Outgoing Correspondence from Robert Ridgway

              extremely wild that we only killed five=in coming down the mountain side i had to jump down into a sort of lane or cleft-in the rocks which opened into a cave concealed from view and i jumped almost on top of an old goat and her kid who were lying in the midle of the cave = i do not know who was the most scared = the goats or myself=at any rate i did not shoot and with a loud blast they disappeared like a flash around the face of the cliff = the two indians followed us with their knives and as fast as we shot them had them skinned and flayed our trip was full of all such little incidents and was very satisfactory to all i stayed at the reservation house 8 days after mr king and mr o'sullivan and jn hill left for virginia city = when i having a chance to ride in a wagon with a most estimable friend whose acquaintance i formed on the reservation, 1 availed myself of the opportunity~and as we left i cast a last-longing glance at the placid lake and its double peaked island which had been the scene of many of my happiest days and in  two days i was in washoe=from where i walked one lovely morning over the washoe hills to virginia where at our quarters in the ophin cottage i found mr king and two colored cooks only mr hill having left the day before for the yosemite where he was to transfer to paper the glories of that magnificent valley mr o'sullivan was in carson-the remaining parties in the field-mr o'sullivan and myself with lambert our cook and wagon driver left on the 22nd of june for austin 200 miles eastward where we arrived on the 1st of july=here we joined the main camp but found