CONTENTS

FIRST SKETCH

First Experiences in the San Juan - Land of mountains and plains - Home of the Cliff-Dwellers - Mummy apostrophized - Trip to Telluride - Young Canadian falls over a precipice - A flourishing mining camp - Silverton in Christmas attire - The "Gloria in Excelsis" - The sacred strains in the midnight air - Perilous night ride. 7 - 25

SECOND SKETCH

Funeral in the Rockies - A daring and expert horseman - The cowboy and the wild broncho - Sensational drilling contest - Chattanooga's two inhabitants - Sunset on Ophir's range - Disaster befalls a tenderfoot - Skeleton recalls a tragedy - "Marry in haste, and repent at leisure" - Mountains echo the "Requiescant in pace" - A sudden storm. 26 - 38

THIRD SKETCH

From Dallas to Telluride - A genial stage-driver - A hero of the Crimea - Fatal accident at the Sheridan - A picturesque canon - Dreadful catastrophes - Train of burros - Sequel of right line movement - Religious services at Telluride - Summoned in haste to a deathbed. 39 - 55

FOURTH SKETCH

A Social and Religious Center - Hospitable family on the Divide - Pastoral scene - Excursion party in the interests of science and religion - A few shots from a rifle bring relief in a dilemma - Medicine administered at the point of a gun - Sick call to Turkey Creek - An invalid and his queer nurse - Curiosity punished - Navajo Indian - Trout Lake, a romantic spot - Fifty-five miles in the saddle. 56 - 71

FIFTH SKETCH

Celebration of a Festival - An unhappy marriage - Bear Creek Falls festooned with snow - The Mother Cline snowslide - Ironton's unique character - Hairbreadth escape in a storm - Racy ballad, "Patrick's Day in the Morning" - Sick-bed conversions - The hospital, from a missionary standpoint. 72 - 63

SIXTH SKETCH

Thrilling Incidents of a Hunting Trip - Superior qualities of the broncho - Breakneck race down cork screw trail - The deer that never came - The Cascade of Ouray - Mountain scenery at its best - The bear and the prospectors - "The burnt child dreads the fire" - The mountain lion - The Snowslide in verse - Perplexing situation - The welcome stream - Home again. 84 - 103

SEVENTH SKETCH

A Devoted Mother in Adversity - A captain meets reverses of fortune - Sad deathbed scene - Manual and Industrial training of the young - Education in the right line - Solemn religious service at early morn - By the Hermosa - A red haired stranger - A "friend in need is a friend indeed" - Strange chorus in a storm - Verses on the burro, "He's a bird - a true canary." 104 - 119

EIGHTH SKETCH

The Blasphemer's Fate - Some of Ouray's sociable characters - Life above timber line - Appalling misfortune - Prince, the beautiful setter - Faithful friends lost in an avalanche - Edifying death of a miner - Told in verse by a local poet "Only the Actions of the Just, Smell sweet and blossom in the dust" 120 - 137

NINTH SKETCH

Baneful Effects of Intemperance - John, the soldier - Spending a fortune - "Nothing heavenly in the miser" - A promising career ruined by drink - Reflections upon the evils of intemperance - Triumph of grace - Reconciliation - "All's well that ends well." 138 - 153

TENTH SKETCH

Ten Days on a Sick Call - Old Gray, the horse with one ear - On a hogback - Dolores and the early missionaries - Attending a sick man under difficulties - A tidy bachelor's hall - Dies on his way to the lowlands - How funeral expenses were defrayed - A mail carrier, faithful in death - Ingenious use made of an ulster. 154 - 166

ELEVENTH SKETCH

Virtue, the only Nobility - The boys of Donegal - Pleasant companions on a stagecoach - Rico's second boom - Telluride's bank robbery - Sheriff's posse in pursuit of robbers - Baptism at the Springs - Weird scene at early dawn - Death's lesson. 167 - 182

TWELFTH SKETCH

Colorado among the States - Her people and her resources - San Juan's future - A great city of the southwest - "Fountain of Perpetual Youth" - Las Animas canon - Sublime scenery - How a mine is worked - A miner's mode of living - His intelligence - A land "where the peach and apple grow" - Ouray, the Picturesque. 183 - 194