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Show THE GREAT BASIN OF UTAH 53 into the mouth of the trap, is naturally directed by the fence on either side to make his escape at the angle. Reaching this point, the Indian, whom he has just passed, pops up from his hiding- place and shoots him. Their mode of starting a fire is certainly very primitive, and is described in Captain Simpson's jour-nal of June 3d, as follows : " On reaching our camping- place, which I call the Middle Gate, I saw a naked Indian stretched out on the rocks on an inclination of about twenty degrees. He was so much the color of the rocks, that he escaped our notice till we were right upon him. On being aroused, he looked a little astonished to see so many armed white men about him, but soon felt assured of his safety by our kind treatment. He seemed par-ticularly pleased when he saw the long string of white-topped wagons coming in, and laughed outright for joy. I counted twenty- seven rats and one lizard lying about him, which he had killed for food. He had with him his appliances for making fire. They consisted simply of a piece of hard ' grease- wood' ( so called) about two feet long, and of the size or smaller than one's little finger, in cross- section. This was rounded at the butt. Then a second flat piece of the same kind of wood, six inches long by one broad and one- half thick. This second piece- had a number of semispherical cavities on one face of it. With this laid on the ground, the cavities uppermost, he placed the other stick between the palms of his hands, and with one end of the latter in the cavity, and holding the stick in a vertical position, he would roll it Vapidly |