Rocky Mountain Sam — page 59: what you’re looking at

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

A ae [email protected] rw ee. oh > Ne Rose \ - ne 50 ROCKY MOUNTAIN SAM. them dismount and pick it up, and then wave his hand as a signal that it was understood. ‘Tis well,” said the White Hermit. ‘Now for Crown Butte. But we are drifting a little too far to the eastward, I fancy.” : He seized the crank of the great fanwheel, and began to whirl it round at a great rate. In this way he occupied himself for a considerable time, while Fayaway and Sam, with their headsin suspicious juxtaposition, continued to gaze over the side at the varied and wonderful panorama that fleeted beneath, though probably exchanging tender words upon a subject of more human interest, though of less world-wide importance. | As they passed slowly over the Butte, a bold and jagged spur of the main range, which here culminated into a huge sugar-loaf cone—with the silver thread of Medicine River twining its wooded feet—the air current in which they had sailed so long, suddenly failed, leaving them absolutely be- calmed in mid-air; while below them and between them and .- the earth, the fleecy clouds, impelled by an under-current, went sailing on in singular contrast with the motionless calm that reigned above; at one moment opening to disclose olimpses of the fair, bright world below, and then closing up and paving the air beneath the car with masses of silvery white cloud that looked like carded wool. — “This is a most remarkable phenomenon to occur at this brief distance from the earth,” said Max, consulting the barometer and other scientific instruments. ‘‘We are scarcely half a mile high and utterly becalmed, while the clouds beneath are in constant motion.” “Yes, and here is an Injun encampment right at our feet.” said Sam; and they all looked over, and, through a break in the cloudy floor, saw a dozen or more Indians gath- ered together at the foot of the mountain, and at such a short distance that their voices could be distinctly heard. A single wigwam, or temporary lodge, of bark and skins, stood a little distance apart, and the Indians appeared to be busily engaged in lighting a fire, preparatory to making a pot boil, which was suspended on a cross-piece, supported by two upright forked sticks over a heap of fagots, before which two or three of the savages knelt patiently striking their flints with steel, while their comrades lounged about, look-~ ED LAZY Ob Gh dy BA Rar bce | “Eom o 200Ks co mh