The Bozeman courier., 1927-12-23

4
railroad folder and you never will.
Yet there is much of loveliness in
this narrow basin of arid upland between
the White mountains and the Sierra
Nevada. At sundown when the purple
shadows of the Sierran buttes march
across it, and their white peaks bite into
the indigo sky like jagged teeth, the air
Is so clear that you can see the sunset
glow on the snow covered crest Of Old
Badly, two hundred miles to the south,
and the silence so deep that you can
hear the ticking Of watch at two hun
dred PAGES.
Through a bowlder strewn rift in the
White mountains an old Indian trail
leads into the vale of the Panamints, and
thence across Death valley skirting the
treacherous quicksands of the Armagosa,
and winding its tortuous primeval path
through the steel blue ramparts Of the
Funeral range into the heart Of the Ute
country Of southern Nevada. For CEN
turies untold, long before the Northmen
spun their sagas by the shores Of the
Baltic sea, the red mans moccasined feet
trod this sterile trail to stalk the Big
Horn sheep on the Sierran snow passes,
and to challenge the mighty grizzly in
the dark pine clad canyons that rive the
eastern wall Of this loftiest range Of con-
tinental America.
For generations after the first pilgrim
this great land lay untouched, undis-
turbed, except by the wandering tribes Of
the Shoshones, Of which the Utes, the
most warlike and fearless, scaled the
mountain passes and penetrated even to
the Pacific slope. Piute pass and Piute
creek bear testimony to their boldness
and enterprise.
Undisturbed and untouched this land
has lain since the world was young, and
so 1t will lay for generations to come
forever perhapS-for 1t is a country Of
little rain. The moisture laden clouds
that sweep inland from the great Pacific
sea, too heavy to surmount the SierTan
wall, bed the SUBMITS with snow in win
ter, and in the summer return westward
to their mother, the sea, in leaping cas-
cades through gorges hewn in the ancient
bastions by the glacial ice.
Here and there one Of these cascades
falls eastward; and where it does the arid
| benchland blooms for few short miles
before the stream sinks into oblivion in
the parched floor Of the valley. Resting
upon one Of these benches you would say
that Omar might have stood there when
he penned the lines: THE strip of herb
age strown, that just divides the desert
/ from the SoWn"-for the line between
desert and garden is so sharply drawn as
to be matter Of inches, not miles. You
may bed your head in blue lupines and
|
| OF your boot. You may cool your lips in
swift icy water while your hands scorch
on the lava ledge between which it leaps.
On rise Of ground at the foot Of the
Sierra two men were preparing supper
over an open camp fire. 1t was still light
enough to see, and yet cool enough to be
abroad. A short distance from the fire
stood tent with it's front open and its
sides tied back to cool it for the night,
/
ridge pole stood their tools: picks, shov-
els, and prospectOrs' pans. dark hole
in the base of the gray mountain wall,
three hundred yards or so from the tent
with piles of debris scattered about it,
gave testimony to their mining activities
Halfway between the tent and the
mouth of the tunnel lay a spur Of lava
rock, spewed out Of the floor Of the mesa
by a substerranean disturbance in some
forgotten era In every other direction
the mesa was bare and smooth for some
distance and sloped gently toward the
floor Of the valley. The nearest uneven
. ground was a group Of lava rocks some
four or FIVE hundred yards distant. The
spot upon which the tent was pitched
was peninsular in shape, formed by &
small, swift brook making a horseshoe
turn before dropping out Of sight anC
sound in the sandy wastes below.
The younger Of the two men was fry.
" ing bacon in a skillet; the other sat b!
and watched him. Both were fair haired
and aquiline Of feature. The two deeI
parallel lines that furrowed the forehead
of the older were not due to age, but Il
Il the prominent supra-orbital arches tina
s jutted protectingly above his deepset blu
v eyes, giving the appearance of a con
K cavity to a brow that was not low, bu
wide and masculine. These two line
4 were duplicated in that of the younge
y man, though in a somewhat lesser de
3 gree. His skin was smoother than tn
:. others and his hair was Of brighter hu
= than the almost sandy and terrier-1fR
Is color and texture Of his companions.
% Except for these slight differences the
ye were alike as pair OF twins. One woul
a. not have suspected them of being fathe
= and son. Selden had just passed hi
"a forty-second birthday, but simple livin
Of and outdoor life had held the years
E. check. Robert, his son, had not ye
~ reached his twentieth, but six years {
roughing it under the desert sun ha
: given him an aspect Of maturity for bC
N yond his years. This is the paradox {
- the country of little rain. It demand
= much Of youth, but once it has conferre
= the accolade Of manhood you may {
~ ~ your way defying the decades, until sue
M denly one day time reaches out it's har
ht and plucks you from a burning gully ar
= tosses your fourscore years to its des
~ yesterdays.
Two more weeks and wen be on Il
IIl outside the boy said as he turned
piece Of bacon with his fork. 'Fol
re- hundred ounces! At twenty an ounce
it, eight thousand dollars-not countil
= what Wen get for the claim. Who sa
there's no more gold in the west?"
l0s His father smiled at the outburst
- enthusiasm. He was looking at a fai
cloud of alkah dust that rose. in Il
A stark, clear air ten miles up the vale
h. He wondered who it might be crossil
M the desert at this time Of the year, al
M voiced his speculation to his son.
oe- "a prospector like ourselves, I CUES
the boy erplied, taking his eyes on t
- frying pan for a moment. Drain
water of the potatoes, will you, dad, a
a let's eat" He poured the painful
rlv smoking bacon into a tin platter a
.ai. glanced over his shoulder at the moU
M Of the tunnel Drifting In granite ST
,de works up an appetite"
AGE His father nodded. 'I reckon you
glad to be getting out" he said.
Eyes, SIR" the lad answered, "it1l
good to set your teeth in something
80. sides sowbelly." He Strengthened up 8
80 80 swept his eyes over the valley to VIII
ase the marching shadows Of the unOunta