CHAPTER XVIX.
A BOLD TOUR.
We had been going for several days through the mountains with considerable difficulty, when one afternoon we reached a splendid pasturage, where we resolved to let our cattle rest. It was at the same time warm. We had doffed our leathern jackets and felt very comfortable when we found thick cedar wood on the western side of this meadow and were able to rest in its shade. We had scarce lit our fire to prepare dinner, when Tiger sprang up, pointed to the north, where several small clouds were rising, and then laid his ear on the ground. "A hurricane (a fearful storm frequent in the Rocky Mountains) is coming up. We must place our cattle in safety," he said, as he leapt up; and we all set to work dragging our traps to the other side of the meadow, where a low rock hung over and covered a considerable space.
After carrying across our traps, partly on our animals, partly in our arms, we hastened to collect as large a supply of dry wood as we could, in which an old trunk lying near the rock was of great service to us. This was cut into several pieces, which were rolled under the stone roof, and a fire was lit against one of them, while our horses were quietly grazing. We had scarce completed these preparations when the sky grew dark, and we heard a roaring and hissing, which quickly increased with the growing obscurity. We brought our cattle under the rock and fastened them to pickets we drove into the ground.
The cloud grew heavier and darker with each moment and rolled over the mountain crests in a southerly direction. With the roar of the wind was blended dull thunder, and an icy cold spread over the ground. These were merely the announcers of the frightful hurricane, which now dashed down from the Rocky Mountains and announced its approach with a crash that shook the earth. The thunder was so deafening that we could not hear each other speak, and standing silently by our trembling horses we watched the storm drive the clouds of icy rain in almost horizontal direction over our heads, and level the cedar-trees so that the roots stood up instead of the crowns. The cold increased every moment, and ere long everything was covered with a thick crust of ice, while the rain was frozen and hurtled round us in heavy hail. The ground shook under us, and the peals of thunder were repeated by a thousand echoes on the sides of the mountain. Under these circumstances we could consider our situation a fortunate one; for if we had been surprised by this storm, we might easily have fallen victims to it, or at least we must have lost our animals, which no human strength could have mastered in the icy rain. Though pressed closely round the fire and wrapped in our buffalo robes, we shivered from cold. The storm howled till late in the evening, at which time, though dense rain fell, the wind had sunk, and by nine o'clock the clouds broke too. A dead, frozen landscape surrounded us; the moon's bright light shone down into our frozen gully as into a palace of glass, and wherever we looked we saw transparent masses of ice, while the reflection of our fire glittered in brilliant colours on the crystals of ice near us. Not a breath of air stirred, and had it not been for the numbing cold and the glistening ice around to prove the reality of this fearful scene, we might easily have been tempted to regard it as a dream.
Our cattle, too, felt the cold greatly and trembled all over. We covered them with all the blankets we could spare, and I took special care of Czar, whom I fastened up as near the fire as I could. We made a tremendous blaze in order to render the cold to some extent endurable. One of us was obliged in turn to watch at the fire during the night, while the others lay round it and stretched out their feet to it. Morning arrived, and with it we welcomed the sun which appeared over the mountains in the blue sky. Everything glittered and shone around, as if the world were covered with a sheet of glass and brilliants; the grass plot was hidden by a layer of transparent pieces of ice, which brilliantly reflected the sunbeams; every bush, every shrub glittered with the hues of the rainbow, and the ice almost blinded our eyes. The sunbeams gradually rendered the cold more endurable. We crept out from under our rock and tried to warm ourselves by jumping. We were compelled to leave our horses tied up, as the grass was covered with ice, even where there was no drift. We could not go up to the spring which bubbled up in a gorge below the destroyed cedar-wood, because the path leading down to it was too smooth and slippery; hence we filled our pots with hailstones and thus procured water for our breakfast. The ice disappeared again as quickly as it had fallen on the unusual ground; it was only where the hail had drifted in large layers that the masses of ice lay for a longer period.
We resolved to remain here till the next day, because both our horses and ourselves required rest. My comrades wished to obtain permission to go out hunting, as Tiger had already done so without asking my leave, for he paid little heed to our laws. John Lasar and Mac, as we called MacDonnell for the sake of shortness, went off in different directions. The former followed the spring which joined a stream about a mile from us, whose banks were covered with a dense undergrowth, while Mac went north into the hills. The rest of us remained in camp. Shortly before sunset Mac returned, told us he had shot a large deer and two turkeys close at hand, put a pack-saddle on Sam, and went with Antonio to fetch the game. He had scarce left ere Tiger came in and triumphantly informed us that he had killed a big bear in its lair, and we must go and fetch it in the morning, for it was dark when Mac and Antonio returned with the game, and John had not turned up yet, which rendered us rather anxious. Still I had heard him fire several times, so he could not be far off; but I was afraid that an accident had happened to him, as it was now getting on for nine o'clock. We repeatedly fired our guns, and though it was so late, Tiger went down the stream and raised his hunting yell, but received no reply. At night it was impossible to follow his trail, so we lay down to sleep; but at daybreak we swallowed our breakfast and prepared to go in search of John. I took Tiger and Mac with me, and told Antonio to follow us on Jack. Trusty trotted ahead, and we had not gone many hundred yards from camp when John came riding down between the hills. We were very anxious to learn what had caused him to spend the night away, and he now told us that he had got among a herd of peccaris in the wood, and after shooting one of these animals, was compelled to seek shelter in a tree which they invested. Although he shot several of them, they did not retreat, and hence he was obliged to wait for daybreak. Of course, he had passed the night in the cold, shelterless, and was now very anxious for rest. He rolled himself in his buffalo robe, while I, with Tiger, Antonio, and Mac, left camp in order to fetch the bear. We took Jack and Lizzy with us to carry ropes and an axe.
We ascended the hills on the east for about half an hour, till Tiger went round a lofty rock and showed us a small round opening about six feet above the spot where we were standing. Tiger crept into the hole with a lasso to noose the bear's throat. He soon came out again, and we all three tried, but in vain, to drag it out with the rope. We harnessed Jack in front and Tiger crept in again to the bear to push: now matters went better, and the black monster soon appeared in the opening, and rolled down the little slope to us. Jack and Lizzy, startled at the sudden apparition, leapt on one side, but were soon pacified, and we began skinning and breaking up the animal. I was anxious to have a look at the interior of its abode, and crawled into the entrance, which was at first very narrow, but then widened, and at length became two walls leaning together at the top, but about eight feet apart at the bottom. The floor of the cave was covered with cedar branches, on which the bear reposed. I lighted a wax-taper, and was thus enabled to examine the cave narrowly. Tiger had crept up to the bear with a lighted wisp of grass in his hand, shot it in the left eye, and killed it on the spot.
We packed the best of the meat and fat, as well as the skin, on our mules, and returned to camp, where we arrived at about ten o'clock. We packed up, and were under way again by two P.M., following Tiger, who led us through the mountain passes, which here became much steeper. We rode nearly the whole day up hill, and only at intervals came to small table-lands, on which our cattle rested for a while. Trees grew rarer; here and there a small clump of cedars rose from a gorge, or an isolated group of prickly yuccas decorated the rocks, and at times a mimosa hung over our path from a crevice. A plant, whose three feet long narrow leaves grew out of the rock in tufts, and are used by the Indians for plaiting baskets and mats, was very common here: in the spring it has a whitish yellow flower, which grows on a stalk nearly six feet high, and through its graceful form is a real ornament to the landscape.