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head them off, but when they reached the top of the ridge, would discover that the horses had gone the other way, and out of sight. They kept a person guessing all the time, and none could tell what trick they would spring next.

Near the north end of the island, to the west side, is a little mountain that projects out into the lake. By following the lake shore, it was about four miles from this mountain to the corral. After the horses had been driven from the south end of the island, they generally took refuge behind this little mountain. The men ran them through the deep sand the whole distance around to the corral, and in this way captured nearly one hundred head. One day the men got about ninety wild horses behind this mountain, but, unfortunately, some of them were the same that had been corralled before but had gotten away. After they had been run through the sand to the extreme north end of the island, rather than be corralled, they lunged into the lake and swam to the promontory, some fifteen or twenty miles away.

Among the first horses caught were some of the largest and best on the island. During the month of May there came a severe snowstorm, and eighteen of the most valuable of these Ichilled and died. The balance were shipped to Layton and placed in a pasture where they remained until the men had completed their work. Several of the island horses were used as saddle animals to take the place of the clumsy valley horse, which was not fit to ride over rough country.

By the middle of June, the horses on the island were as fat and sleek as seals, and the large bands were broken up into small ones. The men worked faithfully for ten days, but never corralled a horse, and were almost discouraged. They finally adopted a new plan. There was a place on the west side where two trails paralleled each other for a mile. Apparently there was no way of crossing the island for several miles south of this point. Neither was there any way of getting around these trails, or going from one to the other. At the north end of the upper one was a natural gate formed by two large rocks. Here the men spent a week in building a stone corral. They walled up the lower trail at the south end to prevent the horses from going that way. While this work was going on, they often saw wild horses looking

over the tops of high rocks at them. When their work was completed, they rode back to camp with a good deal of joy and satisfaction, feeling they had at last outwitted the cunning and crafty island horse. Bright and early the next morning, they rode south, on the east side, scaring up wild bands as they went, heading them in that direction. They also went around the south end, at the same time taking precautions to prevent the horses from crossing back to the east side. They then rode northward visiting every nook and corner, and making a clean sweep as they went. There was a good deal of enthusiasm among them, and excitement was at a high pitch. Their expectations were so great that they could hardly contain themselves. The majority of them were afraid. that the corral would be too small, as they expected to capture almost every horse on the island, that day. They rode slowly along until they reached within a few hundred feet of the rock enclosure, when, with a rush and whoop, they ran their horses to the entrance of it. But lo and behold, all they discovered was a large horse track. This horse had deliberately walked into the corral, all around it, and then out again, and was gone! It seemed as if he had been sent there to inspect the work and report to the proper horse authorities, and that the news had been sent broadcast over the island, warning every horse of the cunning trap laid for them. Suffice it to say, every horse that had been driven around the south end of the island that day, had crossed to the east side, over a secret pass which only the horses knew.

The men were dumbfounded and disgusted with themselves, and everything connected with Antelope Island. They rode back to camp with drooped heads, and not one of them uttered a word or batted an eye. They got their outfit together and the next day were in Layton "necking" island horses and getting them ready for the final drive to Salt Lake City. To cap the climax, sixteen head of their best horses lifted their heads and tails skyward, and with several snorts made a bee-line for the Sand Ridge. They went over fences, ditches, chicken coops and everything in front of them. Single file, they followed the railroad track, until they came to the railroad bridge over Kay's Creek. It was about one hundred feet across it, with sharp-edged ties at both ends. They planted their feet squarely upon these ties, better than a

man could have done, and trotted right over. Not one of them stumbled or made a misstep. A farmer's horse in the field close by became excited and undertook to follow them, but the first step he took on the sharp-edged ties, he went head over heels almost breaking his neck. After the horses had reached the Sand Ridge northwest of Layton, all the horsemen in Davis county could not have brought them back.

The people of Kaysville stocked the island with ten thousand head of sheep. Feed became scarce, and many horses died of starvation. Adam Patterson, in 1877, purchased ten thousand acres of railroad land on the island, and the sheep were moved off that year. The Island Improvement Company obtained possession of the island, in 1884, and there were about one hundred wild horses left. They had become a nuisance, and Mr. John H. White and others went there with their long-range guns and exterminated them. Thus ended the horses of Antelope Island, once the pride of such men as Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball and hundreds of others who knew the value of a good horse.

There are twenty

The old Church house, built by Fielding Garr, in 1849, still remains in good condition. Mr. Scott Gamble, who has charge of the company's interests there, now lives in it. four hundred acres of land fenced in, and one thousand acres under cultivation. Thirty head of buffalo and six hundred head of Hereford cattle now roam over the island. Mr. John H. White, who has had more to do with Antelope Island since the days of Brigham Young than any other man, thinks that the day is not far off when the west side of the island will become one of the most noted pleasure resorts west of the Mississippi river. At some time not far away, the old veteran horseman who once chased wild horses over the island intends to visit it once more with some of his friends, and all who are able will ride over its rocky trails to view the scenes of their boyhood days. The festivities will close with an old fashioned camp-fire supper.

[THE END.]

Salt Lake City, Utah.

A PROPHETIC INCIDENT.

BY HEBER Q. HALE, ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER OF IMMIGRATION, LABOR AND STATISTICS OF THE STATE OF IDAHO.

When Captain Lot Smith had his company of volunteers with their teams lined up in front of the Lion House, in Salt Lake City, to be reviewed by President Brigham Young, before embarking on the perilous expedition of the spring of 1862, it was discovered that his organization was not complete-he lacked a wagon

master.

When questioned by the President as to whom he would like for the position, the captain replied, "I want Sol. Hale." A man from the line spoke up, stating that he had just seen Mr. Hale drive into town. J. Q. Knowlton was immediately dispatched to bring him before the President, in his office.

When Mr. Hale entered, President Young informed him that he was organizing a company to go east and set in order the stage lines and stations which had been much interfered with and, in many instances, burned by the Indians, and to protect in-coming immigrant trains, and that he was wanted to go with the company as its wagon-master. "Now, can you go?" interrogated the President.

The young man replied, "President Young, I have given my promise to old Father and Mother Austin that I would go in search of their son, Ed, who is reported by parties who arrived yesterday as having been killed by the Indians, near Beaver, on his return from San Bernardino with a band of horses, and his brother and I have our wagon and horses in readiness to leave in search for the body and to recover the horses, if possible. We were just in buying a few supplies when Quince came for me."

"Well," said the President, "if you are ready to go south, you are certainly ready to go east."

"Yes, but what can I tell Father and Mother Austin?" inquired Sol, upon whom rested a responsibility which he dare not shirk.

President Young's mind was in deep thought, and before the last words of the closing question were spoken, he bowed his head and rested it upon his hand, with his elbow upon the railing inclosing the desk in the general office. Nearly a minute elapsed before he raised his head to speak. Fixing his eyes squarely upon those of the anxious face before him, President Young made this extraordinary statement:

"Sol, you can tell Brother and Sister Austin that I say their son is still living, and is safe, and will return to them in a few days."

"Then I will go with the company," responded the ever-ready young man.

Sol mounted his horse and rode back to the store where he had left "Nute" with the team and wagon. He related the incident that he was called to go east with Lot Smith's company, and told him the words of President Young to his parents. Whereupon young Austin began crying, and begged Sol to yet go with him in search of his brother.

Sol answered in about these words: "No; I have now promised to go out with the volunteers, and my faith in President Young's word tells me that Ed is all right and will soon be home. He then bade his friend good bye and joined the ranks, and the company began its march.

The third day out the company reached a station in Echo Canyon, and Captain Smith sent back to President Young a statement of their progress. The last words of the President's return message were: "Tell Sol, Ed Austin just arrived with horses O. K."

The foregoing was related to the writer by his father, President Solomon H. Hale, of the Oneida stake, residing in Preston, Idaho.

The Austin brothers are still living. Ed. N. Austin is the present bishop of the Liberty ward, in Bear Lake county, Idaho. Boise, Idaho.

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