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295 conceive how any vehicle cd ever have been got up it or down it. The fame of these American whelps is not confined to their own country, for I am told by an Australian friend, that in that part of the world it is the custom to engage the services of one of them where the roads are unusually difficult. Though it was February when I was in the Mountains, the climate was so bright & warm, that it did not appear strange unclear see the gold washers at work in slush & water. And yet there had been to severe a front in the previous month that the gulch was still thickly frozen over, & there handy men had to break through the ice to get water for washing the dirt in which the gold is found. But though there is here a great deal of often fine weather in winter, yet at this season very severe front, though generally of short duration, may be expected, & also extremely violent storms of wind, often accompanied with snow. A storm of this kind drove me out of the Mountains, as I was afraid, which actually did happen, that it would bring enough snow to block the roads for some days. I made a run for the Plains, & when I reached them I found the storm still raging, & saw the dust it raised looking like a dark haze several yards high. As the wind blew from the Mountains I did not suffer much inconvenience in running before it for twelve miles till I reached shelter. But the next day, when it was over, I saw teamsten? who told me that they had found it impossible to move on across it, & that they had been obliged to