D. then said that the next
gulch was rather a bad one, and that we must not wait for Kaluna,
but ride fast, and try to get through it. When we reached the pali
above it, we heard the roaring of a torrent, and when we descended
to its brink it looked truly bad, but D. rode in, and I waited on
the margin. She got safely across, but when she was near the
opposite side her large horse plunged, slipped, and scrambled in a
most unpleasant way, and she screamed something to me which I could
not hear. Then I went in, and
"At the first plunge the horse sank low,
And the water broke o'er the saddle bow:"
but the brave animal struggled through, with the water up to the top
of her back, till she reached the place where D.'s horse had looked
so insecure. In another moment she and I rolled backwards into deep
water, as if she had slipped from a submerged rock. I saw her fore
feet pawing the air, and then only her head was above water. I
struck her hard with my spurs, she snorted, clawed, made a desperate
struggle, regained her footing, got into shallow water, and landed
safely. It was a small but not an agreeable adventure.
We went on again, the track now really dangerous from denudation and
slipperiness.
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