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Show 226 TALES OF THE COLORADO PIONEERS. " The river was very rapid and full of boulders, around which clung cakes of ice. Our cattle, thin, weak and tired, were numb with cold, and halted in the middle of the river. The men plunged into the cold stream, which was waist deep, tied ropes to their horns, went upon the opposite shore and endeavored to drag them over, but with no success. They then unloaded the wagon, putting the goods upon the ice, which was liable to break off and float away, unyoked the oxen, dragged the wagon over, and carried the goods on their shoulders. The faithful little jack swam the river with me on its back. Upon consulting our watch we found that we had been six hours crossing the Arkansas. " We made a fire, dried our clothing on us, and nursed the cattle all night, feeling that we must save them, for our provision was getting low, and unless game came in from the valley, we should be obliged to eat them. " After camping in this place a week we moved further up the river, where we went to work in earnest. Mr. Tabor and Mr. Maxey whip-sawed some lumber and made sluice-boxes, sawed riffles from a log, put in a ditch from the creek, and commenced washing the bank away. Cleaning the boxes up at night, we found fine gold in an abundance of black sand. I worked hard every day trying to separate the gold from the iron sand, and at night would have only a few pennyweights of the precious metal. For four weeks we worked there; our supplies were about gone and we felt discouraged. It had been one long year since we heard from the loved ones at home. " One morning a man came to the camp and said he was one of the party that left Denver a few days in advance of us, a'nd they had found gold in paying quanti- |