I was surprised and somewhat irritated by the hearty laugh with which my reply was greeted. The Major caught the expression of my eye and shrugged his shoulders as he hastily said: “I suppose that is all right, Doctor, about the water-falls, &c., for there are enough of them here for one locality, as we have all discovered; but my remark was not in reference to the scenery, but the _prospect_ of the Indians being starved out, and of their coming in to sue for peace. We have all been more or less wet since we rolled up our blankets this morning, and this fire is very enjoyable, but the prospect that it offers to my mind of _smoking out_ the Indians, is more agreeable to me than its warmth or all the scenery in creation. I know, Doc., that there is a good deal of iron in you, but there is also considerable sentiment, and I am not in a very sentimental mood.” I replied that I did not think that any of us felt very much like making love or writing poetry, but that Ten-ie-ya’s remark to him about the “Great Spirit” providing so bountifully for his people, had several times occurred to me since entering here, and that no doubt to Ten-ie-ya, this was a veritable Indian paradise. “Well,” said the Major, “as far as that is concerned, although I have not carried a Bible with me since I became a mountain-man, I remember well enough that Satan entered paradise and did all the mischief he could, but I intend to be a bigger devil in this Indian paradise than old Satan ever was; and when I leave, I don’t intend to _crawl_ out, either. Now Doc. we will go to camp but let me say while upon the subject, that we are in no condition to judge fairly of this valley. The annoyances and disappointments of a fruitless search, together with the certainty of a snow-storm approaching, makes all this beautiful scenery appear to me gloomy enough. In a word, it is what we supposed it to be before seeing it, a h---- of a place. The valley, no doubt, will always be a wonder for its grouping of cliffs and water-falls, but hemmed in by walls of rock, your vision turned in, as it were, upon yourself--a residence here would be anything but desirable for me. Any one of the Rocky Mountain parks would be preferable, while the ease with which buffalo, black-tail and big-horn could be provided in the “Rockies” would, in comparison, make your Indian paradise anything but desirable, even for these Indians.” [Illustration: NEVADA FALL. (600 feet in height.)]