"Surefooted" mules on such ground
would have fallen and rolled like loosened boulders. Many a time, where
the slopes are far lower, I have been compelled to take off my shoes and
stockings, tie them to my belt, and creep barefooted, with the utmost
caution. No wonder then, that I watched the progress of these animal
mountaineers with keen sympathy, and exulted in the boundless
sufficiency of wild nature displayed in their invention, construction,
and keeping. A few minutes later I caught sight of a dozen more in one
band, near the foot of the upper fall. They were standing on the same
side of the river with me, only twenty-five or thirty yards away,
looking as unworn and perfect as if created on the spot. It appeared by
their tracks, which I had seen in the Little Yosemite, and by their
present position, that when I came up the canon they were all feeding
together down in the valley, and in their haste to reach high
ground, where they could look about them to ascertain the nature of the
strange disturbance, they were divided, three ascending on one side the
river, the rest on the other.
The main band, headed by an experienced chief, now began to cross the
wild rapids between the two divisions of the cascade.
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