was so
extraordinarily steep that we ahead were in constant dread of a horse's
falling on us from behind, and our legs did become wearied to incipient
paralysis by the constant stiff checking of the descent. Moreover
every second or so one of the big loose stones with which the trail was
cumbered would be dislodged and come bouncing down among us. We dodged
and swore; the horses kicked; we all feared for the integrity of our
legs. The day was full of an intense nervous strain, an entire
absorption in the precise present. We promptly forgot a difficulty as
soon as we were by it: we had not time to think of those still ahead.
All outside the insistence of the moment was blurred and unimportant,
like a specialized focus, so I cannot tell you much about the scenery.
The only outside impression we received was that the canon floor was
slowly rising to meet us.

Then strangely enough, as it seemed, we stepped off to level ground.

Our watches said half-past three. We had made five miles in a little
under seven hours.

Remained only the crossing of the river. This was no mean task, but we
accomplished it lightly, searching out a ford. There were high
grasses, and on the other side of them a grove of very tall
cottonwoods, clean as a park. First of all we cooked things; then we
spread things; then we lay on our backs and smoked things, our hands
clasped back of our heads. We cocked ironical eyes at the sheer cliff
of old Mount Tunemah, very much as a man would cock his eye at a tiger
in a cage.

Already the meat-hawks, the fluffy Canada jays, had found us out, and
were prepared to swoop down boldly on whatever offered to their
predatory skill. We had nothing for them yet,--there were no remains of
the lunch,--but the fire-irons were out, and ribs of venison were
roasting slowly over the coals in preparation for the evening meal.
Directly opposite, visible through the lattice of the trees, were two
huge mountain peaks, part of the wall that shut us in, over against us
in a height we had not dared ascribe to the sky itself. By and by the
shadow of these mountains rose on the westerly wall. It crept up at
first slowly, extinguishing color; afterwards more rapidly as the sun
approached the horizon. The sunlight disappeared. A moment's gray
intervened, and then the wonderful golden afterglow laid on the peaks
its enchantment. Little by little that too faded, until at last, far
away, through a rift in the ranks of t