The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mountains, by Stewart Edward White

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Title: The Mountains

Author: Stewart Edward White

Posting Date: October 9, 2008 [EBook #465]
Release Date: March, 1996

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOUNTAINS ***

Produced by Dianne Bean. HTML version by Al Haines.

THE MOUNTAINS

BY

STEWART EDWARD WHITE

AUTHOR OF

"THE BLAZED TRAIL," "SILENT PLACES," "THE FOREST," ETC.

PREFACE

The author has followed a true sequence of events practically in all
particulars save in respect to the character of the Tenderfoot. He is
in one sense fictitious; in another sense real. He is real in that he
is the apotheosis of many tenderfeet, and that everything he does in
this narrative he has done at one time or another in the author's
experience. He is fictitious in the sense that he is in no way to be
identified with the third member of our party in the actual trip.

CONTENTS

I. THE RIDGE TRAIL
II. ON EQUIPMENT
III. ON HORSES
IV. HOW TO GO ABOUT IT
V. THE COAST RANGES
VI. THE INFERNO
VII. THE FOOT-HILLS
VIII. THE PINES
IX. THE TRAIL
X. ON SEEING DEER
XI. ON TENDERFEET
XII. THE CANON
XIII. TROUT, BUCKSKIN, AND PROSPECTORS
XIV. ON CAMP COOKERY
XV. ON THE WIND AT NIGHT
XVI. THE VALLEY
XVII. THE MAIN CREST
XVIII. THE GIANT FOREST
XIX. ON COWBOYS
XX. THE GOLDEN TROUT
XXI. ON GOING OUT
XXII. THE LURE OF THE TRAIL

THE MOUNTAINS

I

THE RIDGE TRAIL

Six trails lead to the main ridge. They are all good trails, so that
even the casual tourist in the little Spanish-American town on the
seacoast need have nothing to fear from the ascent. In some spots they
contract to an arm's length of space, outside of which limit they drop
sheer away; elsewhere they stand up on end, zigzag in lacets each more
hair-raising than the last, or fill to demoralization with loose
boulders and shale. A fall on the part of your horse would mean a more
than serious accident; but Western horses do not fall. The major
premise stands: even th