les off, and there is not
another cabin for eighteen miles toward the Plains. The park is
unsurveyed, and the huge tract of mountainous country beyond is almost
altogether unexplored. Elk hunters occasionally come up and camp out
here; but the two settlers, who, however, are only squatters, for
various reasons are not disposed to encourage such visitors. When
Evans, who is a very successful hunter, came here, he came on foot, and
for some time after settling here he carried the flour and necessaries
required by his family on his back over the mountains.

As I intend to make Estes Park my headquarters until the winter sets
in, I must make you acquainted with my surroundings and mode of living.
The "Queen Anne mansion" is represented by a log cabin made of big hewn
logs. The chinks should be filled with mud and lime, but these are
wanting. The roof is formed of barked young spruce, then a layer of
hay, and an outer coating of mud, all nearly flat. The floors are
roughly boarded. The "living room" is about sixteen feet square, and
has a rough stone chimney in which pine logs are always burning. At
one end there is a door into a small bedroom, and at the other a door
into a small eating room, at the table of which we feed in relays.
This opens into a very small kitchen with a great American
cooking-stove, and there are two "bed closets" besides. Although rude,
it is comfortable, except for the draughts. The fine snow drives in
through the chinks and covers the floors, but sweeping it out at
intervals is both fun and exercise. There are no heaps or rubbish
places outside. Near it, on the slope under the pines, is a pretty
two-roomed cabin, and beyond that, near the lake, is my cabin, a very
rough one. My door opens into a little room with a stone chimney, and
that again into a small room with a hay bed, a chair with a tin basin
on it, a shelf and some pegs. A small window looks on the lake, and
the glories of the sunrises which I see from it are indescribable.
Neither of my doors has a lock, and, to say the truth, neither will
shut, as the wood has swelled. Below the house, on the stream which
issues from the lake, there is a beautiful log dairy, with a water
wheel outside, used for churning. Besides this, there are a corral, a
shed for the wagon, a room for the hired man, and shelters for horses
and weakly calves. All these things are necessaries at this height.

The ranchmen are two Welshmen, Evans and Ed