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the mountains. It was a strange cavalcade, as they rode
at full gallop over the shingly rocks and into the dark open-
ing of the defile beyond. We passed between precipices,
sharp and splintering at the tops, their sides beetling over
the defile or descending in abrupt declivities, bristling
with fir-trees. On our left they rose close to us like a wall,
but on the right a winding brook with a narrow strip of
marshy soil intervened. The stream was clogged with old
beaver-dams and spread frequently into wide pools. There
were thick bushes and many dead and blasted trees along
its course, though frequently nothing remained but stumps
cut close to the ground by the beaver, and marked with
the sharp chisel-like teeth of those indefatigable laborers.
Sometimes we dived among trees, and then emerged upon
open spots, over which, Indian-like, all galloped at full
speed. As Pauline bounded over the rocks I felt her saddle-
girth slipping, and alighted to draw it tighter; when the
whole cavalcade swept by me in a moment, the women
with their gaudy ornaments tinkling as they rode, the
men whooping, laughing, and lashing forward their horses.
Two black-tailed deer bounded away among the rocks;
Raymond shot at them from horseback; the sharp report
of his rifle was answered by another equally sharp from
the opposing cliffs, and then the echoes, leaping in rapid
succession from side to side died away rattling far amid
the mountains.

2

3

4

After having ridden in this manner six or eight miles
the scene changed, and all the declivities were covered
with forests of tall, slender spruce and pine trees. The
Indians began to fall off to the right and left, dispersing
with their hatchets and knives to cut the poles which they
had come to seek. I was soon left almost alone; but in the
stillness of those lonely mountains, the stroke of hatchets

-270-

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Publication Information: Book Title: The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life. Contributors: Francis Parkman - author, Frederic Remington - illustrator. Publisher: Little Brown. Place of Publication: Boston. Publication Year: 1892. Page Number: 270.
    
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