animals only. All these ridges are heavily timbered with pitch pines,
and where they come down on the grassy slopes they look as if the trees
had been arranged by a landscape gardener. Far off, through an opening
in a canyon, we saw the prairie simulating the ocean. Far off, through
an opening in another direction, was the glistening outline of the
Snowy Range. But still, till we reached this place, it was monotonous,
though grand as a whole: a grey-green or buff-grey, with outbreaks of
brilliantly-colored rock, only varied by the black-green of pines,
which are not the stately pyramidal pines of the Sierra Nevada, but
much resemble the natural Scotch fir. Not many miles from us is North
Park, a great tract of land said to be rich in gold, but those who have
gone to "prospect" have seldom returned, the region being the home of
tribes of Indians who live in perpetual hostility to the whites and to
each other.

At this great height, and most artistically situated, we came upon a
rude log camp tenanted in winter by an elk hunter, but now deserted.
Chalmers without any scruple picked the padlock; we lighted a fire,
made some tea, and fried some bacon, and after a good meal mounted
again and started for Estes Park. For four weary hours we searched
hither and thither along every indentation of the ground which might be
supposed to slope towards the Big Thompson River, which we knew had to
be forded. Still, as the quest grew more tedious, Long's Peak stood
before us as a landmark in purple glory; and still at his feet lay a
hollow filled with deep blue atmosphere, where I knew that Estes Park
must lie, and still between us and it lay never-lessening miles of
inaccessibility, and the sun was ever weltering, and the shadows ever
lengthening, and Chalmers, who had started confident, bumptious,
blatant, was ever becoming more bewildered, and his wife's thin voice
more piping and discontented, and my stumbling horse more insecure, and
I more determined (as I am at this moment) that somehow or other I
would reach that blue hollow, and even stand on Long's Peak where the
snow was glittering. Affairs were becoming serious, and Chalmers's
incompetence a source of real peril, when, after an exploring
expedition, he returned more bumptious than ever, saying he knew it
would be all right, he had found a trail, and we could get across the
river by dark, and camp out for the night. So he led us into a steep,
deep, rough ravine, w