better part of a mile, and nearly an entire day consumed before enough
steam could be raised to induce him to travel to the river, to procure
it himself, while the miners acted as convoys.

Late one afternoon, they reached a singular formation in the prairie.
It was so rough and uneven that they proceeded with great difficulty
and at a slow rate of speed. While advancing in this manner, they
found they had unconsciously entered a small narrow valley, the bottom
of which was as level as a ground floor. The sides contracted until
less than a hundred feet separated them, while they rose to the hight
of some eight or ten feet, and the bottom remained compact and firm,
making it such easy traveling for the steam man, that the company
followed down the valley, at a slow pace, each, however, feeling some
misgiving as to the propriety of the course.

'It runs in the right direction,' said young Brainerd, 'and if it only
keeps on as it began, it will prove a very handy thing for us.'

'Hyar's as afeared it ain't goin' to keep on in that style,' remarked
Baldy; 'howsumever, you can go ahead awhile longer.'

'Naow, that's what I call real queer,' remarked Ethan Hopkins, who was
stretching his legs by walking alongside the steamer.

'And it's meself that thinks the same,' added Mickey, puffing away at
his short black pipe. 'I don't understand it, as me father obsarved
when they found fault with him for breaking another man's head.'

'Ef we git into trouble, all we've got ta do is to back out,' remarked
Baldy, as a sort of apology for continuing his advance.