Fortunately, there
had been a late fall of snow on the higher ranges, and the river was, for
the summer season, low.
Towards evening, having travelled, so far as he could guess, some twenty
or five and twenty miles (for he had made another mid day halt), he
reached the place, which he easily recognised, as that where he had
camped before crossing to the pass that led into Erewhon. It was the
last piece of ground that could be called a flat (though it was in
reality only the sloping delta of a stream that descended from the pass)
before reaching a large glacier that had encroached on the river-bed,
which it traversed at right angles for a considerable distance.
Here he again camped, hobbled his horse, and turned him adrift, hoping
that he might again find him some two or three months hence, for there
was a good deal of sweet grass here and there, with sow-thistle and
anise; and the coarse tussock grass would be in full seed shortly, which
alone would keep him going for as long a time as my father expected to be
away. Little did he think that he should want him again so shortly.
Having attended to his horse, he got his supper, and while smoking his
pipe congratulated himself on the way in which something had smoothed
away all the obstacles that had so nearly baffled him on his earlier
journey.
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