The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1906-04-27

| learned that he was u clergyman from
come "shccpic' ON the Powder. The
same day We met the clergyman we
struck the camp of Hall and HariiC
| Here was another anomaly Both arc
| young men and college graduates run.
ming movable sheep ranch In the
| hospitality spending n day with them.
| MIR. Hall was foot racer AT college
and intcrspcrscd with an assortment
of photos of sisters. cousins and sweet.
| hearts, with which his camp wagon
was decorated, were numerous med.
ais, souvenirs of laurcls wrcstcd on
the path. ON this launt we enjoyed
| our first acquaintance with pack rats.
| These rasCnls would carry away and
hide everything portable about II camp.
II was on the Powder that we spent
the wierdest night of my existence.
We had hurried along all day, dis.
tancC of about sixty miles, to reach Il
sheep wagon by night We had eaten
nothing since morning and there In
no water III for drinking ON the Pow.
der AT this season. Night came on
and the moon became CClipscd and
we failed to- discover the sheep camp.
| There was nothing to do but to kndlc
a fire of grease wood and lay the
night out We were on a bench in the
canyon and silhoucttcd athwart the
blOOdrCd moon was the outline of a
pack of wolves that looked down on
MS from the superior altitude of the
crest of Il butte and hOwlod in dcrision
at us all night long The solitude.
the eclipscd moon, the bowling of the
wolves, the clanking of the hobbies
on our horses and the iltful fantastic
shadows cast by the light Of our fire
formed n wierd and uncauny comhina.
tiOn. What contortiOns and upheav-
ais must have taken place in this re-
gion when the world was young.
What grinding of ice and rushing of
water! In spots may be found all the
leftover rubbish of n created world,
as If nature had dumped her last
wheelbarrOw of waste here. Here in
the same heap may be found lava Stag
and representatives of the Silurian.
Devonian and Trenton groupcs. Gran.
ite, porphory, shale, quartsite, shist,
gnoiSs, paleo2oic COrals, ConglOmerate
and the friable tertiary sandstone as
It the antedcluvan giants had cleaned
out their mortar boxes here. Up on
head waters Of the south fork of the
Powder, on the divide between the
North Platte and the Big Horn rivers
the Wyoming and N. w. railroad have
put down well | 300 feet before find
ing water and then got flowing well
in the formation that makes the roof
of the oil reservoirs. A long weary
journey it was down to Lander, for
on the divide we struck snow at an
altitude of about 1000 feet. The coun.
try along Poison creek is evidently
an oil field and the anticines are
sharply defined Near Wolton there
is large spr' Of pure soft water
1t Will he necessary to bald rCscr-
voirs to catch the rainfall to irrigate
this country. Wolton is the greatest
sheep center in the world.
1t was a oright, crisp Sunday morn
ing when we came in sight of The tele-
phone poles on the Casper and Ian.
der line fifty miles from Lander. AS
we climbed the ridge and got our
first view of the Shoshoni country in
the brilliant atmosphere of that Sun
day morning it was an event never to
be forgotten. Beneath us two thou
sand feet lay the valleys of the Big
and Little Popo Agia, the Big and
Little Wind river encircled by noun.
tains. 1t had showed on the Wind
river range the previous night and as
we gaZed upon their crystal clearness
a mass of snow became dislodged from
the boughs of spruce tree sending up
puff of white smoke. My companion
asked me to guess how far we were
from the mountains and how much
country lay in the valley. | replied
that II 1t was on the prairies of the
middle states | would say that they
were six miles away and that about
township lay in the valley. We
pressed on hour after hour and the
elusive mountains continued far in
the distance. The telephone poles
seemed to be lined with golden eagles.
for we counted eight in about six
miles. There is a fine for shooting
them and indeed no one ever molests
the mexcept eastern tourists and their
agents. We passed within twenty-five
rods OF one magnificent fellow and nv
companion got down to scare him so
that we could see the stretch of his
wings. A favorite nesting place in
this portion of the country, where suit.
able trees are not always available,
is the double cross bars of the tele-
phone poles and when messages get
mixed it is no fun for linemen to pull
down these nests because a pair of
old birds in defending their nest can
furnish almost as much excitement
as a silver tip. We pressed on and