In the “Black Crack.”

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVI, Issue 12, 22 March 1911, Page 48

In the “Black Crack.”

By

FRED R. LEWIS.

CTT S a general rule the excitement of f I hunting is in direct ratio to the „Fl pluck and ferocity of the animal sought; yet the most stirring ami bizarre incident of my lumtrng ex“"r enX occurred in the chase of that £ost timid and wary of a l mountain sheep. The event ‘ connection with an expedition to tlc ’ Albmel country of California, and, as it involved a moment of physical contac with what 1 believe was one ot the largest specimens of Ovis monvana that ever lived, a brief account of it may be worth recording. Starting from the Needles, for the ■best part of a fortnight we had traversed every kind of country, from rich irrmated river bottoms to arid plains ot alkali, where the hollow trail of our pack-train, stretching away to the southern horizon, would gradually grow into bas-relief as the gusty desert wind blew away the loose earth around the tracks. We crossed flint-paved, cloud-burst moraines, where the horses’ hoofs wore to the quick, to zigzag down abrupt cutbanks into salt-sinks, where the place foi every step had to be prodded with a stick. Always we had to endure the. withering heat of the sun at midday and the biting coldness of the air at the end of the night; and all the time we never saw a tree for shade, never a spring for drink, and never a sign of life to relieve the monotony. There was not even a trail for guidance, our course being steered, like that of a ship at sea, by com-pass-bearing of star and headland. The fourth day out we sighted the tip of the lofty and isolated mountain peak commonly called San Pedro, and from then on shaped our course over plain and pass by the blot its steadily growing bulk made against the deep blue of the northern sky. The tenth day, with all the horses’ water gone and only a few swallows apiece for ourselves, we travelled Tong into the night, in the hope of reaching our destination and avoiding the pitiless grilling that a waterless day would render inevitable under- the scorching sun. Soon after a wisp of the new moon wriggled down behind the shoulder- of the now towering mass of San Pedro, however, we were compelled to camp through losing our bearings. The next morning we were afoot at day-

break, and, topping the first rise, found ourselves practically at our journey’s end. The sun, a disc of glowing copper, was just nosing its way above the rim of the desert, the floor-like surface of which stretched away beyond eye-range to the eastern horizon. The level rays, cutting through the clear air, struck upon each cliff and seam of the mighty San Pedro like the beams of a thousand searchlights. Every gully, every ravine, every canyon was sun-searched to the last pebble. All save one—a sinister line of heavy, black, murky and bottomless to the eye, which clove the mountain from the base upwards, to be finally lost in a tumble of giant boulders on a lofty mesa. From the lower end of this forbidding seam leapt a stream of clear water, to be dissolved in spray before it reached a rock-bound pool which glimmered in lucent green through the brighter verdure of a grove of fan-palms and nodding cottonwoods. A hundred-yard straggle of dewy grass, a fugitive gleam of water between brown rocks, and the desert, as parched and dry as that -which we had been traversing for weeks, resumed its sway.

The prime object of our trip was to allow certain members of the party to look over some borax deposits, which done, there Were still a few days left for hunting. The evening before we planned to go out for sheep there was a heavy cloud-burst high up on the mountain — a circumstance which led our head packer to believe that no animals would appear at the lower water-holes for forty-eight hours. It was for this reason that, except for a revolver, I was unarmed when I set out to explore the great black crack, the source of our water supply.

At the outset my interest was aroused by the discovery of three sets of tracks in the moist sand near the foot of the falls, the largest of -which, while like those of a sheep in form, seemed in size more like tiie tracks of a cow. Up a well-defined but precarious path to the head of the falls led the prints—the big ones first, from the fact that the others had cut into them—and then up the smooth bottom into the murky blackness of the sinister hole, an occasional grassstain or hoof-scratch on the rock furnishing the only evidence that living creatures had passed. In less than a hun-

dred yards the marks led me up to a deep-worn path, where I found good footing many feet above the foam-white stream. Overhead the sides of the chasm overlapped in places, and occasional glimpses of the -broken ribbon of the sky showed only patches of purpleblack, studded with pale, lemon-eoloured spots —the stars. The glare of the desert day had sunk to the subdued light of an old cathedral, and the roar of the stream, swelling constantly as I proceeded, seemed to have become a palpable substance rather than a mere sound. I was soon conscious of a strong draught of air rushing past, and the tingle of drift spray on my face. Hounding a turn, I came upon another fall, or, more properly, a cascade, that came tumbling down a chute from a subterranean source somewhere deep in the bowels of the mountain. The great crack bent sharply -to the left and ran on with its bottom as dry as the sun-bleached sheepskulls on the flat-topped rock.

But where before both walls of the uncanny gorge w’ere of black basalt, one —the left—was now formed of a lofty ledge of pure white crystalline quartz —•“ bull ” quartz, the miners call it. This acted as reflector for the few plummets of light that sounded to such a depth,"and the sepulchral effect was less pronounced than in the lower chasm. Several old scars, where some prospector’s hammer had knocked off samples,' showed from time to time, but the latter must have proved fragments of disappointment, for even my untrained eye told me that but for a few sparkling clusters of yellow garnets the ledge was almost, if not quite, barren of “values.” Impelled almost against my will, I fared on up the weird gorge, constantly marvelling at the grotesque effects in light and shade wrought by its sharplyeontrasted walls. For perhaps a quarter of a mile it ran thus, and then, in one of the -strangest corners in the world, bent again -at right angles and zigzagged along in its original course up the mountain, both walls black as night again, almost knocking against each other. I will describe tins place as I saw it at my leisure some days later, the rapid sequence of events of the next hour or so having made it impossible for me to give much intelligent attention to detail at the time.

When the disturbances occurred that opened up the great crack in the lofty old mountain, the rift evidently ran.down until it encountered the quartz vein, and then ran along and around the latter in the same way as a crack in a board runs around a knot-hole. The subterranean water-flow was probably tapped at the same time. The upper gorge only ran water in thunderstorms, and possibly for a while in the spring, when the sun was melting the winter’s snow on the summit. Just as the crack reached the gleaming quartz wall its bottom fell away abruptly for three hundred feet or more, forming, when the flood was on, a waterfall whose stream was precipitated out against the ledge and down to the pool below. Now the impetuous stream from a cloud-burst is usually composed of about as much sand as water, and centuries cf grinding at the elbow in question had gouged out a well of great depth at the foot of the fall, partly worn out of the diamond-hard quartz and partly scoured out of the volcanic rock of the mountain. Immediately after a flow had eeased this well was level-full, and looked like any other waterfall pool, but gradually the porous basalt absorbed its contents and its surface sank steadily till the next storm. The Indians, cf course, had a characteristic story to the effect that the pit had its bottom in the infernal regions and the filling was the work of devils, who cooled themselves during the journey up through the water in preparation for the mild earthly temperatures.

Around the right side of the well ran a narrow path, worn by aeons of use into the sloping rock. Along this a man with a steady head could piek his way to a broad shelf of flinty obsidian that was thrust out over the water directly under and behind where the fall came down after rains. This shelf was some ten yards long, and varied in width from two to five feet. It tilted slightly backward, and its whole surface was strewn with a snowy sand worn from the quartz cliff, which remained behind when tho lighter gravel and basaltie particles were sluiced away. When I came upon the scene the water of the well had sunk to about twenty feet below the shelf, path, and outlet, all of which were on nearly the same level. The wall behind the shelf was plainly the head of navigation for everything but birds; but, urged on by curi-

osity, I began to edge cautiously along the faint depression that led around ths pit. It was ticklish work, and my eyes were too busy helping my feet to wandeE far afield after anything else. Suddenly, a snort like the bursting of a bomb ripped out in the half-darkness ahead, and before I could retreat or even dravyl my revolver I was dealt a pile-driving blow across the thighs that sent me spinning down into the well. My legs were almost paralysed from the blow, and various other portions of my anatomy, suffered as I rieochetted into the depths, while the broadside slap I got from thd water itself would have been ample cause for complaint under ordinary conditions. All this, .however, was as nothing to thq fact that the whole surface of the pool was presently alive with hoofs and hornsf and woolly backs, and the air a-quiveß with bleatings, snortings, and splashings, which, increased a hundred-fold by, the ringing echoes of the gruesome cavern, made a bedlam that bqggars description. y

It appears that I had stumbled upon my sheep at a moment when the strangeness of my surroundings had driven every thought of them from my, mind. The shelf was a day rendezvous of tiie flock under the suzerainty of giant ram, and in true mountain-sheen fashion they had stood motionless during my approach, in the hope that If might overlook them and turn back. When they d ; d start, it was a theatre-firq rush over again, and the narrow passage was not sufficient to accommodate the crowd. The old patriarch himself had been responsible for my downfall, but the impact had also thrown his own dead-centre out of true, and we had gone together. Now he was experiencing the inconvenience of fifty pounds of hornsf on the top of a head that instinct was undoubtedly telling him it was vitallyj necessary to keep above water. I don’t know how many of the flocK escaped, but the pool was like a freq plunge for the poor on an August afternoon. There must have been ten op twelve in all, net counting myself— A mostly ewes—and each was trying tot keep itself up by climbing over someone, else. It was probably my imagination that led me to think at the time that thq company showed favouritism in selecting my ’ own much-abused body for a lifepreserver, but it is very certain that I had a lively struggle of it for five minutes. -

At last I thought of my revolver with its chamber full of waterproof cartridges; but by the time I got it out some of the great' heads were already beginning tel droop, and I had neither the nerve not the heart to fire into the staring, fear-! stricken eyes that fixed themselves so; appealingly on my own. One by one they ceased to press upon me and upon each other. The big ram went first, pawing the water to foam and snorting angrily, until the brave old nose was driven under water by the sheer weight of the horns above it, and suffocation ensued. Soon another ram ceased struggling, and shortly after him a weak old ewe. Thq last to go, a half-grown lamb, held od for some time by supporting its nosd on the body of what may have been, it*

mother and feebly treading water. When at last life flickered out and the pathetic little body floated with only the withers allowing among the other brown patches, the fascination of the grim tragedy passed and left me free to realise my Own situation. ■ I had found a narrow ledge, about five feet under water upon which one foot could rest, while with a slight movement of the opposite arm and hand I could keep my body in position and my _head above the surface. By alternating the hands and feet in use I felt sure I (Was good for some hours. Not that there Was much encouragement in this fact, for I knew the Indians would not venture into this devil’s canyon, and I had '{•rave doubts about our Mexican packer. Tut it was something to have time to (Man and do one’s best, even if nothing bailie of it. Bruce, I argued to myself, got out of prison by means of a spider, ‘And surely seven fine mountain sheep—even dead ones—were better than a spiiler. I scanned the gently swaying bodies long and anxiously, but made nothing out of them. "The basalt overhung all around, but the quartz face Sloped back slightly, and in places was thickly studded with “knuckles'* of garnets. It looked worth trying, at any rate, and it struck me that it would be (Vastly preferable to climb out on a ladder of garnets than by the golden stairs. I mounted to the level of the outlet Without great difficulty, only to find twenty feet of smooth crystal, polished like a plate-glass mirror, between me and the path. I hung on despairingly for a ■pace that seemed long enough for more garnets to grow in; then my strength 'and one of the supporting “knuckles” gave way together, and I went back to the water, striking no whit the softer for landing among the sheep. t I swam back and took up my old position, with a toe on the submerged ledge, conscious that I was beginning to ache (from head to foot. Shooting pains ran from hip to shoulder, making constant changes of position necessary, and at last ihe cold water began to have its effect and a violent eramp seized the calf of one of my legs. 1 managed to make the knotted muscles relax by gripping them ,with all my strength, first, with one hand and then the other, but I got my head under water in doing it and came Up snorting in a manner that reminded me 'altogether too much of the dying agonies of the big ram to be pleasant.

Presently I was aware of a burning thirst, ,aJid for fully a minute I asked myself what 1-Would'net give for a long draught of"'cbM' water-before I realised I was submerged to the very lips in the finest kind of drink. This was the first evidence I bad that my mental faculties were beginning to miss connection, and my nerves began to give away very fast after that. Finally, I lost control of myself altogether and began to shout. The storm of echoes frightened me to silence for a minute or two; then, unable to stand the strain -any longer, I whooped again, whipped out my revolver, and fired off the six shots in rapid succession.

The effect was something tremendous, the reverberations, at first ear-splitting-ly gradually deepened as they rolled away, until the sound fell to the mutter of distant thunder. Then there would be an interval of silence before they came bounding back again to fill the walls of my prison with rumbles and deep-mouthed growls. > A dozen times this terror I had loosed returned to whip to fiddlestrings my remaining shreds of nerves. Sometimes I could hear it come leaping down from above with pauses between each jump, as ■though to keep me in suspense at the slow approach; again it would burst out unheralded almost over my head, while. I cowered fear-stricken, submerged to the eyes in the water. Time and again I told myself that there was a limit to Nature’s power to keep an echo going, and once I pinched myself and counted my fingers to make sure I was still possessed of reason, but nothing would stop the uncanny noises. After a while I noticed that the purple of my overhead sky-patch had changed to black, and I knew it was night. All night long I fought cramps to the roll of that ghostly fusillade- I had lost all count of time, 'but when the sky brightened again I told myself it was morning. Perhaps now, in spite of their fears, tire men would come to look for me.

It was some time before I became aware that the terrifying volleys from my revolver-shots had ceased to echo, and the forenoon seemed well advanced before another sound, a grinding roar, came. t.o take their place. I was given no time to count my fingers or apply any other ’’tests to determine whether itl-was a real sound or not, for while I was still

(trying to screw myself into a position (from which I could sea the top of- tile fall, a mass of water sand gravel 'shot out across the chasm, and, ‘breaking on the opposite wall of quartz, came showering down into the pool. Instantly iny brain .cleared, and the drowsing faculties leapt- to • a quick understanding of the situation. The sounds I had fancied to be echoes had been real thunder. There had been a oloud-burst on the summit, and the first of the flood that fell to the share of the black crack to carry off was now descending. I was sheltered by the overbang from the immediate fall of the sand and water, but if the burst had been a big one nothing could save me from a ride down stream and over the lowerfall, in which case the sheep, already

dead, would have all the best of it. On the other hand, if tire fall of water above had been light, the storm might yet be the means of getting me clear. At any rate, there was to be no more of the terrible waiting; something was going to happen, and that speedily. The pool heaved arid boiled, and turned a frothy yellow-white from the force of Jthe cabaclyism. Great geysers of foam leapt up and broke back upon themselves, and swirling undercurrents locked and wrestled and turned about each other in the agitated depths. I was only able to hold to nry footrest for a few seconds, but by flattening against the rough wall and digging with my fingers I managed to keep from being whirled under the tawny spout of spray and gravel. The bodies of the sheep kept sweeping 'by, and several times a great head came butting against my ribs, most uncannily suggesting that its owner, even in death, resented my intrusion upon the ancient retreat of his tribe. Almost before I could realize it my fingers clutched the edge of the ledge of obsidian upon. which the sheep had been wont to rest. My numbed muscles refused to raise the ’dead -weight of my assistance,, and a drifting foam-flake came creeping upon the shelf at almost the same moment as lid my weary frame At the same time, also, the outlet on the lower side of the pool came into operation, and the problem of my chances became a very simple one. If the flood could get out fast enough to keep the level of the pool from rising more than a foot or two above the shelf all would Ire well; if not, I was undeniably scheduled for a head-long rush over a anile or so of rough rocks—and then the fall. In the latter event my case would be about parallel to that of the captive of a tribe of savages who make their prisoner run the gauntlet of a double line of clurb-men, and then tomahawk him if he happens to survive the clubbing. The sheep, true as in life to their natural characteristics, crowded in

typical sheep fashion for the opening and jammed -up like a lot of logs, while '• the heaving surface of the pool threw foam-flecks above my waist before the way was cleared. -Then the bodies fairly rolled over each other for first place as they tumbled out of sight on a roaring wave. ‘ All but. the big ram, whose great horns, catching on the rocks, held him back. He finally went pounding off along the bottom, a valiant rear-guard to his one-time family.Five minutes later hardly a trickle was coming over the fall, and I was able to pick my way back to camp without further mishap. Here I had not even been missed. My watch had succumbed when I first fell into the pool, when I asked Antonio, one of the

Mexican packers, for the time he told me that it was five o’clock. It took some time and argument to convince me that I had really returned to camp on the same day that I had left it. It appears, however, that I was gone but two hours and a (half, and the men, not knowing that I was in the canyon, had felt no alarm when the stream swelled from the water from the cloud-burst. We salvaged several fine pairs of horns —two of which are shown in the from of a stool in one of the illustrations — from tjie battered bodies which we discovered strewn among the boulders of the wash a few hundred yards below the fall, but those of the splendid old patriarch were not among them. His body we identified without difficulty, but —probably owing to their great weight -—liis magnificent horns had been broken off and worn to short stubs. We had no tape in the party, but the strand of riata which ,we cut after it had encircled one of these at the shull proved to be slightly over twenty inches in length, and I am comfident that the unlucky veteran’s horns must have been fully of this record-breaking circumference.