this But these black and ghostly beasts were as noiseless as the dead.
 I found myself almost flying, six shooter in hand, for the summit was in sight; and the top was almost bare of snow, swept by cyclone tempests.
 
 snow, and wheeled about. There they came-three-just as had seen them. They did not stop, and fired instantly. I do not miss my aim with pistol. There is more than one man besides myself, however, to tell that. The gaunt, ugly beast threw his head around, snapped viciously at 0 compan- ion, and then sprang twice or thrice v-01fol oI
 Then all the picture and story books which had read about wolves came back. had expected to see the others tear and eat him as in the books. They did not so much as snap at him as he spun about in his death struggles. I had always seen wolves with red mouths wide open. The mouths of these were all as tightly shut as steel traps. Were they all males?
 Five hundred yards more and I would be on the top of Dead Horse hill and could be heard. ran, I flew. l tried to shout as ran, but feeling my voice gone, wheeled about, a derringer in my right hand, and blazed away. The shaggy brute fell, but was up and on me instantly ahead of the other one. You see my right hand is not strong or steady. Using the other struck him in the teeth with my six-shooter; no time to shoot now. These old pistols were a good arm indeed; better than the new ones. But you had to take time to cock them, and it took two hands to do it; and then the long barrel ! made the pistol useless in a hand-to- hand fight
 | But now the horrible part of the whole story happened. The wedge which holds the pistol together by sad misfortune struck the teeth of the brute and flew out, leaving only the useless butt of the pistol in my hand. The wounded wolf seized this left hand and piece of pistol in his long and bloody mouth and held on like death. got the other derringer out, but the other wolf smelt blood, and thrusting his nose in, gave this brute the bullet, and he fell like stone. VictoryI for the other let go, as he couldn't swallow the pistol and I tore the air with my