the first station they were
exchanged for mules, and these animals hauled it the remainder of the
way. Drivers were changed about eight times in making the trip to
Santa Fe; and some of them were comical fellows, but full of nerve and
endurance, for it required a man of nerve to handle eight frisky mules
through the rugged passes of the mountains, when the snow was drifted
in immense masses, or when descending the curved, icy declivities to
the base of the range. A cool head was highly necessary; but frequently
accidents occurred and sometimes were serious in their results.

A snowstorm in the mountains was a terrible thing to encounter by the
coach; all that could be done was to wait until it had abated, as there
was no going on in the face of the blinding sheets of intensely cold
vapour which the wind hurled against the sides of the mountains.
All inside of the coach had to sit still and shake with the freezing
branches of the tall trees around them. A summer hailstorm was much more
to be dreaded, however; for nowhere else on the earth do the hailstones
shoot from the clouds of greater size or with greater velocity than in
the Rocky Mountains. Such an event invariably frightened the mules and
caused them to stampede; and, to escape death from the coach rolling
down some frightful abyss, one had to jump out, only to be beaten to
a jelly by the masses of ice unless shelter could be found under some
friendly ledge of rock or the thick limbs of a tree.

Nothing is more fatiguing than travelling for the first day and night
in a stage-coach; after that, however, one gets used to it and the
remainder of the journey is relatively comfortable.

The only way to alleviate the monotony of riding hour after hour was
to walk; occasionally this was rendered absolutely necessary by some
accident, such as breaking a wheel or axle, or when an animal gave out
before a station was reached. In such cases, however, no deduction was
made from the fare, that having been collected in advance, so it cost
you just as much whether you rode or walked. You could exercise your
will in the matter, but you must not lag behind the coach; the savages
were always watching for such derelicts, and your hair was the forfeit!

In the worst years, when the Indians were most decidedly on the
war-trail, the government furnished an escort of soldiers from the
military posts; they generally rode in a six-mule army-wagon, and were
commanded by a sergeant or co