Page:A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879).djvu/256

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LADY'S LIFE IN
LETTER XIII.

LETTER XIII.

The Blight of Mining—Green Lake—Golden City—Benighted—Vertigo—Boulder Canyon—Financial straits—A hard Ride—The last Cent—A Bachelor's Home—Mountain Jim—A Surprise—A Night Arrival—Making the best of it—Scanty Fare.

Boulder, November.

The answer regarding a horse (at the end of my former letter) was given to the landlord outside the hotel, and presently he came in and asked my name, and if I were the lady who had crossed from Link's to South Park by Tarryall Creek; so news travels fast. In five minutes the horse was at the door, with a clumsy two-horned side-saddle, and I started at once for the upper regions. It was an exciting ride, much spiced with apprehension. The evening shadows had darkened over Georgetown, and I had 2000 feet to climb, or give up Green Lake. I shall forget many things, but never the awfulness and hugeness of that scenery. I went up a steep track by Clear Creek, then a succession of frozen waterfalls in a widened and then narrowed valley, whose frozen sides looked 5000 feet high. That is the region of enormous mineral wealth in