a square hit, and they strike the steel spokes of the bicycle and make
them produce harmonious sounds. Trundling through Cooper Lake Basin,
after dark, I get occasional glimpses of mysterious shadowy objects
flitting hither and thither through the dusky pall around me. The basin
is full of antelope, and my presence here in the darkness fills them
with consternation; their keen scent and instinctive knowledge of a
strange presence warn them of my proximity; and as they cannot see me
in the darkness they are flitting about in wild alarm. Stopping for the
night at Lookout, I make an early start, in order to reach Laramie City
for dinner. These Laramie Plains "can smile and look pretty" when they
choose, and, as I bowl along over a fairly good road this sunny Sunday
morning, they certainly choose. The Laramie River on my left, the Medicine
Bow and Snowy ranges - black and white respectively - towering aloft to the
right, and the intervening plains dotted with herds of antelope, complete
a picture that can be seen nowhere save on the Laramie Plains. Reaching
a swell of the plains, that almost rises to the dignity of a hill, I can
see the nickel-plated wheels of the Laramie wheelmen glistening in the
sunlight on the opposite side of the river several miles from where I
stand. They have come out a few miles to meet me, but have taken the
wrong side of the river, thinking I had crossed below Rock Creek. The
members of the Laramie Bicycle Club are the first wheelmen I have seen
since leaving California; and, as I am personally acquainted at Laramie,
it is needless to dwell on my reception at their hands. The rambles of
the Laramie Club are well known to the cycling world from the many
interesting letters from the graphic pen of their captain, Mr. Owen,
who, with two other members, once took a tour on their wheels to the
Yellowstone National Park. They have some very good natural roads around
Laramie, but in their rambles over the mountains these "rough riders of
the Rockies" necessarily take risks that are unknown to their fraternal
brethren farther east.