The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-03-03
CHAPTER II.
The Journey to the Mountains.

r HE QUESTION of our destination
| being settled, we FASTENED to COM
plete our preparations for the
journey. Heavy WOODEN blankets, guns
of the latest improved pattern, revolt
vers of large calibre and other articles
that we thought would be useful to us
were purchased and added to the OUT
| tit. At length all of our arrangements
| were completed that could be made un-
til we arrived in Arizona and we babe
| farewell to our friends at Winola, who
| 1erVently wished that kind Provi-
dence would watch over and bring us
safely home and crown our efforts
with success
Boarding a Lehigh Valley train, with
faces turned westward, the journey
was commenced. We had selected a
point on the Atchison, Topeka and
santa Fe railroad in Arizona to CON-
plete our preparations. 1t was several
days before we arrived at the point
designated as we laid over a few days
in Chicago to make several purchases.
| At length the journey by rail being
completed, we purchased several pOnie..
to ride and burros to carry our camp
equipage and supplies, as they are
more sure footed than ponies in as
cending and descending the trails in the
Rocky mountains. We realized that il
| the burrO that carried the dynamite
was ever to miss his footing and roll
| down the mountain side there probably
would be a small earthquake in our
vicinity. So it was decided that that
| particular burro should be the last to
| ascend and the first to go down
| mountain.
| Having completed all our arrange
ments, we took up the line of march
westward, having previously engaged
Mexican, or "greaser," to do the cook
ing while in camp and to look after
the burros while on the line of march.
The country over which we Travelled
presented diversified appearance. The
sandy plain covered with bunch grass,
| sage brush and cactus, was followed
| by hills and then snow capped noun
| tainS. Frequently we had to make
wide detours from our course to get
around the head of some canyon. Il
was no unfrequent sight to see a mass
| of earth hundred feet or more in
| height, and perhaps fifty or seventy
five feet across, standing in a canyon
Ike some monument erected by the
gods to commemorate some long for
gotten event. The professor informed
| us that the soil was impregnated with
| alkali and that at some remote time,
the monument had been a part of th,:
| olVlde when no canyon existed there,
| only valley. He said that the CANYON
| had been formed by the water centur-
| les ago when Arizona had had a differ
ent climate and an abundance Of rain
to fill the streams where none existed
hn
sand where the water used to flow.
That the earth had been removed from
around the monument by the action OF
water leaving 1t as we now saw it.
Great must have been our suffering
had it not been for the foresight of the
professor in procuring canvass bags
| lined with rubber to carry water from
one place to another. Frequently we
| travelled two or three days without
finding a drop. When a supply was
| reached we generally laid over one day
to give our animals a chance to re-
| cuperate. When we struck the noun
| tains there was an abundance of water,
as the snow melting on the tops of the
high peaks caused little streams to
| flow down their sides.
| Here Billy shot his first deer The
air was so pure and rarified that meat
would keep for weeks If suspended in
the air, and during all our sojourn in
the mountains We never had a piece
| become the least bit tainted.
We climbed one extremely high
range of mountains with great difF-
Guilty and considerable suffering from
the cold which prevailed. From It's
summit was one of the grandest pano-
ramas spread out before us that We
| had ever seen, which gave us a better
conception of the vastness of the rocky
mountains, the backbone of the Ameri-
can continent. Descending on the on.
posite side. we pursued our course.
turning this way. then that to avoid
passing over another high range Of
mountains.
We frequently made halt while the
professor Set up the machine to deter
mine whether there was precious
metal near the surface. Once we found
gold In paying quantities in a bed of
sand some ten rods across where at
some previous time a river had flown
We followed along on its banks for a
number OF miles in search of water
until we We're nearly famished for the
want of 1t. At last we dug a hole
down through the sand in the bed of
the stream and found only a small
quantity. 1t however. was SO strongly
impregnated with alkali that no one
could drink 1t and we were forced To
abandon the valley with all of its allur
ing prospects for fear that our animals
as well as ourselves would perish from
thirst. Their suffering must have been
intense, for 1t was with the greatest
difficulty that we forced them forward
over the trail at snail's pace. Our
own throats became parched and
tongues swollen SO that We could hard
~ talk.
| The next day we struck a small