Rocky Mountain Sam — page 206: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN SAM. 197. experience of Mewanee would help them to find without great difficulty. CHAPTER XXIX. THE FIR THICKET. Our friends were considerably refreshed an hour after daybreak. Sam shot a-fine young elk, which furnished a bountiful repast, after which the party entered the balloon which was headed toward a fir grove indicated by Mewanee as the locality of one of Firefoot’s strongholds. The current proved favorable, and the deep valley in which the fir grove was situated, soon came in view. ‘The balloon slowly descended, and was anchored at the edge of the grove. The valley was more like a hole in the wall than anything — else, it was so thoroughly surrounded by towering cliffs of black and jagged rocks, and the Indian maiden had spoken very truly of the nature of the grove. ‘The firs constituting it were of tolerably even height, and had interlaced their tops so densely and inextricably together, that at first glance, it seemed that it would be impossible for any one descend- ing from above, to pierce them. Indeed, if there was any encampment underneath, it could not be seen, so impene- trable was the gloomy shade, and not the shghtest sound of life, not the uncurling of a smoke-wreath, notthe barking of a dog to indicate there was any habitation underneath; the entire grove covering an irregular space of about fifty acres. But Mewanee insisted that there were anumber of lodges somewhere below, and offered to descend, enter the forest, discover its precise locality, and to come back to report the same. ‘This proposition was at first warmly objected to by all, but perhaps for different reasons. Her huge lover did not wish her to incur any risk that might be much better incurred by experienced hunters like Rocky Mountain Sam or himself; while the others secretly suspected that this might merely bearuse by which the Indian maiden hoped to rejoin her people, inspite of her professions of preference for the society in which she then found herself. But at length the girl’s earnest entreaties overcame their objections, and she was permitted to descend, (e(o) icOomMmIcbooks