ping and swimming as he made for the
shore. We had no gun, but Emery had the moving-picture camera at hand,
and turned it on the deer. The hour was late, however, and we had
little hopes of its success as a picture. The country back from the
river stretched in rolling, barren hills 200 or 300 feet high--a
continuation of the Bad Lands of Utah, which lay off to the west.

With the next day's travel the hills lost some of their barren
appearance. Some cattle were seen early in the afternoon of the
following day. We passed a cattle man working at a ferry, who had just
taken some stock across, which other men had driven on ahead. He was
busy, so we did not interrupt him, merely calling to him from the
boats, drifting meanwhile with the current. Soon we saw him riding
down the shore and waited for him to catch up. He invited us to camp
with him that evening, remarking that he had "just killed a beef." We
thanked him, but declined, as it was early and we had only travelled a
short distance that day. We chatted awhile, and he told us to look out
for rapids ahead. He was rather surprised when he learned that we had
started at Green River, Wyoming, and had already come through a few
rapids.

"Where are you going to stop?" he then asked.

On being told that our destination was Needles, California, he threw
up his hands with an expressive gesture, then added soberly, "Well,
boys, I sure wish you luck," and rode back to his camp.

We had difficulty in making a suitable landing that evening, as the
high water had deposited great quantities of black mud over
everything, making it very disagreeable when we left the boats. We
finally found a place with less mud to wade through than on most of
the banks seen, and tied up to the roots of a tree.

While lying in our beds that night looking at the starlit sky--such a
sky as is found only on these high plateaus--we discovered a comet
directly above us. An astronomer would have enjoyed our opportunities
for observing the heavens. No doubt this comet had been heralded far
and wide, but we doubt if any one saw it to better advantage than did
we.

Later, some coyotes, possibly in chase of a rabbit, gave vent to their
yodeling cry, and awakened us from a sound sleep. They were in a
little lateral canyon, which magnified and gave a weird, organ-like
echo to their calls long after the coyotes themselves had passed from
hearing.

The nights were getting warmer as we travelled south, but no