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ESSENTIAL DISCRETE
MATHEMATICS FOR
COMPUTER SCIENCE

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ESSENTIAL DISCRETE
MATHEMATICS FOR
COMPUTER SCIENCE

Harry Lewis and Rachel Zax

−
PR I NC ETON U N I V E R SI T Y PR E S S ∼ PR I NC ETON A ND OX FOR D 0
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Copyright 
c 2019 by Harry Lewis and Rachel Zax

Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work

should be sent to permissions@press.princeton.edu

Published by Princeton University Press

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ISBN 978-0-691-17929-2

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Editorial: Vickie Kearn and Arthur Werneck

Production Editorial: Kathleen Cioffi
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To Alexandra, Stella, Elizabeth, and Annie

and
to David, Marcia, Ben, and Aryeh

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An engineer is said to be a man who knows a great deal about a very

little, and who goes around knowing more and more, about less and
less, until finally, he practically knows everything about nothing;
whereas, a Salesman, on the other hand, is a man who knows a very
little about a great deal, and keeps on knowing less and less about more
and more until finally he knows practically nothing, about everything.

Van Nuys, California, News, June 26, 1933

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CONTENTS

Preface xi

1 The Pigeonhole Principle 1

2 Basic Proof Techniques 11

3 Proof by Mathematical Induction 25

4 Strong Induction 39

5 Sets 49
6 Relations and Functions 59

7 Countable and Uncountable Sets 69

8 Structural Induction 79

9 Propositional Logic 89

10 Normal Forms 101

11 Logic and Computers 111
12 Quantificational Logic 119

13 Directed Graphs 133

14 Digraphs and Relations 141

15 States and Invariants 151

16 Undirected Graphs 161

17 Connectivity 173

18 Coloring 179

19 Finite Automata 187

20 Regular Languages 201

21 Order Notation 211

22 Counting 233
23 Counting Subsets 243 −
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x contents

24 Series 261

25 Recurrence Relations 277

26 Probability 297

27 Conditional Probability 311

28 Bayes’ Theorem 323

29 Random Variables and Expectation 335

30 Modular Arithmetic 359

31 Public Key Cryptography 371

Index 381

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PREFACE

Τοῦ δὲ ποσοῦ τὸ μέν ἐστι διωρισμένον, τὸ δὲ συνεχες.

As to quantity, it can be either discrete or continuous.
—Aristotle, Categories (ca. 350 BCE)

This introductory text treats the discrete mathematics that computer scien-
tists should know but generally do not learn in calculus and linear algebra
courses. It aims to achieve breadth rather than depth and to teach reasoning
as well as concepts and skills.
We stress the art of proof in the hope that computer scientists will learn to
think formally and precisely. Almost every formula and theorem is proved
in full. The text teaches the cumulative nature of mathematics; in spite of the
breadth of topics covered, seemingly unrelated results in later chapters rest
on concepts derived early on.
The text requires precalculus and occasionally uses a little bit of calculus.
Chapter 21, on order notation, uses limits, but includes a quick summary of
the needed basic facts. Proofs and exercises that use basic facts about deriva-
tives and integrals, including l’Hôpital’s rule, can be skipped without loss of
continuity.
A fast-paced one-semester course at Harvard covers most of the material
in this book. That course is typically taken by freshmen and sophomores as
a prerequisite for courses on theory of computation (automata, computabil-
ity, and algorithm analysis). The text is also suitable for use in secondary
schools, for students of mathematics or computer science interested in
topics that are mathematically accessible but off the beaten track of the
standard curriculum.
The book is organized as a series of short chapters, each of which might
be the subject of one or two class sessions. Each chapter ends with a brief
summary and about ten problems, which can be used either as homework
or as in-class exercises to be solved collaboratively in small groups.
Instructors who choose not to cover all topics can abridge the book in
several ways. The spine of the book includes Chapters 1–8 on foundational
concepts, Chapters 13–18 on digraphs and graphs, and Chapters 21–25 on
order notation and counting. Four blocks of chapters are optional and can
be included or omitted at the instructor’s discretion and independently of
each other:
• Chapters 9–12 on logic;
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• Chapters 19–20 on automata and formal languages; 0
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xii preface

• Chapters 26–29 on discrete probability; and

• Chapters 30–31 on modular arithmetic and cryptography.
None of these blocks, if included at all, need be treated in full, since only
later chapters in the same block rely on the content of chapters earlier in the
block.
It has been our goal to provide a treatment that is generic in its tastes and
therefore suitable for wide use, without the heft of an encyclopedic textbook.
We have tried throughout to respect our students’ eagerness to learn and also
their limited budgets of time, attention, and money.
.
With thanks to the CS20 team:
Deborah Abel, Ben Adlam, Paul Bamberg, Hannah Blumberg,
Crystal Chang, Corinne Curcie, Michelle Danoff, Jack Dent,
Ruth Fong, Michael Gelbart, Kirk Goff, Gabriel Goldberg, Paul
Handorff, Roger Huang, Steve Komarov, Abiola Laniyonu, Nicholas
Longenbaugh, Erin Masatsugu, Keenan Monks, Anupa Murali,
Eela Nagaraj, Rebecca Nesson, Jenny Nitishinskaya, Sparsh Sah,
Maria Stoica, Tom Silver, Francisco Trujillo, Nathaniel Ver Steeg,
Helen Wu, Yifan Wu, Charles Zhang, and Ben Zheng;
to Albert Meyer for his generous help at the start of CS20; and to
Michael Sobin, Scott Joseph, Alex Silverstein, and
Noam Wolf for their critiques and support during the writing.
Harry Lewis and Rachel Zax, June 2018

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ESSENTIAL DISCRETE
MATHEMATICS FOR
COMPUTER SCIENCE

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Chapter 1

The Pigeonhole Principle

How do we know that a computer program produces the right results? How
do we know that a program will run to completion? If we know it will
stop eventually, can we predict whether that will happen in a second, in
an hour, or in a day? Intuition, testing, and “it has worked OK every time
we tried it” should not be accepted as proof of a claim. Proving something
requires formal reasoning, starting with things known to be true and con-
necting them together by incontestable logical inferences. This is a book
about the mathematics that is used to reason about the behavior of computer
programs.
The mathematics of computer science is not some special field. Com-
puter scientists use almost every branch of mathematics, including some
that were never thought to be useful until developments in computer science
created applications for them. So this book includes sections on mathemat-
ical logic, graph theory, counting, number theory, and discrete probability
theory, among other things. From the standpoint of a traditional mathemat-
ics curriculum, this list includes apples and oranges. One common feature
of these topics is that all prove useful in computer science. Moreover, they
are all discrete mathematics, which is to say that they involve quantities that
change in steps, not continuously, or are expressed in symbols and structures
rather than numbers. Of course, calculus is also important in computer sci-
ence, because it assists in reasoning about continuous quantities. But in this
book we will rarely use integrals and derivatives.
.
One of the most important skills of mathematical thinking is the art of
generalization. For example, the proposition

? There is no triangle with sides of lengths 1, 2, and 6

2
1

6 is true, but very specific (see Figure 1.1). The sides of lengths 1 and 2 would
Figure 1.1. Can there be a triangle have to join the side of length 6 at its two ends, but the two short sides −
with sides of lengths 1, 2 and 6? together aren’t long enough to meet up at the third corner. 0
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2 essential discrete mathematics for computer science

A more general statement might be (Figure 1.2)

?
b There is no triangle with sides of lengths a, b, and c if a, b, c are
a
any numbers such that a + b ≤ c.
c
Figure 1.2. There is no triangle with The second form is more general because we can infer the first from the
sides of lengths a, b and c if a + b ≤ c. second by letting a = 1, b = 2, and c = 6. It also covers a case that the pic-
ture doesn’t show—when a + b = c, so the three “corners” fall on a straight
line. Finally, the general rule has the advantage of not just stating what
is impossible, but explaining it. There is no 1 − 2 − 6 triangle because
1 + 2 ≤ 6.
So we state propositions in general form for two reasons. First, a propo-
sition becomes more useful if it is more general; it can be applied with
confidence in a greater variety of circumstances. Second, a general propo-
sition makes it easier to grasp what is really going on, because it leaves out
irrelevant, distracting detail.
.
As another example, let’s consider a simple scenario.

Annie, Batul, Charlie, Deja, Evelyn, Fawwaz, Gregoire, and

Hoon talk to each other and discover that Deja and Gregoire
were both born on Tuesdays. (1.1)

Well, so what? Put two people together and they may or may not have
been born on the same day of the week. Yet there is something going on
here that can be generalized. As long as there are at least eight people, some
two of them must have been born on the same day of the week, since a week
has only seven days. Some statement like (1.1) must be true, perhaps with
a different pair of names and a different day of the week. So here is a more
general proposition.

In any group of eight people, some two of them were born on the
same day of the week.

But even that isn’t really general. The duplication has nothing to do with
properties of people or days of the week, except how many there are of each.
For the same reason, if we put eight cups on seven saucers, some saucer
would have two cups on it. In fact there is nothing magic about “eight” and
“seven,” except that the one is larger than the other. If a hotel has 1000 rooms
and 1001 guests, some room must contain at least two guests. How can we
state a general principle that covers all these cases, without mentioning the
irrelevant specifics of any of them?
First, we need a new concept. A set is a collection of things, or elements.
−1
The elements that belong to the set are called its members. The members of
0
a set must be distinct, which is another way of saying they are all different
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the pigeonhole principle 3

from each other. So the people mentioned in (1.1) form a set, and the days
of the week form another set. Sometimes we write out the members of a set
explicitly, as a list within curly braces {}:

P = {Annie, Batul, Charlie, Deja, Evelyn, Fawwaz, Gregoire, Hoon}

D = {Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday}.

When we write out the elements of a set, their order does not matter—in any
order it is still the same set. We write x ∈ X to indicate that the element x is
a member of the set X. For example, Charlie ∈ P and Thursday ∈ D.
We need some basic terminology about numbers in order to talk about
sets. An integer is one of the numbers 0, 1, 2, . . . , or −1, −2, . . . . The real
numbers are all the numbers on the number line, including √ all the integers
and also all the numbers in between integers, such as 12 , − 2, and π . A num-
ber is positive if it is greater than 0, negative if it is less than 0, and nonnegative
if it is greater than or equal to 0.
For the time being, we will be discussing finite sets. A finite set is a set that
can (at least in principle) be listed in full. A finite set has a size or cardinality,
which is a nonnegative integer. The cardinality of a set X is denoted |X|.
For example, in the example of people and the days of the week on which
they were born, |P| = 8 and |D| = 7, since eight people are listed and there
are seven days in a week. A set that is not finite—the set of integers, for
example—is said to be infinite. Infinite sets have sizes too—an interesting
subject to which we will return in our discussion of infinite sets in Chapter 7.
Now, a function from one set to another is a rule that associates each
member of the first set with exactly one member of the second set. If f is
a function from X to Y and x ∈ X, then f (x) is the member of Y that the
function f associates with x. We refer to x as the argument of f and f (x)
as the value of f on that argument. We write f : X → Y to indicate that f is
a function from set X to set Y. For example, we could write b : P → D to
denote the function that associates each of the eight friends with the day of
the week on which he or she was born; if Charlie was born on a Thursday,
then b(Charlie) = Thursday.
A function f : X → Y is sometimes called a mapping from X to Y, and f
is said to map an element x ∈ X to the element f (x) ∈ Y. (In the same way, a
real map associates a point on the surface of the earth with a point on a sheet
of paper.)
Finally, we have a way to state the general principle that underlies the
example of (1.1):

If f : X → Y and |X| > |Y|, then there are elements

x1 , x2 ∈ X such that x1  = x2 and f (x1 ) = f (x2 ). (1.2)
−
The statement (1.2) is known as the Pigeonhole Principle, as it captures in 0
mathematical form this commonsense idea: if there are more pigeons than 1

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4 essential discrete mathematics for computer science

? pigeonholes and every pigeon goes into a pigeonhole, then some pigeonhole
must have more than one pigeon in it. The pigeons are the members of X and
the pigeonholes are the members of Y (Figure 1.3).
We will provide a formal proof of the Pigeonhole Principle on page 34,
once we have developed some of the basic machinery for doing proofs. For
now, let’s scrutinize the statement of the Pigeonhole Principle with an eye
X Y
Figure 1.3. The Pigeonhole
toward understanding mathematical language. Here are some questions we
Principle. If |X| > |Y| and f is any might ask:
function from X to Y, then the
1. What are X and Y?
values of f must be the same for
some two distinct members of X. They are finite sets. To be absolutely clear, we might have begun the
statement with the phrase, “For any finite sets X and Y,” but the
assertion that f is a function from X to Y makes sense only if X and Y
are sets, and it is understood from context that the sets under
discussion are finite—and we therefore know how to compare their
sizes.
2. Why did we choose “x1 ” and “x2 ” for the names of elements of X?
We could in principle have chosen any variables, “x” and “y” for
example. But using variations on “X” to name elements of the set X
suggests that x1 and x2 are members of the set X rather than the set Y.
So using “x1 ” and “x2 ” just makes our statement easier to read.
3. Was the phrase “such that x1  = x2 ” really necessary? The sentence is
simpler without it, and seems to say the same thing.
Yes, the “x1  = x2 ” is necessary, and no, the sentence doesn’t say the
same thing without it! If we didn’t say “x1  = x2 ,” then “x1 ” and “x2 ”
could have been two names for the same element. If we did not
stipulate that x1 and x2 had to be different, the proposition would not
have been false—only trivial! Obviously if x1 = x2 , then f (x1 ) = f (x2 ).
That is like saying that the mass of Earth is equal to the mass of the
third planet from the sun. Another way to state the Pigeonhole
Principle would be to say, “there are distinct elements x1 , x2 ∈ X such
that f (x1 ) = f (x2 ).”
One more thing is worth emphasizing here. A statement like “there are
elements x1 , x2 ∈ X with property blah” does not mean that there are exactly
two elements with that property. It just means that at least two such elements
exist for sure—maybe more, but definitely not less.
.
Mathematicians always search for the most general form of any principle,
because it can then be used to explain more things. For example, it is equally
obvious that we can’t put 15 pigeons in 7 pigeonholes without putting at least
3 pigeons in some pigeonhole—but there is no way to derive that from the
−1
Pigeonhole Principle as we stated it. Here is a more general version:
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the pigeonhole principle 5

Theorem 1.3. Extended Pigeonhole Principle. For any finite sets X and Y
and any positive integer k such that |X| > k · |Y|, if f : X → Y, then there are at
least k + 1 distinct members x1 , . . . , xk+1 ∈ X such that f (x1 ) = . . . = f (xk+1 ).

The Pigeonhole Principle is the k = 1 case of the Extended Pigeonhole

Principle.
We have used sequence notation here for the first time, using the same
variable with numerical subscripts in a range. In this case the xi , where
1 ≤ i ≤ k + 1, form a sequence of length k + 1. This notation is very conve-
nient since it makes it possible to use an algebraic expression such as k + 1
in a subscript. Similarly, we could refer to the 2ith member of a sequence
y1 , y2 , . . . as y2i .
The minimum value of the parameter k in the Extended Pigeonhole Prin-
ciple, as applied to particular sets X and Y, can be derived once the sizes of
X and Y are known. It is helpful to introduce some notation to make this
calculation precise.
An integer p divides another integer q, symbolically written as p | q, if the
q
quotient p is an integer—that is, dividing q by p leaves no remainder. We
write p  q if p does not divide q—for example, 3  7. If x is any real number, we
write x for the greatest integer less than or equal to x (called the floor of x).
For example,  17 6
3  = 5, and  2  = 3. We will also need the ceiling notation:
x is the smallest integer greater than or equal to x, so for example 3.7 = 4.
With the aid of these notations, we can restate the Extended Pigeonhole
Principle in a way that determines the minimum size of the most heavily
occupied pigeonhole for given numbers of pigeons and pigeonholes:

Theorem 1.4. Extended Pigeonhole Principle, Alternate Version. Let X and

Y be any finite sets and let f : X → Y. Then there is some y ∈ Y such that f (x) =
y for at least

 
|X|
|Y|

values of x.

Proof. Let m = |X| and n = |Y|.If n | m, then this is the Extended Pigeonhole
Principle with k = m m
n − 1 = n − 1. If n  m, then again this is the Extended
Pigeonhole Principle with k = m n − 1, since that is the largest integer less
|X|
than |Y| . ■
.
Once stated in their general form, these versions of the Pigeonhole Prin-
ciple seem to be fancy ways of saying something obvious. In spite of that,
we can use them to explain a variety of different phenomena—once we −
figure out what are the “pigeons” and the “pigeonholes.” Let’s close with an 0
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6 essential discrete mathematics for computer science

application to number theory—the study of the properties of the integers. A

few basics first.
If p | q, then p is said to be a factor or divisor of q.
A prime number is an integer greater than 1 that is divisible only by itself
and 1. For example, 7 is prime, because it is divisible only by 7 and 1, but 6
is not prime, because 6 = 2 · 3. Note that 1 itself is not prime.

Theorem 1.5. The Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic. There is one and

only one way to express a positive integer as a product of distinct prime
numbers in increasing order and with positive integer exponents.

We’ll prove this theorem in Chapter 4, but make some use of it right now.
The prime decomposition of a number n is that unique product
e
n = pe11 · . . . · pkk , (1.6)

where the pi are primes in increasing order and the ei are positive integers.
e
For example, 180 = 22 · 32 · 51 , and there is no other product pe11 · . . . · pkk
equal to 180, where p1 < p2 < . . . < pk , all the pi are prime, and the ei are
integer exponents.
The prime decomposition of the product of two integers m and n com-
bines the prime decompositions of m and of n—every prime factor of m · n
is a prime factor of one or the other.

Theorem 1.7. If m, n, and p are integers greater than 1, p is prime, and p |

m · n, then either p | m or p | n.

Proof. By the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic (Theorem 1.5), there is

one and only one way to write
e
m · n = pe11 · . . . · pkk ,

where the pi are prime. But then p must be one of the pi , and each pi must
appear in the unique prime decomposition of either m or n. ■

The exponent of a prime p in the prime decomposition of m · n is the

sum of its exponents in the prime decompositions of m and n (counting
the exponent as 0 if p does not appear in the decomposition). For example,
consider the product 18 · 10 = 180. We have

18 = 21 · 32 (exponents of 2, 3, 5 are 1, 2, 0)
1 1
10 = 2 · 5 (exponents of 2, 3, 5 are 1, 0, 1)
2 2 1
−1 180 = 2 · 3 · 5
0 = 21+1 · 32+0 · 50+1 .
1

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the pigeonhole principle 7

We have color-coded the exponents to show how the exponents of 2, 3, and 5

in the product 180 are the sums of the exponents of those primes in the
decompositions of the two factors 18 and 10.
Another important fact about prime numbers is that there are infinitely
many of them.

Theorem 1.8. There are arbitrarily large prime numbers.

“Arbitrarily large” means that for every n > 0, there is a prime number
greater than n.

Proof. Pick some value of k for which we know there are at least k primes,
and let p1 , . . . , pk be the first k primes in increasing order. (Since p1 = 2,
p2 = 3, p3 = 5, we could certainly take k = 3.) We’ll show how to find a prime
number greater than pk . Since this process could be repeated indefinitely,
there must be infinitely many primes.
Consider the number N that is one more than the product of the first k
primes:

N = (p1 · p2 · . . . · pk ) + 1. (1.9)

Dividing N by any of p1 , . . . , pk would leave a remainder of 1. So N has no

prime divisors less than or equal to pk . Therefore, either N is not prime but
has a prime factor greater than pk , or else N is prime itself. ■

In the k = 3 case, for example, N = 2 · 3 · 5 + 1 = 31. Here N itself is

prime; Problem 1.11 asks you to find an example of the case in which N
is not prime.
A common divisor of two numbers is a number that divides both of them.
For example, 21 and 36 have the common divisors 1 and 3, but 16 and 21
have no common divisor greater than 1.
With this by way of background, let’s work a number theory example that
uses the Pigeonhole Principle.

Example 1.10. Choose m distinct numbers between 2 and 40 inclusive, where

m ≥ 13. Then at least two of the numbers have some common divisor greater
than 1.

“Between a and b inclusive” means including all numbers that are ≥ a and
also ≤ b—so including both 2 and 40 in this case.

Solution to example. Observe first that there are 12 prime numbers less than
or equal to 40: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, no two of which share
a factor greater than 1. Let’s define P to be this set of 12 prime numbers. −
(We needed to specify that m ≥ 13, because the claim would be false with 0
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8 essential discrete mathematics for computer science

m = 12 instead: the set P would be a counterexample.) Now consider a set

X of 13 numbers in the range from 2 to 40 inclusive. We can think of the
members of X as pigeons and the members of P as pigeonholes. To place
pigeons in pigeonholes, use the function f : X → P, where f (x) is the smallest
prime that divides x. For example, f (16) = 2, f (17) = 17, and f (21) = 3. By
the Pigeonhole Principle, since 13 > 12, the values of f must be equal for
two distinct members of X, and therefore at least two members of X have a
common prime divisor. ■

Chapter Summary

■ Mathematical thinking focuses on general principles, abstracted from the

details of specific examples.
■ A set is an unordered collection of distinct things, or elements. The
elements of a set are its members.
■ A set is finite if its members can be listed in full one by one. The number of
members of a finite set X is called its cardinality or size and is denoted |X|.
A set’s size is always a nonnegative integer.
■ A function or mapping between two sets is a rule associating each member
of the first set with a unique member of the second.
■ The Pigeonhole Principle states that if X is a set of pigeons and Y a set of
pigeonholes, and |X| > |Y|, then any function mapping pigeons to
pigeonholes assigns more than one pigeon to some pigeonhole.
■ The Extended Pigeonhole Principle states that if X is a set of pigeons and Y a
set of pigeonholes, and |X| > k|Y|, then any function mapping pigeons to
pigeonholes assigns more than k pigeons to some pigeonhole.
■ A sequence of terms can be denoted by a repeated variable with different
numerical subscripts, such as x1 , . . . , xn . The subscript of a term may be an
algebraic expression.
■ The Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic states that every positive integer
has exactly one prime decomposition.

Problems

1.1. What are each of the following?

(a) |{0,
 1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6}|.
(b) 111 .
 55 
(c) 111 .
−1 (d) The set of divisors of 100.
0 (e) The set of prime divisors of 100.
1

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the pigeonhole principle 9

1.2. Let f (n) be the largest prime divisor of n. Can it happen that x < y but
f (x) > f (y)? Give an example or explain why it is impossible.
1.3. Under what circumstances is x = x − 1?
1.4. Imagine a 9 × 9 square array of pigeonholes, with one pigeon in each
pigeonhole. (So 81 pigeons in 81 pigeonholes—see Figure 1.4.) Suppose that all
at once, all the pigeons move up, down, left, or right by one hole. (The pigeons
on the edges are not allowed to move out of the array.) Show that some pigeon-
hole winds up with two pigeons in it. Hint: The number 9 is a distraction. Try
some smaller numbers to see what is going on.
1.5. Show that in any group of people, two of them have the same number of
friends in the group. (Some important assumptions here: no one is a friend of
him- or herself, and friendship is symmetrical—if x is a friend of y then y is a
friend of x.)
1.6. Given any five points on a sphere, show that four of them must lie within a
Figure 1.4. Each pigeonhole in a closed hemisphere, where “closed” means that the hemisphere includes the circle
9 × 9 array has one pigeon. All that divides it from the other half of the sphere. Hint: Given any two points on a
simultaneously move to another sphere, one can always draw a “great circle” between them, which has the same
pigeonhole that is immediately
circumference as the equator of the sphere.
above, below, to the left, or to the
right of its current hole. Must some 1.7. Show that in any group of 25 people, some three of them must have
pigeonhole wind up with two birthdays in the same month.
pigeons?
1.8. A collection of coins contains six different denominations: pennies, nick-
els, dimes, quarters, half-dollars, and dollars. How many coins must the
collection contain to guarantee that at least 100 of the coins are of the same
denomination?
1.9. Twenty-five people go to daily yoga classes at the same gym, which offers
eight classes every day. Each attendee wears either a blue, red, or green shirt to
class. Show that on a given day, there is at least one class in which two people
are wearing the same color shirt.
1.10. Show that if four distinct integers are chosen between 1 and 60 inclusive,
some two of them must differ by at most 19.
1.11. Find a k such that the product of the first k primes, plus 1, is not prime,
but has a prime factor larger than any of the first k primes. (There is no trick for
solving this. You just have to try various possibilities!)
1.12. Show that in any set of 9 positive integers, some two of them share all of
their prime factors that are less than or equal to 5.
1.13. A hash function from strings to numbers derives a numerical hash value
h(s) from a text string s; for example, by adding up the numerical codes for the
characters in s, dividing by a prime number p, and keeping just the remainder.
The point of a hash function is to yield a reproducible result (calculating h(s)
twice for the same string s yields the same numerical value) and to make it likely
that the hash values for different strings will be spread out evenly across the
possible hash values (from 0 to p − 1). If the hash function has identical hash −
values for two different strings, then these two strings are said to collide on that 0
1

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10 essential discrete mathematics for computer science

hash value. We count the number of collisions on a hash value as 1 less than the
number of strings that have that hash value, so if 2 strings have the same hash
value there is 1 collision on that hash value. If there are m strings and p possible
hash values, what is the minimum number of collisions that must occur on the
hash value with the most collisions? The maximum number of collisions that
might occur on some hash value?

−1
0
1

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Chapter 2

Basic Proof Techniques

Here is an English-language restatement of the Pigeonhole Principle (page 3):

If there are more pigeons than pigeonholes and every pigeon goes
into a pigeonhole, then some pigeonhole must contain more than
one pigeon.

But suppose your friend did not believe this statement. How could you
convincingly argue that it was true?
You might try to persuade your friend that there is no way the opposite
could be true. You could say, let’s imagine that each pigeonhole has no more
than one pigeon. Then we can count the number of pigeonholes, and since
each pigeonhole contains zero or one pigeons, the number of pigeons can be
at most equal to the number of pigeonholes. But we started with the assump-
tion that there were more pigeons than pigeonholes, so this is impossible!
Since there is no way that every pigeonhole can have at most one pigeon,
some pigeonhole must contain more than one pigeon, and that is what we
were trying to prove.
In this chapter, we’ll discuss how to take informal, specific arguments
like this and translate them into formal, general, mathematical proofs. A
proof is an argument that begins with a proposition (“there are more pigeons
than pigeonholes”) and proceeds using logical rules to establish a conclusion
(“some pigeonhole has more than one pigeon”). Although it may seem easier
to write (and understand!) an argument in plain English, ordinary language
can be imprecise or overly specific. So it is clearer, as well as more general,
to describe a mathematical situation in more formal terms.
For example, what does the statement

Everybody loves somebody (2.1)

mean? It might mean that for every person in the world, there is someone
whom that person loves—so different lovers might have different beloveds.
In semi-mathematical language, we would state that interpretation as −
0
1

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12 essential discrete mathematics for computer science

For every person A, there is a person B such that A loves B. (2.2)

But there is another interpretation of (2.1), namely that there is some special
person whom everybody loves, or in other words,

There is a person B such that for every person A, A loves B. (2.3)

There is a big difference between these interpretations, and one of the pur-
poses of mathematical language is to resolve such ambiguities of natural
language.
The phrases “for all,” “for any,” “for every,” “for some,” and “there exists”
are called quantifiers, and their careful use is an important part of mathe-
matical discourse. The symbol ∀ stands for “for all,” “for any,” or “for every,”
and the symbol ∃ stands for “there exists” or “for some.” Using these symbols
saves time, but in writing mathematical prose they can also make statements
more confusing. So we will avoid them until we discuss the formalization of
quantificational logic, in Chapter 12.
Quantifiers modify predicates, such as “A loves B.” A predicate is a tem-
plate for a proposition, taking one or more arguments, in this case A and B.
On its own, a predicate has no truth value: without knowing the values of
A and B, “A loves B” cannot be said to be either true or false. It takes on a
truth value only when quantified (as in (2.2) and (2.3)), or when applied to
specific arguments (for example, “Romeo loves Juliet”), and may be true for
some arguments but false for others.
Let’s continue with a simple example of a mathematical statement and its
proof.

Theorem 2.4. Odd Integers. Every odd integer is equal to the difference
between the squares of two integers.

First, let’s make sure we understand the statement. An odd integer is any
integer that can be written as 2k + 1, where k is also an integer. The square of
an integer n is n2 = n · n. For every value of k, Theorem 2.4 says that there are
two integers—call them m and n—such that if we square them and subtract
one result from the other, the resulting number is equal to 2k + 1. (Note the
quantifiers: for every k, there exist m and n, such that . . . .)
An integer m is said to be a perfect square if it is the square of some integer,
so a compact way to state the theorem is to say that every odd integer is the
difference of two perfect squares. It is typical in mathematics, as in this case,
that defining just the right concepts can result in very simple phrasing of
general truths.
The next step is to convince ourselves of why the statement is true. If the
reason is not obvious, it may help to work out some examples. So let’s start
−1 by listing out the first few squares:
0
1

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basic proof techniques 13

02 = 0
12 = 1
22 = 4
32 = 9
42 = 16.

We can confirm that the statement is true for a few specific odd integers,
say 1, 3, 5, and 7:

1 = 1 − 0 = 12 − 0 2
3 = 4 − 1 = 2 2 − 12
5 = 9 − 4 = 3 2 − 22
7 = 16 − 9 = 42 − 32 .

After these examples we might notice a pattern: so far, all of the odd integers
are the difference between the squares of two consecutive integers: 0 and 1,
then 1 and 2, 2 and 3, and 3 and 4. Another observation—those consecutive
integers add up to the target odd integer: 0 + 1 = 1, 1 + 2 = 3, 2 + 3 = 5,
and 3 + 4 = 7. So we might conjecture that for the odd integer 2k + 1, the
integers that should be squared and subtracted are k + 1 and k. Let’s try that:

(k + 1)2 − k2 = k2 + 2k + 1 − k2 ,

which simplifies to 2k + 1.
So our guess was right! And by writing it out using the definition of an
odd integer (2k + 1) rather than looking at any specific odd integer, we’ve
confirmed that it works for all odd integers. It even works for negative odd
integers (since those are equal to 2k + 1 for negative values of k), although
the idea was inspired by trying examples of positive odd integers.
This chain of thought shows how we might arrive at the idea, but it’s too
meandering for a formal proof. The actual proof should include only the
details that turned out to be relevant. For instance, the worked-out examples
don’t add anything to the argument—we need to show that the statement is
true all the time, not just for the examples we tried—so they should be left
out. Here is a formal proof of Theorem 2.4:

Proof. Any odd integer can be written as 2k + 1 for some integer k. We can
rewrite that expression:

2k + 1 = (k2 + 2k + 1) − k2 (adding and subtracting k2 )

= (k + 1)2 − k2 (writing the first term as a square).
−
0
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14 essential discrete mathematics for computer science

Now let m = k + 1 and n = k. Then 2k + 1 = m2 − n2 , so we have identified

integers m and n with the properties that we claimed. ■

Before examining the substance of this proof, a few notes about its style.
First, it is written in full sentences. Mathematical expressions are used for
precision and clarity, but the argument itself is written in prose. Second,
its structure is clear: it starts with the given assumption, that the integer is
odd, and clearly identifies when we have reached the end, by noting that m
and n are the two integers that we sought. Third, it is rigorous: it gives a
mathematical definition for the relevant term (“odd integer”), which forces
us to be precise and explicit; and each step of the proof follows logically and
clearly from the previous steps.
Finally, it is convincing. The proof gives an appropriate amount of detail,
enough that the reader can easily understand why each step is correct, but
not so much that it distracts from the overall argument. For example, we
might have skipped writing out some of the arithmetic, and stated just that

2k + 1 = (k + 1)2 − k2 .

But this equality is not obvious, and a careful reader would be tempted
to double-check it. When we include the intermediate step, the arithmetic
is clearly correct. On the other hand, some assumptions don’t need to be
proven—for example, that it is valid to write

2k + 1 = (k2 + 2k + 1) − k2 .

This relies on the fact that if we move the terms around and group them
in different ways, they still add up to the same value. In this context, these
rules seem rather basic and can be assumed; proving them would distract
the reader from the main argument. But in a text on formal arithmetic, these
properties might themselves be the subject of a proof. The amount of detail
to include depends on the context and the proof ’s intended audience; as a
rule of thumb, write as if you are trying to convince a peer.
Let’s return now to the substance of the above proof. First, it is construc-
tive. The statement to be proved merely asserts the existence of something:
it says that for any odd integer, there exist two integers with the prop-
erty that the difference of their squares is equal to the number we started
with. A constructive proof not only demonstrates that the thing exists, but
shows us exactly how to find it. Given a particular odd integer 2k + 1,
the proof of Theorem 2.4 shows us how to find the two integers that have
the property asserted in the statement of the theorem—one is k + 1 and the
other is k. For example, if the odd integer we wanted to express as the differ-
ence of two squares was 341, the proof shows that we can subtract 1 from 341
and divide by 2, and that integer and the next larger integer are the desired
−1 pair—170 and 171. This is easy to check:
0
1 1712 − 1702 = 29241 − 28900 = 341.

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basic proof techniques 15

There was no real need to check this particular case, but doing so makes us
more confident that we didn’t make an algebraic mistake somewhere.
In general, a procedure for answering a question or solving a problem is
said to be an algorithm if its description is sufficiently detailed and precise
that it could, in principle, be carried out mechanically—by a machine, or
by a human being mindlessly following instructions. A constructive proof
implicitly describes an algorithm for finding the thing that the proof says
exists. In the case of Theorem 2.4, the proof describes an algorithm that,
given an odd integer 2k + 1, finds integers m and n such that m2 − n2 =
2k + 1.
Not every proof is constructive—sometimes it is possible to show that
something exists without showing how to find it. Such a proof is called
nonconstructive. We will see some interesting examples of nonconstructive
proofs—in fact, the proof of the Pigeonhole Principle will be nonconstruc-
tive, since it cannot identify which pigeonhole has more than one pigeon.
But computer scientists love constructive arguments, because a construc-
tive proof that something exists yields an algorithm to find it—one that a
1 A stronger meaning of the term “con- computer could be programmed to carry out.1
structive” is used in the school of con- One final note about Theorem 2.4. The proof not only is constructive,
structive mathematics, which disallows
any mathematical argument that does but proves more than was asked for. It shows not just that every odd integer
not lead to the construction of the thing is the difference of two squares, but that every odd integer is the difference of
that the argument says exists. In con- the squares of two consecutive integers, as we noted while working through
structive mathematics it is impermissi-
ble to infer from the fact that a statement
the examples. After finishing a proof, it is often worth looking back at it to
is demonstrably false that its negation is see if it yields any interesting information beyond the statement it set out to
necessarily true; the truth of the nega- prove.
tion has to be demonstrated directly.
For example, constructive mathemat- .
ics disallows proofs by contradiction
(explained below) and arguments like A common goal in mathematical proof is to establish that two state-
that of Problem 2.14. Computer scien- ments are equivalent—that one statement is true in all the circumstances
tists prefer arguments that yield algo-
rithms, but generally don’t insist on in which the second statement is true, and vice versa. For example, consider
“constructive proofs” in the strict sense the statement
used by constructive mathematicians.
For us, to show something is true it suf-
The square of an integer is odd if and only if the integer itself is
fices to show that its negation is not true.
odd.

Or, to write the same thing in a more conventionally mathematical

style:

Theorem 2.5. For any integer n, n2 is odd if and only if n is odd.

This is a fairly typical mathematical statement. Several things about it are

worth noting.
• It uses a variable n to refer to the thing that is under discussion, so the −
same name can be used in different parts of the statement to refer to 0
the same thing. 1

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different content
Peak, imperial in his majesty, dark below with pines and firs, but his
bald head crowned with eternal snows, looking calmly down, as if
God's sentinel keeping watch and ward over all below. Altogether
the grouping of the landscape there is very fine, as if the gods had
done their best; and on the glorious morning when we saw it,
beneath a perfect September sky, we thought Colorado had indeed
here much to be supremely proud of.
Some three miles farther on, near the banks of the Fontaine qui
Bouilli, which here comes boiling down from the foot of Pike's Peak,
there are several fine natural soda-springs. They come bubbling up
on either side of the stream from the far depths below, and their
overflow during the long ages has deposited large rocks of
calcareous tufa or carbonate of soda all about them. We tried this
soda-water, and found it as cool, and as sharp and titillating as that
from a city-fountain; and when treated with an acid, it effervesced
and vanished quite as freely. H—— and B—— tried it with lemons
and whiskey and reported their cocktails quite unequalled since
leaving New York. Col. Chivington, of Sand Creek memory, had
recently purchased these springs and the land adjacent for three
thousand dollars; but he was now asking ten thousand, though there
had not been a dollar expended for improvements yet. Combined
with Pike's Peak, the Garden of the Gods, and all the unique and
romantic scenery from there to Denver, as well as the general Plains
and Mountains, the investment did not seem to be a bad one, and
no doubt will pay handsomely some day. But it was then waiting the
completion of the Pacific Railroad, and the in-pouring of population,
that all Coloradoans then devoutly hoped and prayed for.[6]
Just beyond the Soda Springs, stood or rather slept Colorado City.
We had been so unfortunate as to break our ambulance-tongue in
pulling out of a mud-hole, and halted there to have a new one
made. In the days of 1857-60, when mining centred at Pike's Peak,
Colorado City was the Denver of southwestern Colorado, and must
have been a place of considerable importance. But the "diggings"
there long since gave out, and C. C. was now in a bad way. Corner-
lots were for sale, dirt-cheap. It had plenty of empty shanties, but
scarcely any population; and what it had, were the sleepiest-looking
Coloradoans we had yet seen anywhere. The "hotel" or tavern, was
forlorn and dirty; the people, idle and listless; and the "City," as a
whole, was evidently hastening fast to the status of Goldsmith's
Deserted Village. Cañon City, farther up in the mountains, they told
us, was even worse off—having no inhabitants at all. It had good
buildings, some even of brick and stone, equal indeed to any in
Colorado; but all stood empty, like "some banquet-hall deserted,"
and the once busy "City" was now as silent as Thebes or Petræ.
Such is life in our mining regions. Population comes and goes, as
restless as the sea, according as the "diggings" promise good "pay-
dirt" or bad. And what are prosperous and busy centres this year,
next year may become empty and deserted.[7] At sunset we went
into camp on the banks of the Fontaine qui Bouilli, while a snow-
squall was careering around Pike's Peak. Several of these had been
prancing about his summit during the afternoon, and about five p.
m., one of them swept down over the foothills and valley, with far
out-stretched wings, giving us a taste of its icy breath as we
journeyed by. At sunset the hues along the mountains and among
the snow-peaks were magnificent and glorious; but the air became
keen and nipping as night fell, and all the evening we hugged the
fire closely. Just before dark, while supper was cooking, two or three
of us tried the Fontaine qui Bouilli for trout, and caught—not a nibble
even!
Soon after leaving Colorado City the mountains trend away to the
southwest, while the road to Fort Garland continues on down the
Fontaine qui Bouilli to the Arkansas. Fording this at Pueblo, and
subsequently its two affluents, the Greenhorn and the Huerfano, you
again strike the mountains, a hundred miles farther south, at the
foot of Sangre del Christo Pass. The high ridges or "divides" between
all of these streams are barren and sterile, to an extent little
imagined in the east; but the streams themselves are bordered by
broad valleys, rich and fertile, that as a rule need only irrigation to
produce luxuriantly. In some seasons they do not require even this,
as their proximity to the mountains affords them rains enough. Still,
no farmer is safe there without his system of acequias or water-
ditches, to irrigate if necessary; and we found these everywhere
constructed, if not in use, where settlements had been made. In all
of these valleys we already had scattered ranches—some of them
very large—and raised wheat, barley, corn, oats, etc. in considerable
quantities. Colorado had formerly imported all her grain and flour
from the Missouri, at an enormous cost; but latterly she had drawn
large supplies from these fertile valleys, and in '66 considered herself
about self-sustaining. Not more than one-tenth, or less, of her arable
land here, however, seemed to be under cultivation, and agriculture
even then was of the rudest and simplest. The ranchmen were
mainly Americans or Germans, but the labor was all performed by
Mexican peons, subjected for generations to but one remove from
slavery. It was the threshing season, and in many places we saw
them treading out their wheat and barley by mules, with a Greaser
on the back of each, lazily whiffing his cigarrito, while his donkey
dozed around. Elsewhere, their threshing done, we saw them
winnowing their grain by hand, as the breeze chanced along. We did
not see or hear of a threshing-machine or a fanning-mill in the whole
region there, and doubt if there was one. The Mexicans do not
comprehend these nineteenth century new-fangled notions, and will
have none of them. They prefer by far their old-time dolce far
niente. Festina lente is their national maxim, and your thorough-bred
peon would choose a broncho rather than a locomotive any day. And
naturally enough, the American settlers here, we found, were mostly
from the south, and during the war had been none too ardent for
the Union.
Most of the farms here were large in size, and in crossing the
Greenhorn we passed through a noble ranch, twelve miles wide by
eighteen long, owned by a Mr. Zan Hincklin. In '65 he sold his crop
of grain for eighty thousand dollars, and in '66 expected to do even
better. He had on hand a thousand horses, three thousand head of
cattle, and six thousand sheep, all of which he grazed the year
round. He lived very plainly, in a rude adobe hut, that we should
think hardly fit for a canal-laborer east; but was as hospitable and
generous as a prince. We had scarcely gone into camp, on the banks
of the rippling Greenhorn, before he sent us over butter, eggs, and
vegetables, and bade us welcome to his heart and home. He
acquired his great estate by marrying one of the half-breed
daughters of the celebrated John Brent, who used to hunt and trap
all through this region, and who lived so long among the Indians
that he became himself half Red-Skin. He died possessed of vast
tracts of land here, acquired chiefly through trading with the Indians,
but his children it appeared, as a rule, had turned out poorly. One of
his sons had returned to Indian life, joining a wandering tribe, and
others still hung about the settlements, of small account to anybody.
From the Arkansas, the country gradually but constantly ascends,
until you strike the mountains again at the foot of Sangre del Christo
Pass. Here you follow up a dashing rivulet, that courses away to the
Huerfano, and advantage is taken of a depression in the main ridge
to cross into San Luis Park. We camped the night before in a
sheltered nook among the foot-hills, surrounded on three sides by
gnarled piñon trees, while the fourth opened on a little plateau
sloping down to a noisy brook, that afforded water and grass in
abundance. The next morning we breakfasted early, and were off up
the Pass soon after sunrise. The morning air was nipping, and as we
advanced we found the mists rolling down the mountains, and so off
over the Plains eastward. The teams being a little slow that morning
in packing up and getting off, some of us concluded to walk on; but
we had not proceeded far, before some one suggested this might be
dangerous, as Indians were reported about, and our arms were all
behind in the ambulances. Halting, therefore, for the rest to come
up, two of us then secured our Spencers and six-shooters, and
mounting one a horse and the other a mule pushed on ahead again.
The ascent, though gentle, we found nevertheless very constant,
and gradually the ambulances dropped much behind. The road led
over a shelving plateau, and up a pretty sharp hill, and then plunged
by a rapid descent into a little valley again. Here we met several
men, with a drove of indifferent cattle and sheep, en route from
Culebra to Denver and a market. Climbing out of this valley, we
struck a sharp ascent, that led southward along and up the ridge,
and then turning west by south struck straight across the summit. As
we raised the summit, a keen, fierce wind met us from the west, and
soon set our teeth to chattering in unison with it. On the tip-top we
found a contractor's train, en route to Fort Garland with supplies,
doubling up ox-teams and doing its "level best" to forge slowly
ahead. The summit or ridge, the tip-top of the Rocky Mountains—the
very backbone of America here—we found only a few hundred yards
across; and then we came out on the western slope, with all the
glories of the San Luis Park nestling at our feet, or uprising
gorgeously before us. Below, the Park lay wrapped in a dreamy
haze, with the Sangre del Christo creek flashing onward through it;
above, peak on peak—huge, snow-white, and sublime—rimmed it
round, as with a crown. Over all, hung one of those blue and
faultless skies, for which the Rocky Mountains are so world-famous,
with the sun sweeping majestically through it, while God himself
seemed ready to speak on every side. This was to the west. Turning
to the east, the view there seemed, if possible, even more grand and
sublime. Peak and ridge, plateau and foot-hill, stretched away
beneath us; in the distance the brace of Spanish Peaks, two bold
"buttes" passed the day before, shot up abruptly six thousand feet
into the sky, from the dead level of the Plains around them; while
beyond and around to the dim horizon, east, north, and south, for
hundreds of miles, outstretched the illimitable Plains. The elevation
of the Pass is given, as about ten thousand feet above the sea. At
our feet, the fog was breaking up and rolling off eastward in sullen
masses, which the morning sun gilded with glory, or here and there
pierced through and through down to the earth beneath. Soon it
passed away into airy clouds, careering along the sky, and presently
vanished altogether. And then the Plains! The Plains! How their
immense outstretch absorbed and overwhelmed the eye! It was not
the ocean, but something much grander and vaster, than even the
ocean seems. If you could view the sea from the same altitude,
doubtless the impression would be much the same. But what is the
loftiest mast-head, compared with the summit of Sangre del Christo?
The grandeur and sublimity of the scene awed one into silence, as if
in the presence of Deity himself, and the great and holy thoughts of
that hour well repaid us for all our toil and fatigue. Say what we
may, there is something gracious and ennobling in such mountain
scenery, which men can illy dispense with. How it deepens and
widens one's feelings! How it broadens and uplifts one's thoughts!
How it strengthens—emboldens—one's manhood! What Switzerland
is to Europe, and New England to the Atlantic States, this and more,
the whole Rocky Mountain region will yet become to America.
Descending the mountains westward, a ride of a mile or two brought
us to a spring, where a Mexican was taking his noon-day meal of
tortillas, while his inevitable mule was cropping the grass near by. H.
dismounted and scooped up a drink with his hands, Indian fashion,
but I was not yet thirsty enough for that. A mile or two farther, still
descending, brought us to the head of Sangre del Christo creek, a
dashing rivulet fed by snow streams, that runs thence to the Rio
Grande. A winding defile or cañon, of steady though not very rapid
descent, affords a bed-way down the Pass and out into the San Luis
Park, and down this the wild little creek shoots very serpentinely. It
crosses the road no less than twenty-six times in ten miles, and
constantly reminds you of the famous Yankee fence, which was
made up of such crooked rails, that when the pigs crept through it
they never exactly knew whether they were inside or out! We jogged
leisurely down the creek, until we judged we were some six or seven
miles from the summit, and perhaps half way down the mountain,
when we halted for the teams to come up. The wind blew sharply up
the Pass still, though it was now much after noon, and we found the
shelter of a neighboring ravine very welcome. Here we unsaddled
our animals, and turned them loose to graze. They fed up and down
the ravine, cropping the rich herbage there, but would never stray
over a hundred yards or so away, when they would turn and graze
back to us again. On such mountain trips saddle-animals become
attached to their riders, and will seldom leave of their own accord.
So, also, they are unerring sentinels, and always announce the
approach of Indians or others with a neigh or bray. Building a royal
fire with the dry fir-trees there, we next spread our saddle-blankets
on the ground, and then with our saddles under our heads, and our
feet Indian-fashion to the fire, smoked and talked until the rest
arrived. About two p. m. I noticed Kate (my mule) stop grazing and
snuff the air, very inquiringly; presently, with a whisk of her tail and
a salutatory bray, she darted down the ravine, as if thoroughly
satisfied; and in a minute or two along came the ambulances, with
our friends chilled through, despite their robes and blankets. All
tumbled out to stretch their benumbed limbs, and we ate lunch
around our impromptu fire grouped very picturesquely.
Meanwhile about everybody nearly had got "trout on the brain." We
had caught frequent glimpses of the speckled beauties, as we
crossed Sangre del Christo creek or rode along its banks, and
concluded to go into camp early, so as to try our luck with a fly or
two. A good camping place was found a mile or two farther on, near
the foot of the Pass, and here while supper was preparing, several of
us rigged up our lines and started off. H. and I were most
unfortunate; we whipped the stream up and down quite a distance,
but came back fishless. H. caught a bite, and I several nibbles, but
neither of us landed a trout. We could see plenty of them, young
dandies, darting about in the black pools, or, old fogies, floating
along by the banks; but they were Arcadian in their tastes, and
disdained the fancy flies we threw them. Dr. M. and L., however, had
better luck. The spirit of good Isaak Walton seemed to rest upon and
abide with them. They caught a dozen or more, of handsome
mountain trout, weighing from two to three pounds each, and the
next morning when brought on our rude table for breakfast, hot and
smoking from the fire, nothing could have been more savory and
delicious. Gen. B. and L. turned cooks for the occasion, and judged
by the result Delmonico might have envied them. Their broiled trout,
fresh from the brook and now piping hot, buttered and steaming,
assailed both eye and palate at once, and we awarded them the
palm, nem. con.
The weather that day, from noon on, had grown steadily colder,
though the sun shone unclouded most of the time, and before we
got our camp well pitched a snow-squall struck us. The flakes came
thick and fast for awhile, but presently passed away, though more or
less continued sifting downward until nightfall. Farther up the Pass,
around the crest of the mountains, snow-squalls marched and
countermarched most of the afternoon, and at sunset the air grew
nippingly cold, even down where we were. We soon pitched our
tent, and built a glorious fire in front of it; but that not sufficing,
supper once over, we carried our sheet-iron cooking-stove inside,
and all huddled about that. When bed-time came, blankets, buffalo-
robes and great-coats were all in demand; yet in spite of all, we
passed a sorry night of it, and morning dawned at last greatly to our
relief.
We reached Fort Garland next day (Sept. 20) about one, p. m.,
without meeting a single Indian, either hostile or friendly. Denver, as
before said, had warned us to be on our guard, and we tried to be;
but all reported dangers vanished as we advanced—Munchausen
after Munchausen exploding in turn. From the Huerfano across the
mountains to Garland, some fifty miles or more, there was but a
single ranch, and scarcely anybody on the road. A Mexican on foot
and another on a donkey were emigrating to the Huerfano, and at
one point we encountered a whole family similarly engaged.
Paterfamilias, whiffing his cigarito, led a diminutive broncho
(Mexican for jackass) about the size of a spring calf, on which sat his
household gods, to wit, his Señora also smoking, with a child before
and another behind her—all of them astride. Another broncho of
about the same size followed on behind, loaded down with clothing,
bedding, and various domestic utensils until there was but little to be
seen of him except his legs. What the locomotive is to the Yankee,
and the horse to the borderer, that the broncho is to the Mexican,
and the two seem alike fitted for each other and inseparable. His
patient little beast costs but little, and when stopping browses by the
wayside the best it may, while Don Quixote himself sits basking in
the sunshine. The serene and infinite content of a Mexican peon, as
he sits thus wrapped in his poncho or serape, sucking his everlasting
cigarrito, no American can imagine. His dignity is as perfect as that
of a Castilian; but the stolidity of his brain, who shall describe?
Some fifteen miles or so from Fort Garland, in the heart of the San
Luis Park, lies San Luis de Culebra, a hamlet of five or six hundred
people, and I believe, the most considerable "city," there. You strike
the Park proper some distance east of Fort Garland, and from there
to Culebra the country is substantially a dead-level. Culebra was
then a genuine Mexican town without an atom of the Yankee in or
about it, and seemed a thousand years old, it was so sleepy, though
comparatively a new settlement. Its houses were all one-story
adobes, with chimneys in the corner, in the true Mexican style, and
were all grouped about a central "plaza," of course, or the town
would not be Mexican. All Southern Colorado, it will be remembered,
formerly belonged to New Mexico, and hence these Mexican
settlements here and beyond. The people raised wheat, barley, and
oats to some extent; but depended on their flocks and herds chiefly
for support. We entered Culebra at dark, amidst a multitudinous
chorus of dogs, and halted at the house of Capt. D. a bright
German, formerly an officer of New Mexican Volunteers, but who
had recently married a Culebra señorita and settled there. He gave
us an excellent supper, after which we all adjourned to a "baille," or
Mexican Ball, gotten up especially in honor of Gen. Sherman and
Gov. Cumming, but which Sherman was unable to attend. Several of
his staff-officers, however, and the governor were present, and these
with the rest of us made up quite a party. These bailles are great
institutions among the New Mexicans, who retain all the old Spanish
fondness for music and dancing, and are ready for a "baille," any
time. The Culebrans had already had two or three that week, but got
up the Sherman-Cumming one on short notice and in grand style.
The only thing necessary was to engage a room and music, and
send a runner through the village, to announce a baille was on the
tapis, and the whole population—men, women, children, dogs, and
fleas—were sure to be there. At the primitive hour of eight p. m. the
people began to assemble, and by nine p. m. the baille was in full
blast. The ball-room itself was an adobe building, one-story high,
perhaps fifty feet long by thirty wide, with a dirt floor, and seats all
around. At the farther end was a rude bar, with a transparency over
it, bearing the motto, "Limonade and Egg-nog," at which each
cavalier was expected to treat his lady from time to time. Near this
was a rough platform for the musicians, who consisted of three or
four violinists, led by an irrepressible guitarist—blind and quite a
character in his way. As the evening progressed, he worked himself
up into an ecstacy of enthusiasm, and then, with his eyes "in fine
phrensy rolling," improvised words to every piece they played. He
appeared perfectly absorbed and carried away with playing and
singing, and when a dance ended seemed quite exhausted. No
bone-ist, or tambourine-ist, in a troupe of minstrels east, ever
performed with more thorough and reckless abandon. His head was
thrown back; his eye-balls rolled wildly: his coarse, matted, coal-
black hair swept his shoulders: his long and bony fingers fairly flew
up and down his quivering guitar: while his shrill, piping, tenor voice
rose and fell above the music, in thorough unison with the general
scene. Later in the evening, after frequent potations of egg-nog,
Don Jesus, (for that was his name) became immensely funny, and
his gyrations amused us greatly.
With the first sound of the violins, the couples took the floor, and
kept it up vigorously to the "wee sma' hours." The older people
participated less, but young and old were all there, apparently the
whole population, in their best "bib and tucker." Women came
carrying their infants, and others held the babies while their mothers
danced. The younger people, down to mere boys and girls, of
course, all danced. First came some slow, stately Spanish dances;
but presently they slid into schottisches and polkas, and performed
these with a vigor worthy of New York or Paris. Many present were
dressed humbly, and but few comparatively were well dressed; but
ornaments abounded, and the baille or fandango seemed to put all
on an equality. Most of our party selected partners, and soon were
lost in the maze and whirl. True, they could not speak a word of
Spanish, nor their señoritas any English; but that did not matter, as
the Mexicans regard it as a mark of ill-breeding to converse while
dancing. Their manner of saluting each other, when first they met,
was unique and original, to wit: the sexes poked their heads over
each other's shoulders, and took a good old fashioned hug.
Throughout the evening, of course, there was a total absence of
indecorum. As a whole, they seemed to be honest, simple folk, who
took life as it came, without fret or worriment, and enjoyed
themselves greatly. There was less beauty among the women, but
more intelligence among the men, than we expected; their
hospitality was hearty and generous—they did their best to give us a
pleasant evening; and altogether the baille at Culebra was an event
long to be remembered. I left Gov. C. at 11 p. m., looking on and
enjoying it, and went to sleep on a good wool bed—the only kind
used there—in a comfortable room, for the first time since leaving
Denver.
 CHAPTER VII.
AMONG THE MOUNTAINS (Continued).

Returning next day from Culebra to Fort Garland, we proceeded

thence subsequently up the Park to the Indian treaty on the Rio
Grande; and from there via Homan's Park and Poncho Pass north to
Fair Play in South Park. These "parks," so called, are a peculiar
feature of the Rocky Mountains and play an important part in the
scenery. There are five of them—North, Middle, South, Homan's, and
San Luis—of which we passed through the last three. They
constitute in reality a great system of plateaus or valleys, morticed
as it were into the very heart of the mountains, from twenty-five to
fifty miles long by half as many wide, disconnected by intervening
ranges, yet all alike in their general features. One of the main ranges
of the Rocky Mountains bounds them on the east; but the main
range, the real Sierra Nevada or Mother Range—the great Snowy
Range or real water-shed of the continent, dividing the waters of the
Pacific from those of the Atlantic—runs along the west. True, this is
disputed by enthusiastic Coloradoans; but the facts seem
nevertheless, as above. The North Platte, South Platte, Arkansas,
and Rio Grande, all take their rise there, and piercing the eastern
range flow thence to the Atlantic or the Gulf, while no considerable
stream flows thence to the Pacific. Kit Carson, whom we met at Fort
Garland, the best geographer of that region, took this view of the
subject, and I humbly concur.
The largest of these Parks, by far, is the San Luis, and we found it
fairly gridironed with trout streams, and rimmed around with
mountains. Its general elevation is from six to seven thousand feet
above the sea, with its surrounding peaks and ridges about as much
more, which is too cold for Indian corn, though the other cereals—
such as wheat, barley, oats, etc.—may readily be grown there.
Volcanic agencies have had much to do with its formation, as its
wide-spread igneous rocks and pebbles still plainly show. Along the
Rio Grande and its numerous affluents wide bottoms have been
formed, that are very rich—the very washings of the mountains; but
elsewhere you have only rocks and gravel, sage-brush and grease-
wood. It contains no timber, except a fringe of cottonwoods and
poplars along most of the larger streams; but cedar, pine, and fir are
found in the neighboring cañons and mountains. Cattle and other
live-stock find good grazing in summer along the streams, and in
winter they were said to thrive well on the coarse bunch-grass, with
which the surrounding cañons all abound. The broad bottoms of the
Rio Grande, waving with tall grass and fatter than the prairies of
Illinois, ought to make magnificent meadows, and will some day
when more of our Anglo-Saxon population overflows there. The
population of the Park was grouped mainly in two or three Mexican
hamlets, and was computed by Kit Carson (then Colonel of New
Mexico Volunteers and Post Commandant at Fort Garland) at about
five or six thousand only. A noted citizen of Denver, who owned a
large part of the Park, had reported it to us as about twenty
thousand. Not that he intended to be inexact; but his imagination
was naturally very vivid, and his language apt to be poetic. In
purchasing property there, under an old Spanish grant, he certainly
acquired any quantity of magnificent mountain, and a wide stretch
of plain; but we suspected, he would wait some time before he saw
his money back again.
Our general ride up the San Luis Park, and so through Homan's to
Poncho Pass, was unique and perfect in its way. Our route on leaving
Fort Garland was first across several mountain brooks, where the
trout were so abundant, that the soldiers at the fort caught them
with blankets and feasted on them at will, and then directly up the
Park, with the Sierra Blanca or Snowy Range towering on our right.
Striking the Rio Grande, we found it alive with geese and ducks, and
when we went into camp, L.—our champion sportsman—caught
several noble trout, weighing from five to six pounds each. Singularly
enough, the streams flowing to the Rio Grande all abound in trout,
while those going to the Mississippi, we were told, all lack them. We
halted two days here, attending the Indian Treaty before alluded to,
and then proceeded on. At Fort Garland, we were advised to return
to Denver by the same route we had come, as the season was
already advancing and nobody had come through by Poncho Pass
since the previous spring. Moreover, the trail was reported
impracticable for ambulances, and even Kit Carson shook his head,
unless we went by pack-mules. But as the pack-mules were not to
be had, and we were all averse to returning over the old route, we
resolved to push ahead by Poncho Pass, and get through the
mountains that way, if possible. From the Treaty-Ground, our route
lay nearly due north, with the snowy crest and peaks of the Sierra
Blanca on our right and about parallel. Bidding our friends good-bye,
we set out early (Sept. 24), with the wind dead-ahead and bitter
cold. Toward noon, the weather moderated somewhat; but snow-
squalls chased each other along the mountains all day, and once we
counted nine in view—one careering along behind the other—at the
same time. Now and then one would expand its wings, and sweep
across the Park; and several times in the course of the day we were
thus in the midst of real winter. The range to the west was more or
less broken into foot-hills and ridges; but the Sierra Blanca to the
right seemed a solid rampart, rugged, inaccessible, sublime. Its
serrated crest, white with perpetual snow, rose five or six thousand
feet above the level of the Park; its tree-line was distinctly marked,
as with a rule; and the whole seemed so near and so gorgeous,
when the sunset swallowed up the snow-squalls, that we could
scarcely realize it was yet miles away. As we got farther up the Park,
the soil grew thinner, and more volcanic in its origin; but we crossed
several handsome streams, that might be made to irrigate
considerable land there.
We found only one ranch, however, north of Fort Garland—a Mr.
Russell's, at the extreme north-eastern end of the Park. We camped
there one night, and found the proprietor to be a good specimen of
the average Coloradoan. Born in Illinois and bred a blacksmith, the
gold-fever had taken him to California, where he worked partly in
the mines and partly at his trade. When he failed in the mines, as he
usually did, he again resorted to his trade; and had he stuck to his
anvil, he verily believed, he would have been well-off long before.
But as soon as he had hammered out a little money, his evil genius
led him back to the "diggings;" and so he had wandered all up and
down our mining regions—California, Nevada, Colorado, etc.,—until
1861, when he found himself in Denver, without a cent in his
pockets. Mining happened to be dull there, a regiment of volunteers
was then forming for service against the Indians, and so he turned
soldier. Before his three years were up, he had saved a moderate
"pile," and when he was finally mustered out and discharged, he
came here and "squatted" on a quarter-section. The money saved
while thus soldiering started him in farming, and he now thought his
future secure. This was his first year there, but he had got along
very well so far. The Indians had not disturbed him, though
frequently there, and his Mexican peons had proved faithful laborers,
though a little slow. He had raised fine crops of oats, barley, and
potatoes, which he would sell to the garrison at Garland at good
prices; but his wheat was a failure—he feared, for want of sufficient
warmth. He had a good adobe house, which he meant to enlarge
and improve, and a fine flock of sheep, besides considerable cattle.
The worst feature of his ranch was, that he had to irrigate; but he
said he had plenty of water for this, and the cost was small. His
nearest neighbor was eighteen miles off, and that was too near; his
post-office, sixty miles; and church, two hundred. It is strange, that
men can be content to bury themselves thus, in the heart of a
wilderness, when God and nature are so bountiful elsewhere. It is
the everlasting itching, I suppose, that we Americans have for
change, which comes to little good after all. No doubt plenty of
Coloradoans would emigrate to the moon, or even to Le Verrier, if
there were a practicable "trail" there.
The next day crossing a low ridge, through a forest of gnarled
cedars, we entered Homan's Park, and found it to be nearly a
duplicate of the San Luis, on a smaller scale. It is about thirty miles
long, by perhaps half as many wide, and its essential features are
about the same as those of the San Luis, though its soil seemed
deeper and more generous. About half way up, a lusty mountain-
stream crosses from west to east, lined with cottonwoods, and here
four Germans had each "pre-empted" a quarter-section, all lying
together. They had all been officers of Colorado Volunteers, and
when mustered out came and "squatted" here together, in this
picturesque little valley. The last year of their service, being
stationed at Fort Garland, they had been up that way on a scout
after Indians; and, falling in love with the Park, selected it for their
future homes. One of them was married, and his wife—a tidy young
German woman—kept house for all. They began operations the
previous year, and already had accomplished large results. They put
in seven thousand dollars as joint-capital, and with this purchased all
the necessary animals, implements, provisions, seeds etc., to start
well with. Among the rest, they bought a hundred and forty cows,
which the following spring brought them in nearly as many calves,
all of which they were now raising. Pasturage was abundant in
summer, and in the winter the adjoining cañons supplied bunch-
grass, etc. They milked all their cows, and converted the milk into
butter and cheese, which two items alone had paid their current
expenses so far, with a small margin over. A sluice-way from the
brook carried the water into their milk-house, where instead of tin or
earthen pans, they had long milk-troughs hollowed out of logs,
around which the water flowed, and then passed back into the
stream again. A bowl of buttermilk, that they tendered us, fresh
from the churn, was an unlooked-for luxury in the heart of the Rocky
Mountains, that none of us could refuse. The ensuing winter they
proposed to build a water-churn, and so make their friendly brook
serve them still further. They had had tolerable crops of barley, oats,
and potatoes, all of which that could be spared they were
husbanding for seed the coming year. They had tried some corn and
wheat, but neither had matured well, and they would hardly venture
them again. Their butter and cheese they sold to the miners over in
South Park, and some they sent even to Denver and a market. They
called their place Kerber's Ranch, after their leading partner, who
seemed to be a live Dutchman all over. Of course, we had to stop to
dinner, though it was not yet noon; and when that meal was
announced, they conducted us to a table Denver might have envied.
Trout, venison, grouse, krout, with all the vegetables of the season,
and lager-beer home-brewed, made up a meal not to be despised
anywhere, least of all in the fastnesses of the Rocky Mountains.
They had seen no officers and hardly any body else, for months, and
would take no pay for anything; but gratefully accepted an armful of
"literature," as we bade them good-bye—the last of our newspapers,
magazines, and books still left from our supply on leaving Denver.
Their nearest neighbor was eighteen miles off, and nearest post-
office seventy-five. To Denver was a hundred and fifty miles, and it
took a team a month or more to go there and return via Poncho
Pass. They pronounced the Pass, in response to our eager inquiries,
entirely practicable, with careful driving, if we crossed by daylight;
and with their kindest wishes, we went on our way rejoicing.
Some miles after leaving Kerber's, we began to ascend the
mountain, but the ascent was so gradual you scarcely noticed it.
There was no well-defined road any where—only an old Indian trail
for saddle and pack animals, along which only a few wagons had
ever passed before. We continued to ascend until dusk, hoping to
reach and cross the summit before going into camp; but after
sunset, the trail became so faint and our animals so leg-weary, we
were compelled to halt at the first wood and water we came to. This
we did on the bank of a beautiful stream, that washed the base of a
high bluff or rather "butte," and rushed thence via Homan's Park to
the Rio Grande. Several of us had rode on ahead on horseback, but
the teams did not get up until after dark. Meanwhile, we had
gathered wood, and built a roaring fire; and when the rest arrived,
we soon had camp pitched, and the coffee boiling. We had shot
some ducks on the Rio Grande, and brought along some excellent
beef-steaks; and these H. and L. now broiled before the fire, on
sharpened sticks, in a style the Parker House could hardly have
beaten. We found excellent grass here, although so far up the Pass,
and our poor tired animals cropped it eagerly. The moon was at the
full that night, and the sky cloudless; but before morning the air
grew bitter cold. We shivered through the night, in spite of our
blankets and buffalo-robes; and the next morning at breakfast, the
ice formed in our tin-cups between the intervals of eating and
drinking. We were camped, in fact, on the summit of the Rocky
Mountains, at a height of nine or ten thousand feet above the sea,
with snow-peaks all about us, and the only wonder is that we got
through the night so well. For the first time since leaving Denver, we
felt a sense of loneliness and danger; and the occasional yelping of
the wolves around us, in the still midnight air, did little to allay this.
Our animals, also, seemed fretful and uneasy, and we suspected
Indians about, but nothing came of it. We looked well to our arms
before retiring, and talked much of the night away—it was so cold;
and the next morning broke camp early, and were off up the Pass
again.
A half an hour's ride or so brought us to the summit, which surprised
us, as the ascent had been so gentle all the way up from Kerber's—
far less than that of Sangre del Christo from Fort Garland. The view
from the summit we found limited, compared with that from Sangre
del Christo; and soon after we descended into a sheltered nook knee
deep in grass, with wood and water both just at hand, where we
had been advised to camp the night before, if able to reach it.
Following the banks of a diminutive brook, we descended gradually
to Poncho Creek; and here our really bad road began. So far, the
Pass had been excellent, all things considered, and we were
astonished at its bad reputation; but after we crossed Poncho Creek,
and got started down its wild cañon, we soon found ample cause for
it all. A narrow defile, with precipitous banks on either side from five
hundred to a thousand feet high, furnished the only road-way, which
here found room first on one side of the creek and then on the
other, the best it could, and in many places it had to take to the bed
of the creek itself, in order to round the rocky bluffs. The trouble
with the Pass was, it had had no work done on it, and needed
grading badly at several points. A few hundred dollars judiciously
expended would have made it much superior to Sangre del Christo,
we all thought. It is not so high by a thousand feet or more, nor
nearly so steep, and we judged it would yet become one of the
favorite routes to and from San Luis Park.
While the teams were working through, L. and I passed on ahead,
with our rifles at our saddle-bows, hoping to start a bear or shoot a
buck-tail deer, but saw no game of any kind. Our experience among
the mountains on this trip, indeed, was unfavorable to the stirring
accounts we had heard and read of great game there. The lack of
trees there, except in the cañons, and especially of nut-bearing
trees, and likewise of fruit-bearing bushes, must be unfavorable to
animal life, as a rule, and I doubt if there ever was much there,
except an occasional deer or bear, eagle or buzzard. We were
surprised to find so few birds, and scarcely any squirrels, except a
little red species no bigger than our ground-squirrels east. We met
two of Kerber's teams toiling wearily up the Pass, as we descended
it, and gave them the first news they had had from the ranch in
weeks. We got several miles ahead, before we knew it, and did not
halt until we reached the foot of the Pass, where it debouches into
the valley of the Little Arkansas. It was an hour or more before the
ambulances overtook us, and then we received a rough account of
their experiences. In several places, they had had to lash ropes
around them and edge them along the hillsides the best they could.
In others, they would have upset repeatedly, but managed by
walking and pushing to keep them on their wheels, and finally got
through safe and sound. The wagon, however, being heavier and
clumsier, had capsized badly, and they had driven ahead and left it,
with instructions to follow on as soon as possible. Crossing the valley
of the little Arkansas and a high range beyond, late in the afternoon
we descended into the valley of the Arkansas proper, and at sunset
went into camp on its banks, near Schwander's ranch. The Arkansas,
we found, was here already a very considerable stream, but we
forded it without difficulty. Our unfortunate wagon, perhaps it should
be added, got along after dark, much the worse for wear; and jaded
and weary with the day's journey, we were glad to pass a quiet night
of it.
The next morning we crossed another lofty range, the ascent of
which was wild and picturesque, and thence descended into South
Park. Less in size than the San Luis, and more broken in surface, the
South Park nevertheless has the same general characteristics,
though more nearly circular. Its enclosing mountains are abrupt and
bold, and the views from many points are very striking and
charming. Passing out of it to Denver, we ascended the range from
which Leutze is said to have conceived his well-known painting in
the Capitol at Washington, "Westward the star of Empire takes its
way." The facts are little like the painting aforesaid, because no
emigrant train would ever attempt to pass over such an impossible
road, as Leutze has painted: but the landscape from the point
referred to is nevertheless noble and grand. The range there, I
believe, is about eight thousand feet above the sea. South Park, at
your feet, extends say, thirty miles north and south, by twenty east
and west; down in its bosom nestles a necklace of exquisite little
lakes, with streams flashing onward from the mountains to them;
while beyond—all along the west, in fact—runs the perpetual Snowy
Range, notched and peaked, clear cut and beautiful against the sky,
though not so grand and stately as we had seen it farther south. To
the north of the road the range shoots up nearly a thousand feet
higher, but the view from there did not compensate us for our toil in
ascending it. The whole view here, though fine in its way, lacks
breadth and sublimity, as a specimen of Rocky Mountain scenery,
and Leutze would have done better (in my judgment) had he gone
to Sangre del Christo or perhaps Poncho Pass. The sky and general
coloring of his painting are good; but how inadequately, how feebly
they express the exquisite serenity and unapproachable glory of the
Mountains! Bierstadt's skies, though thought impossible east, are
nearer to the truth, as our critics will yet learn, when they come to
know more of Colorado.
 TWIN LAKES (South Park).

In South Park, we had struck a new civilization, the evidences of

which grew constantly more apparent. The Mexican and the herder
had given way to the Yankee and the miner, and the contrast was
most striking. Ranches and settlements were more numerous, and
the spirit of enterprise was everywhere observable. First we struck
some saline springs, where extensive salt-works had already been
erected, and they were reported to be paying well. They were said
to furnish a superior article of salt, at a less price than it could be
imported from the east, and the company expected thus to
monopolize the salt-market of Colorado and the adjoining regions.
Beyond these, ranches thickened up all the way to Fair Play, and we
found some splendid duck-shooting in the marshes, that now and
then skirted the road. Some of the flocks, however, carried off an
immense amount of lead, or else H. and L. were indifferent shots—
we were never quite able to decide which. They were our champion
sportsmen, and though they bagged a number of fine ducks en
route, they never were entirely satisfied. They both fired
simultaneously at a great flock that rose up as we drove by, and
when none dropped H. protested, "I know I hit a dozen that time,
but these confounded Rocky Mountain ducks don't know what shot
is. They fly away with enough honest lead in them to kill an ordinary
eastern duck twice over." L. of course, confirmed this, and adduced
the abundant feathers as proof of their joint achievement. B.
suggested that the Indians had charmed their fowling-pieces, and
meekly inquired of H., "Didn't the ducks carry off your shot-pouch
also?" At Fair Play, in the northwest corner of the Park, we found a
mining town of four or five hundred inhabitants, apparently busy and
prosperous. Timber grew plentifully in the neighboring cañons, and
now adobe huts gave place to frame and log shanties. The South
Platte skirts the town, and is already a considerable stream here,
although it cannot be far away from its source. At Fair Play it heads
north up into the great Snowy Range, or water shed of the
continent, which feeds it perpetually, and runs thence east to join
the North Platte near Fort McPherson, where we had struck it by
stage-coach a month before. Good "gold diggings" had been found
here long before, and its entire banks about Fair Play have been dug
over, "panned out," and ransacked generally. They presented a torn
and ragged appearance, as if a young earthquake or two had
recently broken out there, and this was not materially improved by
the long and high flumes then going up. When these were
completed, they expected to turn the Platte considerably aside, and
to find rich "placer mines" in its sand-bars and bed again. The
principal mining then in South Park, however, was farther up the
Platte, at Empire, Buckskin Joe, and other euphoniously named
places, none of which had we time to visit. The business generally
seemed to be settling down to quartz-mining, as at Black-Hawk and
Central City, and to be passing more and more into the hands of
Companies. We met several huge boilers on the road, en route to
various mills, and it seemed marvellous how they could ever wagon
them so far across the Plains, and up into the very heart of the
Mountains. Progress with them must have been slow and tedious
anywhere; but when they struck a slough, or reached the mountain
ranges, then came the whacks and oaths.
Judge Costello, of the Fair Play House, entertained us while there,
and gave us excellent accommodations. There had been several
inches of snow at Fair Play a few days before, and arriving just at
nightfall after a long day's drive, we felt the cold very keenly. But the
Judge soon had a roaring fire blazing on his hearth, and welcomed
us to Fair Play right royally. In due time he gave us a substantial
dinner, piping hot—roast-beef, chicken-fricasee, potatoes with their
jackets on, dried-apple-pie and coffee—a meal that seemed
supremely Sybaritic, after "roughing it" by the roadside for over a
fortnight. We did ample justice to it, having breakfasted nearly
twelve hours before, and then adjourned to a common bed-room,
where we smoked and read the papers until midnight. We had seen
none since leaving Denver, nearly a month before; but Judge C.
happened to have just received a large supply, which we devoured
eagerly. The elections in California and Oregon had just been held,
and the North was again rocking with enthusiasm. Andrew Johnson's
apostacy, it was clear, promised to be a losing game after all. The
spirit of a few people at last was aroused, as after the firing on
Sumter, and evidently the nation meant again neither to be bribed
nor scared. True, the November elections were yet to come; but we
took increased faith in the virtue and intelligence of the masses, and
rejoiced that Congress was still true to Liberty. Absence from "the
states" is a great purifier of one's political ideas. We see things at
home clearer, and reverence the Union more, the farther we get
away from New York and Washington. We forgot all the wretched
hair-splitting east, by one side or the other; and came to love only
the old flag, in its highest and best significance, as the symbol of
freedom and justice, for each and for all men, the broad continent
across and the wide world over.
The next morning, a young miner invited us out to take a look at a
fine specimen of the American black-eagle, which he had caught a
few days before, while "prospecting" along the Snowy Range. He
was comparatively a young bird still, yet measured some six feet
from tip to tip of wings, and was as brave and fierce as a tiger. He
was kept chained by the leg in a dark stable; but he was as wide
awake as he could be, and screamed and flew savagely at every one
who came near him. It was intended to forward him to the great Fair
soon to be held at St. Louis, as a specimen of the feathered tribe
from Colorado, where no doubt he created a sensation. His eyes
were bright and keen as a falchion, and his talons ugly looking
grappling-irons. So, too, his legs were massive, compact columns,
that seemed made for strength and endurance. And altogether he
was not a bad representative of the Rocky Mountains, where his
species have their birth-place and home.
From Fair Play we descended the South Platte direct to Denver,
following the course of the river wherever practicable. In some
places, its narrow and precipitous cañons prevented this, but we
always returned to its banks again as soon as possible. Some miles
from Fair Play, we passed several gems of lakes, which H. declared
to be "the natural home of the wild-duck;" but though the ducks
were there, he failed to bag any, greatly to his disgust. L. more
fortunate, got one, and killed several others, but failed to reach
them because of the marshes. Our road led over several ranges,
some of them quite precipitous, but in the main followed the
windings of the Platte, as before said. Here and there the wild
cañons, through which the Platte sped like an arrow, became
picturesque in the extreme. Frequently our course ahead seemed
barred by impenetrable fastnesses, yet somehow we always got
through. High and rocky cliffs towered all about us, and all up and
down these, wherever they could secure a foothold, the fir, pine,
maple, ash, etc. grew densely. As we neared Denver, ranches
became more frequent, and saw-mills multiplied, the lumber from
which was shipped far and near, among the mines and across the
Plains, even to Julesburg and Fort Riley. The road in the main was a
natural way; but here and there it had been blasted out of the bluff,
or built up on the edge of the Platte, at large expense, and I believe
is a chartered turnpike from Fair Play down. The Platte alone makes
such a road practicable, and South Park and all its dependencies
would be virtually inaccessible, were it not for this great natural
highway into the very heart of the Mountains. Altogether, it is a
remarkably good road, all things considered, and so are the majority
of the roads there. As a rule, they follow the streams that seem to
lead almost everywhere among the ranges, as if purposely chiseled
out from the beginning, as future pathways of civilization. Our
miners, taking the hint, carry their roads over heights, and through
depths, and among peaks, that would appal most eastern engineers,
and thus enable us to conquer nature in her mightiest strongholds.
The last day out from Denver, we ascended Bradford's Hill—our last
serious climb—about noon. This is in reality the first range of the
mountains, and gets itself up to some 8,000 feet above the sea; but
is yet termed a "Hill," in Colorado parlance. We all got out or
dismounted and walked up, to relieve our worn animals, and became
well blown ourselves before reaching the summit—the atmosphere
grew so rare. As we rounded its western shoulder, we caught a
grand view of the Snowy Range again, solemn and sublime over and
above all intervening peaks and ridges; but with one accord, all
hastened forward to behold once more the Plains, the Plains! Yes,
there they were, in all their immeasurable extent! We were out of
the Mountains—our long jaunt almost over. No more cañons. No
more forests. No more snow-squalls. No more rides, hour by hour,
through narrow valleys and defiles, where the whole man feels
"cabined, cribbed, confined." No. There were the Plains, illimitable,
grand, in all their immensity and sublimity. We thought the view
from Sangre del Christo fine, and so it is; but as a view of the Plains
proper, without the Mountains thrown in, this view from Bradford's
Hill, I think, perhaps surpasses it. There is no end to the vast
outstretch and outlook, and in the serene atmosphere of that region
the eye ranges over it all with an ease and freedom, only equalled
by the eagle himself when poised in mid air. To say that the Plains
are visible for miles on miles—north, south, east—is but a feeble
description of the wonderful panorama, that there unfolds before
you. To the south appeared Castle Rock and its sister buttes, that we
had passed three weeks before, looking now like mole-hills beneath
us. Issuing from the Mountains at our feet, we could trace the South
Platte and Cherry Creek to where they unite near Denver, and then
follow the Platte on and on to the east, till lost in the far horizon.
Denver lay like a toy-city, seemingly at the base of the Mountains,
though really twenty miles away. Over all, was one of those perfect
days,

"So cool, so calm, so bright,

The bridal of the earth and sky."

as old George Herbert wrote, which no Bostonian or Gothamite ever

truly witnesses—with not a cloud or haze even visible, the air so
pure it was joy to breathe it and ecstacy to gaze abroad through it.
Verily, here in Colorado, if anywhere.

"The sky is a drinking cup,

That was overturned of old,
And it pours into the eyes of men
Its wine of airy gold;
We drink that wine all day
Till the last drop is drained up,
And are lighted off to bed,
By the jewels in the cup."

Off to the southwest, just shouldering over the range, presently a

white cloud loomed up, no bigger than a man's hand; but the dry
atmosphere east was too much for it, and it faded away as fast as it
toppled over. As we stood gazing at the immensity before us, some
one incidentally said, "I think I now understand how Bilboa felt,
when from the summit of the Andes he beheld the Pacific;" and it is
a good illustration of the identity of thought under like
circumstances, that half-a-dozen others quickly responded, "You bet!
Just thinking of the same thing!"
We reached Denver the same evening, jaded and travel-stained, but
full of enthusiasm over our trip among the mountains. We had
traversed nine counties, some as large as a moderate state east, and
been absent nearly a month in all. We had been reported captured
and slain by the Indians, as much as two or three times, but from
first to last did not see a hostile aborigine. We drove the same
animals down and back, over five hundred miles continuously,
without the loss of a mule, and seldom made less than thirty or forty
miles a day, when on the road. Our ambulances proved very
convenient and serviceable, but in crossing the ranges or in bad
cañons I always preferred a mule. My favorite was Kate, a noble
jenny, as large as a horse and a splendid walker, that carried me
over many a mile delightfully. She was as gentle as a kitten, and as
faithful as a dog—it sometimes seemed almost as knowing as a man
—obeying every whim of her rider, and following him everywhere. If
any mule ever attains immortality and a sort of heaven hereafter,
surely Kate deserves to. In crossing the ranges or threading the
cañons thus, on horse or mule back, several of us would often get
miles ahead, and the time thus gained afforded ample leisure for
observation and reflection. We were seldom at a loss for
conversation, there was so much to investigate and discuss; but
when all else failed, we amused ourselves by organizing (on paper)
two monster Mining Companies, with fabulous capitals, in which we
divided off and took stock. I believe I belonged to the Grand Sangre
del Christo Rocky Mountain Mutual Benefit Gold and Silver Mining
Association; capital, $20,000,000! H. and C. and others constituted a
rival company, with like assets and name equally pretentious. We set
up these financial fictions early in the trip, when somebody fell to
talking about "feet;" and what with selling "short," operating for a
"rise," "corralling the market," "declaring dividends," and abusing
each others' "Company," they served to while away many an idle
interval. The last afternoon out, we "consolidated," shook hands
over the "union," elected a full "Board of Officers," and adjourned to
receive our "joint dividends," at New York; but hitherto have never
been so fortunate as to get a "quorum" together there, and doubt
now if we ever will.
 CHAPTER VIII.
THE INDIANS—GEN. SHERMAN—KIT CARSON, ETC.

At Fort Garland, in San Louis Park, Sept 21st, Gov. Cumming, Gen.
Sherman, and the famous Kit Carson (then Bv't. Brig. Gen. U. S.
Vols.), met in council, concerning the Utes and the Indian question
generally. Sherman, as elsewhere intimated, was then in the midst
of a long tour by ambulance, through the heart of the Indian country
embraced in his then Military Division, and as he had already
travelled about 1200 miles, with no escort except a couple of staff-
officers and the necessary teamsters, without seeing a hostile Red
Skin, he was getting to be somewhat skeptical on the whole Indian
subject. The grand Treaty with the Utes was to come off Sept. 22d
and 23d on the banks of the Rio Grande, some thirty miles
northwest from Fort Garland; but as Sherman had decided to leave
Garland on the 22d for his return east via the Arkansas, a
preliminary council was called at Fort Garland on the 21st. Runners
had been sent out a day or two before, and the Big Chiefs of the
Utes kept arriving all that day. The council was held late in the
afternoon, in a large room back of the commandant's quarters. The
chiefs were grouped on one side of the room, squat upon their
haunches, grave and dignified; while on the other sat Sherman in
loose uniform, puffing a cigar, with Gov. Cumming on one side and
Kit Carson on the other. Carson served as interpreter, speaking
Mexican well, which the chiefs mostly understood. After some
preliminary skirmishing, Sherman said he had called them together
to ascertain whether the Utes were willing to quit their nomadic life
and settle down on a Reservation. He urged this upon them, as their
true interest, if they wished to maintain their tribal existence, and
said he had only come among them to promote their happiness and
welfare. He added, he had recently been visiting many other tribes
with the same object and purposes, and as a friend to their race was
convinced their only hope for the future lay in going on a
Reservation. The chiefs debated the matter among themselves for
awhile, and presently made answer, that they thanked the Big
Warrior for his suggestions and approved them; but that their young
men were opposed to such a policy, and they feared it would be
difficult to persuade the Utes of its wisdom, until the Cheyennes and
Comanches—their hereditary foes—had first adopted it. The council
lasted an hour or more, with much skillful fencing and adroit
diplomacy on the part of Ooray and Ancantash, the head-chiefs; but
this was the substance of all that Sherman could worm out of them.
He tried to explain and reason with them in various ways, but at last
broke up the council in disgust, and blurted out in his peculiar way,
as he strode back to his quarters, "They will have to freeze and
starve a little more, I reckon, before they will listen to common
sense!" Subsequently he told us of a council that he had held about
a fortnight or so before, at Fort Laramie or somewhere up there,
with the Arrapahoes or the Sioux. He had urged upon the chiefs,
that their white brothers were opposed to war and desired peace,
and he hoped there would be no more bloodshed in that region
between the Red Man and the Pale Face. The chiefs presently
replied, with a wariness worthy of Talleyrand, that they reciprocated
his Quaker sentiments, and would do all in their power to enforce
them; but that their young men were rash and fiery sometimes, and
it might be difficult to hold them in. "Well, then," said Sherman to
the interpreter, firing up, "Tell the rascals so are mine; and if another
white man is scalped in all this region, it will be impossible to hold
mine in." The chiefs saw the point, and no doubt sagely concluded
they would have trouble, if ever they got Tecumseh Sherman fairly
after them.
The grand Treaty with the Utes came off, as I have said, on Sept.
22d and 23d, on the banks of the Rio Grande, some thirty miles or
so northwest from Fort Garland. We left Garland early in the morning
by ambulance, and reached the treaty ground soon after noon. Gov.
Cumming and Indian Agent Hunt had preceded us, and on arriving
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