Читать книгу Vigilante Days and Ways. The pioneers of the Rockies; the makers and making of Montana and Idaho онлайн

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The pack train was always a lively feature in the gigantic mountain scenery of Oregon and Idaho. A train of fifty or one hundred animals, composed about equally of mules and burros, each heavily laden, the experienced animal in the lead picking the way for those in the rear amid the rocks, escarpments, and precipices of a lofty mountain side, was a spectacle of thrilling interest. At times, the least mis-step would have precipitated some unfortunate animal hundreds of feet down the steep declivity, dashing him to pieces on the rocks below. Fortunately the cautious and sure tread of these faithful creatures rendered such an accident of very rare occurrence, though to the person who for the first time beheld them in motion the feeling was ever present that they could not escape it. The arrival of one of these large trains in a mining camp produced greater excitement among the inhabitants than any other event, and the calculations upon their departure from the Columbia River and their appearance in the interior towns were made and anticipated with nearly as much certainty as if they were governed by a published time-table.