Rocky Mountain Sam — page 27: what you’re looking at

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

18 ROCKY MOUNTAIN SAM. managing to retain his seat on his haunches, he seized the line of the grapnel-iron with his mighty paws, and began to drag the car toward him, hand over hand. “Out with the ballast, Sam, or he’ll have us in his grip!” screamed the professor, himself setting the example. Sam was not tardy in doing likewise, and as with added buoyancy the balloon struggled aloft, the bear reluctantly let go his hold, paw by paw, and would doubtless at last have gladly let go altogether, only the grapnel remained where it had been all along, fast hooked in his lower jaw. He tried to pull back, but the balloon tugged away at him, forcing him along, step by step, while the anchor, giving way in its hold upon his hind quarters, was drawn 1n. ‘Hurrah! we'll walk him right down into your corrals with us, professor,” crie@ Sam. ‘‘Let’s heave out this other big sand-bag, and see if we can’t hurry the critter into a trot.” He suited the action to the word; the balloon strained ahead, and the bear was led at a lively pace over the rough ridge, making numerous ineffectual efforts to halt in his compulsory career. At last they reached the extremity of _ the ridge, which terminated ina stupendous precipice, hay- ing a sheer descent of several thousand feet. The bear made one last desperate struggle on the brink, and, for one instant, maintained himself there. ‘he next he swung entirely free from the crag. It was a fortunate thing for those in the balloon that the grapnel at this moment gave way, or the great weight of the animal might have drawn them into the chasm with fatal violence; but as it was, the iron tore out the flesh, and poor bruin was sent thundering down into the depths alone, while the bailoon, suddenly released from let or hindrance, shot straight up like a rocket. “Rather cruel sport. for white men,” commented the aeronaut, dryly; ‘“‘but yonder’s the place, and we might as well prepare to land.” The scene below them, and which they were about to descend, was a remarkable one. Though apparently shut on every side by inaccessible mountains, it was still more of an irregular valley than a canon, for it was fully half a mile in breadth. One extremity was blooming and fertile, with a comfortable-looking cabin standing upon a knoll beside a flashing stream, and surrounded by two or three rough (elo) Eomicbooks m