When He Was About To Start Back, In Fact, Was Telling Me
Good-By, I Happened To Say That I Wished I Could Go, Too.
Faye said:
"You could not stand the exposure, but you might wear my little fur
coat" Suggesting the coat
Was a give-in that I at once took advantage
of, and in precisely twenty minutes Charlie, our Chinese cook, had
been told what to do, a few articles of clothing wrapped and strapped,
and I on Bettie's back ready for the wilds. An old soldier on a big
corral horse was our only escort, and to his saddle were fastened our
various bags and bundles.
Far up a narrow valley that lies in between two mountain ranges, the
government has a saw-mill that is worked by twenty or more soldiers
under the supervision of an officer, where lumber can be cut when
needed for the post. One of these ranges is very high, and Mount
Bridger, first of the range and nearest Fort Ellis, along whose base
we had to go, has snow on its top most of the year. Often when wind is
not noticeable at the post, we can see the light snow being blown with
terrific force from the peak of this mountain for hundreds of yards in
a perfectly horizontal line, when it will spread out and fall in a
magnificent spray another two or three hundred feet.
The mill is sixteen miles from Fort Ellis, and the snow was very
deep - so deep in places that the horses had difficulty in getting
their feet forward, and as we got farther up, the valley narrowed into
a ravine where the snow was even deeper.
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