The Wrangell sentinel., 1935-04-19

qulVeTing leap start, my Knees clamped and held, Ia feat that ia accomplished only by long prac- tice)-In a backward glance, I saw a slithering form and I knew why Fly was for getting away from there. However I had no intention of leaving that contemptible Step son of Satan" prowling around the country with Fly and l bedding down under the stars at night. No sir, he was a very undesirable bed fellow.
 Slipping out of the saddle, went back very cautiously looking for him. Soon I saw him coiled under a serubby sage no more than knee high. With a long slithering move ment he came sliding out, his head swinging up and back, those little beady eyes becoming pinpoints of flame as the deadly fangs quickly came into view. Just as quickly my old trusty whipped across and down; there comes a flash and a roar and, behold, that wicked head is no more. Only a trembling head less form remains. l walk slowly back to where Fly is standing watching me very close; pat that pretty neck of his and say good boy"
 Some two hundred yards farther on we find another which we treat likewise. Some time later we find an old rusty fellow who takes to a rat hole under a sage and dares us to come nearer He's talking pretty loud down there under the sand. However, he makes the slight error of keeping one eye too near the entrance and we add one more to our long list.
 Prehistoric and Present
 As we drop down into a little dry wash, I see a strange sight in the worn and broken sand rock. Dismounting I find a large worn sand rock has cracked and fallen apart In this rock there lies an immense leg bone of soGe huge prehistoric animal. The bone Is some six inches in diameter with great knuckle joints at each end and nearly six feet in length. IL has fallen partly out of it's bed. leaving its imprint like some plas- ter caA, showing that it had lain there at a time when this rock was soft sand. The other bones were either confined or washed away.
 At another place l found bones of a different kind. There were quite a nupber of bones at this place and among them was a large number of sharp cat-like teeth. somewhat resembling allig a { or teeth, very sharp with saw like edges on two sides and almost as long as my finger.
 Optical Illusion
 Thinking what a strange world this must have been at one time, we wend our way up on a little hard pan flat that is ornamented with tall round hills that go straight up and look just like round hay stacks. As we study the strange formations, we suddenly realize that this is still a strange world for in and through the simmering heat waves that are changing and dancing-all about these barren sun-baked hills and hard pan flats around them, see an immense bird sitting on top of one of these haystack hills,-the like and size of this bird I've never seen be- fore. It looks like some great eagle, only larger. AS we draw nearer the heat waves simmer and dance all about, and everything seems SO strange. A little nearer and I think I'll take a shot at this great bird. It seems almost as large as an os- trich and I am very much puzzled. I look down at Fly-his feet seem to be hardly touching the ground. Soon I look up again and a queer feeling comes over me. The big bird has changed! It is only a mea- dow lark. I look and look again. It cant be,-yet it is. I look far ther on and I see the heat waves moving ahead, - simmering and dancing and then realize "Oh. shucks!" It's only one of those mirages.
 Yes, I've seen such things before. Once when there were hundreds of cattle milling around a big pond of water on big flat and when we reached the spot there were no cat tie and no water, they were all gone. No, I wasn't drinking, but very thirsty. There was another man with me this time and he saw the same thing that did.
 Gateway
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