nd others would
ride ahead of the train a considerable distance, select routes for
passage through places where travel was hard or risky, choose
camp-sites, and, returning, pilot the train accordingly.

At various times, despite every care in selecting the route, the train
went on a wrong course, and at least once was completely astray. This
was one morning as the company was passing out of the Black Hills
country. Information had been received that at this place a short-cut
could be made which would save fifteen or twenty miles. There were no
marks on the ground indicating that any train ahead had gone that way,
but the leaders decided to try it. This venture led the company into a
situation not unlike the proverbial "jumping-off place."

Directly in our course was a declivity which dropped an estimated
depth of sixty to one hundred feet below the narrow, stony flat on
which we stood, down into a depressed valley. Abrupt ridges of broken
stone formation were on our right and left, inclosing us in a small
space of barren, waste earth. The elements had crumbled the rocks down
for ages, until what perhaps had been once a deep canyon was now a
narrow flat, a mass of debris, terminating at the top of the steep,
ragged cliff that pitched downward before us. The high, rocky ridges
on both sides were wholly impassable, at least for the teams. A search
finally disclosed, at the base of the ridge on our right, a single
possible passage. It was narrow, slightly wider than a wagon, and led
downward at a steep incline, into the valley below, with rocks
protruding from both its side walls, its bottom strewn with stones
such as our vehicles could not pass over in an ordinary way.

We were confronted with the problem how to get the wagons down that
yawning fissure; the alternative being to retrace our steps many
miles.

At the bottom of this cliff or wall that barred our way could be seen
a beautiful valley, stretching far and wide away to the northwest; a
scene of enchanting loveliness, a refreshing contrast to the dry and
nearly barren hills over which we had traveled during the many days
last past. A short distance from the foot of the wall was a small
stream of clear water, running over the meadow-flat. Rich pasture
extended along the line of trees that marked the serpentine course of
the brook which zigzagged its way toward the southwest. Every man,
woman and child of our company expressed in some way the declaration,
"We _m