The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1908-11-18
BY
THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Duties we clambered, clinging to the
rocks, and slowly working our way
across the faces of the cliffs, or eau
tiously creeping along the narrow
lodges, peering over every crest long
and carefully, and from the peaks
scanning the ground all about with the
feld-glasses. But we saw no sheep.
and but little sign of them.
Finally we struck the head OF long.
winding valley with smooth bottom.
and after cantering down 1t four or
/ FIVE miles. came to the river, just after
the cold. pale-red sun had sunk behind
the line of hills ahead of us. Our
horses were sharp shod, and crossed
the ice without difficulty; and in a
grove of leafess cotton-woods. on the
opposite side, we found the hut for
which we had been making. the COW
boy already inside with the fire
started. Throughout the night the
temperature sank lower and lower,
and it was impossible to keep the
crazy old hut anywhere near freezing
point; the wind whistled through the
chinks and crannies of the logs, and.
after a short and by no means elab-
crate supper, we were glad to cover
down with our great fur coats still on,
under the pile of buffalo robes and
bear skins. My sleeping-bag came in
very handily and kept me as warm as
possible, in spite of the bitter frost.
We were up and had taken breakfast
next morning by the time the first
I. 10 hrpi1
liancy of the stars, and Immediately
afterwards strobe off on foot, as we
had been hampered by the horses on
the day before. This day. though the
weather had grown even colder, we did
not feel it, for we walked all the while
with a quick pace, and the climbing
was very hard work. The shoulders
and lodges of the cliffs had become
round and slippery with the ice, and it
was no easy eask to move up and
along them. clutching the gun in one
hand, and grasping each little projec-
ton with the other.
When on the way back to camp, where
the buttes rose highest and steepest.
we came upon fresh tracks, but as it
|
try to follow them that day. When
near the hut l killed sharptail for
supper, making rather neat shot, the
bird being eighty yards off. The night
was even colder than the preceding
one, and all signs told us that We
would soon have change for the
worse in the weather, which made me
70 oh
the storm struck us. We determined
that next morning we would take the
horses and make quick push for the
chain of high buttes where we had
seen the fresh tracks, and hunt them
through with thorough care.
We started in the cold gray of the
morning and pricked rapidly off over
steam rising from the nostrfls of the
galloping horses. When we reached
the foot OF the hills where we intended
to hunt and had tethered the horses
the sun had already risen, but tt was
evident that the clear weather of a fort
night past was over. The air was thick
and hazy, and away off in the north
clouds looked like a weather-breeder
every thing BODIED a storm at no dis
tant date. The country over which we
now hunted was wilder and more
mountainous than any we had YET
struck. High, sharp peaks and ridges
broke off abruptly into narrow gorges
and deep ravines; they were bare OF
all but the scantiest vegetation. save
on some of the sheltered sides where
grew groves of dark pines, now laden
down with feathery snow. The climb
ing was as hard as ever. At first we
went straight up the side of the tallest
peak, and then along the knife-likt
ridge which Joined it with the next
The ice made the footing very slippery
as we stepped along the lodges OIL
crawled round the jutting shoulders
and we had to look carefully for oul
footholds; while in the cold. thin all
every quick burst we made up a steer
hill caused us to pant for breath. We
had gone but a little way before we
saw fresh signs of the animals we
were after, but it was some time be-
fore we came upon the quarry itself.
We left the high ground and de
scending into narrow chasm walked
along it's bottom, which was but 8
couple of feet wide, while the sides
rose up from it at an acute angle
After following this for few hundred
yards. we turned a sharp corner, and
shortly afterward our eyes were
caught by some grains of fresh eartt
lying on the snow in front Of our feet
Z On the sides, some feet above oul
heads, were marks in the snow which
a moments glance showed us had beer
made by couple of mountain sheer
that had come down one side of the
!. gorge and had leaped across to the
other. their sharp toes going through
the thin snow and displacing the eartt
, that had fallen to the bottom. The
' tracks had evidently been made just
! before we rounded the corner, and al