Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1895-08-28

carry out my plans with great enthus-
iasm.
The range in which the "ghost" was
thought to be was some forty miles dis
tant, near the headwaters of the Nueoes
river.
In our course to the range we en-
tered, after two days travel, deep.
broad canyon, covered with luxuriant
growth of rich mesquite grass and
olumps of palm cactus. and after pro-
ceeding few miles up the canyon we
came to patch of thorny ohapparal. a
perfect jungle. reaching from one wall
of the canyon to the other, and SO
dense. except in the very centre, that
nothing larger than a jack rabbit
could possibly penetrate. The only
pass throught,his thicket was through a
narrow foot path in the center, running
parallel with the canyon and only wide
enough for hundred yards or more
for single horseman to pass by n
terrible scratch" right and left The
path then gradually widened out into
funnel shape to the abrupt walls of the
canyon on either side. After reaching
space wide enough for the whole
party to collect council was held in
order to discuss bright idea that had
forced itself into the mind of an inven-
tive genius of the party. The plan sug-
gested was to set snares along this mar
row pathway by means of our strong
forty-foot stake ropes. in such posi-
tiop that the foremost horse, in his
wild stampede. once entering the path,
could not fail Of running his head into
the moose, the other end of which was
secured to stout grub, solid enough to
hold an elephant. The moose was so
arranged directly across the path that
the lower part would just strike the
breast and the upper part just high
enough to miss the highest head of
badly frightened and widest horse on
the plains. Five of these snares were
arranged. Luckily, the wind was
blowing gently directly down the can
yon from where the band of mustangs
was supposed to be, and we felt some-
what assured that we could not flush
our game prematurely by this means.
The most difficult part of the brilliant
idea, however, was yet to be accom-
plished, and that was to get "beyant"
the band of "hosses" without flushing
that extremely wary "ghost."
Many plans were discussed, but it
was fially settled that four of the party
were to divide two by two and gard
ually "steal' their way along through
the densest catches thickets along the
foot of either wall until they could reach
a safe point beyond the band. This was
accomplished easier and sooner than
was expected, and after the rest of the
party had been lying in wait some six
or eight hours, secreted ON either side
of the canyon, near the chapparal path
and in convenient reach of the snares.
a rumbling sound, as of the clatter of
a thousand hoofs. broke upon their ex-
pectant ears, and the "equine ghost"
put in an appearance several lengths
ahead, in grand shape and presenting
the most beautiful spectacle that had
ever beheld.
1t seemed to me that my heart would
leap out of my mouth, the desire came
so strong upon me to possess the ami
NAL. AS he entered the narrow pass
and was nearing the first snare the
whole party, upon preconcerted
plan, hastened to head off the advance
ing cavalcade of stampeding mustangs
following at distance pell-mell in
the wake of the white stallion, to pre-
vent them trampling him to death as
he fell at the end of the moose.
But "the best laid plans of mice and
men aft gang aglee," and, to make
long story short, in order to prevent
the wild rushing from trampling us to
a jelly we were obliged to give way
instead, while the demoralized herd
wedged into the narrow opening single
file, trampling the "equine ghost" into
q a"blood pudding" Four other leaders
shared the same fate, as they reached
each moose ahead, and crippled and
manned horses were piled and packed
in the thorny brush until the passage
was completely blocked. The utter and
complete failure of our enterprise was
a sad blow to the whole party, and no
one regretted it more than myself. as
it was the destruction of pretty legend
among the plalnsmen.
But our troubles did not end here.
We could not return through the can
yon by the way we had entered, as the
only passage was SO completely blocked
by dead and wounded horses that made
it impossible. To follow up the canyon
in the opposite direction before finding
an outlet was highly probable. This
was a serious dilemma indeed, and,
nolens volens, the alternative, was
adopted and acted upon, and after
three days hard travel we reached
passage in the wall of the canyon,
where with difficulty we made our
egress to the plateau and took our
course for our field of operations with
the compass and chain.