FIGHT WITH THE GRIZZLY BEARS. [[p. 290.]

THE

BACKWOODSMAN;

OR,

LONDON:

WARD, LOOK, AND TYLER,

WARWICK HOUSE, PATERNOSTER ROW.

THE

BACKWOODSMAN;

OR,

EDITED BY

SIR C. F. LASCELLES WRAXALL, Bart.

LONDON:

WARD, LOOK, AND TYLER,

WARWICK HOUSE, PATERNOSTER ROW.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY J. OGDEN AND CO.

172, ST. JOHN STREET, E.C.

CONTENTS.

THE BACKWOODSMAN

CHAPTER I.

MY SETTLEMENT.

My blockhouse was built at the foot of the mountain chain of the Rio Grande, on the precipitous banks of the River Leone. On three sides it was surrounded by a fourteen feet stockade of split trees standing perpendicularly. At the two front corners of the palisade were small turrets of the same material, whence the face of the wall could be held under fire in the event of an attack from hostile Indians. On the south side of the river stretched out illimitable rolling prairies, while the northern side was covered with the densest virgin forest for many miles. To the north and west I had no civilized neighbours at all, while to the south and east the nearest settlement was at least 250 miles distant. My small garrison consisted of three men, who, whenever I was absent, defended the fort, and at other times looked after the small field and garden as well as the cattle.

As I had exclusively undertaken to provide my colony with meat, I rarely stayed at home, except when there was some pressing field work to be done. Each dawn saw me leave the fort with my faithful dog Trusty, and turn my horse either toward the boundless prairie or the mountains of the Rio Grande.

Very often hunting kept me away from home for several days, in which case I used to bivouac in the tall grass by the side of some prattling stream. Such oases, though not frequent, are found here and there on the prairies of the Far West, where the dark, lofty magnolias offer the wearied traveller refreshment beneath their thick foliage, and the stream at their base grants a cooling draught. One of these favourite spots of mine lay near the mountains, about ten miles from my abode. It was almost the only water far and wide, and here formed two ponds, whose depths I was never able to sound, although I lowered large stones fastened to upwards of a hundred yards of lasso. The small space between the two ponds was overshadowed by the most splendid magnolias, peca-nut trees, yuccas, evergreen oaks, &c., and begirt by a wall of cactuses, aloes, and other prickly plants. I often selected this place for hunting, because it always offered a large quantity of game of every description, and I was certain at any time of finding near this water hundreds of wild turkeys, which constitute a great dainty in the bill of fare of the solitary hunter.

After a very hot spring day I had sought the ponds, as it was too late to ride home. The night was glorious; the magnolias and large-flowered cactuses diffused their vanilla perfume over me; myriads of fireflies continually darted over the plain, and a gallant mocking-bird poured forth its dulcet melody into the silent night above my head. The whole of nature seemed to be revelling in the beauty of this night, and thousands of insects sported round my small camp fire. It was such a night as the elves select for their gambols, and for a long time I gazed intently at the dark blue expanse above me. But, though the crystal springs incessantly bubbled up to the surface, the Lurleis would not visit me, for they have not yet strayed to America.

My dog and horse also played around me for a long time, until, quite tired, they lay down by the fire-side, and all three of us slept till dawn, when the gobbling of the turkeys aroused us. The morning was as lovely as the night. To the east the flat prairie bordered the horizon like a sea; the dark sky still glistened with the splendour of all its jewels, while the skirt of its garment was dipped in brilliant carmine; the night fled rapidly toward the mountains, and morn pursued it clad in his festal robes. The sun rose like a mighty ball over the prairie, and the heavy dew bowed the heads of the tender plants, as if they were offering their morning thanksgiving for the refreshment which had been granted them. I too was saturated with dew, and was obliged to hang my deerskin suit to dry at the fire; fortunately the leather had been smoked over a wood fire, which prevents it growing hard in drying. I freshened up the fire, boiled some coffee, roasted the breast of a turkey, into which I had previously rubbed pepper and salt, and finished breakfast with Trusty, while Czar, my famous white stallion, was greedily browzing on the damp grass, and turned his head away when I went up to him with the bridle. I hung up the rest of the turkey, as well as another I had shot on the previous evening, and a leg of deer meat, in the shadow of a magnolia, as I did not know whether I might not return to the spot that evening, saddled, and we were soon under weigh for the mountains, where I hoped to find buffalo.

I was riding slowly along a hollow in the prairie, when a rapidly approaching sound attracted my attention. In a few minutes a very old buffalo, covered with foam, dashed past me, and almost at the same moment a Comanche Indian pulled up his horse on the rising ground about fifty yards from me. As he had his bow ready to shoot the buffalo, the savage made his declaration of war more quickly than I, and his first arrow passed through my game bag sling, leather jacket and waistcoat to my right breast, while two others whizzed past my ear. To pluck out the arrow, seize a revolver, and dig the spurs into my horse, were but one operation; and a second later saw me within twenty yards of the Redskin, who had turned his horse round and was seeking safety in flight. After a chase of about two miles over awfully rough ground, where the slightest mistake might have broken my neck, the Indian's horse began to be winded, while Czar still held his head and tail erect. I rapidly drew nearer, in spite of the terrible blows the Redskin dealt his horse, and when about thirty paces behind the foe, I turned slightly to the left, in order, if I could, to avoid wounding his horse by my shot. I raised my revolver and fired, but at the same instant the Indian disappeared from sight, with the exception of his left foot, with which he held on to the saddle, while the rest of his body was suspended on the side away from me. With the cessation of the blows, however, the speed of his horse relaxed, and I was able to ride close up. Suddenly the Indian regained his seat and urged on his horse with the whip; I fired and missed again, for I aimed too high in my anxiety to spare the mustang. We went on thus at full gallop till we reached a very broad ravine, over which the Indian could not leap. He, therefore, dashed past my left hand, trying at the same moment to draw an arrow from the quiver over his left shoulder. I fired for the third time; with the shot the Comanche sank back on his horse's croup, hung on with his feet, and went about a hundred yards farther, when he fell motionless in the tall grass. As he passed me, I had noticed that he was bleeding from the right chest and mouth, and was probably already gone to the happy hunting-grounds. I galloped after the mustang, which soon surrendered, though with much trembling, to the pale face; I fastened its bridle to my saddle bow, led both horses into a neighbouring thicket, and reloaded my revolver.

I remained for about half-an-hour in my hiding-place, whence I could survey the landscape around, but none of the Indian's comrades made their appearance, and I, therefore, rode up to him to take his weapons. He was dead. The bullet had passed through his chest. I took his bow, quiver and buffalo hide, and sought for the arrows he had shot at me as I rode back. I resolved to pass the night at the ponds, not only to rest my animals, but also to conceal myself from the Indians who, I felt sure, were not far off. I was not alarmed about myself, but in the event of pursuit by superior numbers, I should have Trusty to protect, and might easily lose the mustang again.

I reached the springs without any impediment, turned my horses out to grass in the thicket, and rested myself in the cool shade of the trees hanging over the ponds. A calm, starry night set in, and lighted me on my ride home, which I reached after midnight. The mustang became one of my best horses. It grew much stronger, as it was only four years old when I captured it; and after being fed for awhile on maize, acquired extraordinary powers of endurance.

CHAPTER II.

THE COMANCHES.

The summer passed away in hunting, farm-work, building houses, and other business, and during this period I had frequently visited the ponds. One evening I rode to them again in order to begin hunting from that point the next morning. If I shot buffaloes not too far from my house, I used to ride back, and at evening drove out with a two-wheeled cart, drawn by mules, to fetch the meat and salt it for the probable event of a siege. As I always had an ample supply of other articles for my garrison and cattle, and as I had plenty of water, I could resist an Indian attack for a long time. Large herds of buffalo always appear in the neighbourhood, so soon as the vegetation on the Rocky Mountains begins to die out, and the cold sets in. They spread over the evergreen prairies in bands of from five to eight hundred head, and I have often seen at one glance ten thousand of these relics of the primeval world. For a week past these wanderers had been moving southwards; but, though their appearance may be so agreeable to the hunter in these parts, it reminds him at the same time that his perils are greatly increased by their advent. Numerous tribes of horse Indians always follow these herds to the better pasturage and traverse the prairie in every direction, as they depend on the buffalo exclusively for food. The warmer climate during the winter also suits them better, as they more easily find forage for their large troops of horses and mules.

At a late hour I reached the ponds, after supplying myself en route with some fat venison. Before I lit my fire, I also shot two turkeys on the neighbouring trees, because at this season they are a great dainty, as they feed on the ripe oily peca-nuts. I sat till late over my small fire, cut every now and then a slice from the meat roasting on a spit, and bade my dog be quiet, who would not lie down, but constantly sniffed about with his broad nose to the ground, and growling sullenly. Czar, on the contrary, felt very jolly, had abundant food in the prairie grass, and snorted every now and then so lustily, that the old turkeys round us were startled from their sleep. It grew more and more quiet. Czar had lain down by my side, and only the unpleasant jeering too-whoot of the owl echoed through the night, and interrupted the monotonous chorus of the hunting wolves which never ceases in these parts. Trusty, my faithful watchman, was still sitting up with raised nose, when I sank back on my saddle and fell asleep. The morning was breaking when I awoke, saturated with dew; but I sprang up, shook myself, made up the fire, put meat on the spit and coffee to boil, and then leapt into the clear pond whose waters had so often refreshed me. After the bath I breakfasted, and it was not till I proceeded to saddle my horse that I noticed Trusty's great anxiety to call my attention to something. On following him, I found a great quantity of fresh Indian sign, and saw that a large number of horses had been grazing round the pond on the previous day. I examined my horse gear and weapons, opened a packet of cartridges for my double-barrelled rifle, and then rode in the direction of the Leone. I had scarce crossed the first upland and reached the prairie when Czar made an attempt to bolt, and looked round with a snort. I at once noticed a swarm of Comanches about half a mile behind me, and coming up at full speed. There was not a moment to lose in forming a resolution—I must either fly or return to my natural fortress at the springs. I decided on the latter course, as my enemies were already too near for my dog to reach the thicket or the Leone before them, for though the brave creature was remarkably powerful and swift-footed, he could not beat good horses in a long race.

I therefore turned Czar round, and flew back to the ponds. A narrow path which I had cut on my first visit through a wall of prickly plants led to the shady spot between the two ponds, which on the opposite side were joined by a broad swamp, so that I had only this narrow entrance to defend. The thicket soon received us. Czar was fastened by the bridle to a wild grape-vine; my long holster-pistols were thrust into the front of my hunting-shirt; the belt that held my revolvers was unbuckled, and I was ready for the attack of the savages. Trusty, too, had put up the stiff hair on his back, and by his growling showed that he was equally ready to do his part in the fight. The Indians had come within a few hundred yards, and were now circling round me with their frightful war-yell, swinging their buffalo-hides over their heads, and trying, by the strangest sounds and gestures, either to startle my horse or terrify me. I do not deny that, although used to such scenes, I felt an icy coldness down my back at the sight of these demons, and involuntarily thought of the operation of scalping. I remained as quiet as I could, however, and resolved not to expend a bullet in vain. The distance was gradually reduced, and the savages came within about a hundred and fifty yards, some even nearer. The boldest came within a hundred and twenty yards of me, while the others shot some dozen arrows at me, some of which wounded the sappy cactuses around me. The savages continually grew bolder, and it was time to open the ball, for attacking is half the battle when engaged with Indians.

I therefore aimed at the nearest man—a powerful, stout, rather elderly savage, mounted on a very fast golden-brown stallion—and at once saw that the bullet struck him: in his fall he pulled his horse round towards me, and dashed past within forty yards, which enabled me to see that the bullet had passed through his body, and he did not need a second. About one hundred yards farther on he kissed the ground. After the shot the band dashed off, and their yell was augmented to a roar more like that of a wounded buffalo than human voices. They assembled about half a mile distant, held a short consultation, and then returned like a whirlwind towards me with renewed yells. The attack was now seriously meant, although the sole peril I incurred was from arrows shot close to me. I led Czar a few paces in the rear behind a widely-spreading yucca, ordered Trusty to lie down under the cactuses, reloaded my gun, and, being a bit of Indian myself, I disappeared among the huge aloes in front of me, pulling my stout beaver hat over my eyes. I allowed the tornado to come within a hundred and sixty paces, when I raised my good rifle between the aloes, pulled the trigger, and saw through the smoke a Redskin bound in the air, and fall among the horses' hoofs. A dense dust concealed the band from sight, but a repetition of the yells reached my ear, and I soon saw the savages going away from me, whereon I gave them the contents of the second barrel, which had a good effect in spite of the distance, as I recognised in the fresh yells raised and the dispersion of the band. The Indians, ere long, halted a long way off; but after awhile continued their retreat. I understood these movements perfectly well: they wanted to give me time to leave my hiding-place, and then ride me down on the plain. Hence I waited till the Comanches were nearly two miles off, and watched them through my glass as they halted from time to time, and looked round at me. I was certain that we now had a sufficient start to reach the forest on the Leone without risk. My rifle was reloaded, and my pistols were placed in the holsters. I stepped out of my hiding-place and mounted my horse, which bore me at a rapid pace towards my home. The enemy scarce noticed my flight ere they dashed down from the heights after me like a storm-cloud. I did not hurry, however, for fear of fatiguing Trusty; but selected the buffalo paths corresponding with my direction, thousands of which intersect the prairies like a net, and at the end of the first mile felt convinced that we should reach the forest all right, which now rose more distinctly out of the sea of grass. So it was: we dashed into the first bushes only pursued by five Indians, where I rode behind some dwarf chestnuts, dismounted, and prepared to receive my enemies. They remained out of range, however, and in a short time retired again.

My readers will naturally ask why some thirty Indians allowed a single hunter to emerge from his hiding-place, and why they did not compel him to surrender by a short siege? The Comanches are horse Indians, who can only effect anything when mounted, and hence never continue a pursuit into a thicket. They never undertake any martial exploit by night; and, moreover, the Indian, when he goes into action, has very different ideas from a white man; for while the latter always thinks he will be the last to fall, every Redskin believes that he will be the first to be hit. At the same time, these tribes set a far higher value on the life of one of their warriors than we white men do, and they often told me that we pale-faces grew out of the ground like mushrooms, while it took them eighteen years to produce a warrior. The tribes are not large; they consist of only one hundred and fifty to three hundred men; they have their chief and are quite independent of the other clans, although belonging to the same nations. The Comanches, for instance, reckon thirty thousand souls, spread over the whole of the Far West. In consequence of the many sanguinary wars which the different tribes wage together, it is frequently of great consequence to a clan, whether it counts ten men more or less, and hence the anxiety felt by the savages about the life of their warriors. The Northern Indians have assumed many of the habits of the white men, and are advancing gradually towards civilization; they nearly all carry fire-arms, wear clothes, till the ground, and their squaws, children, and old men, live in villages together. Our Southern Indians are all at the lowest stage of civilization, are generally cannibals, have no home, follow the buffalo, on whose flesh they live, and have assumed none of our customs. At times they may get hold of a horse-cloth or a bit, which they have taken from a hunter or stolen from a border settlement, but in other respects they are children of nature; they go about almost naked, and only carry weapons of their own manufacture. Their long lance is a very dangerous weapon, owing to the skill with which they use it; and the same is the case with their bows, from which they discharge arrows at a distance of fifty yards, with such accuracy and force, as to pierce the largest buffalo. The lasso (a plaited rope of leather) is another weapon which they employ with extraordinary skill; they throw the noose at one end over the head of an enemy, then gallop off in the opposite direction, and drag their captive to death. There are but very few foot Indians in the South; they generally live in the mountains, as they are always at war with the horse savages, and would be at a disadvantage on the plains; but they are by far the most dangerous denizens of these parts, as the most of them are supplied with fire-arms, and try to overpower their enemy treacherously at night. The Weicos form the chief tribe of these foot Indians, and are pursued both by the mounted Redskins and the white borderers like the most dangerous of wild beasts: on their account I have often spent the night without fire, and have been startled from my sleep by the whoot of the owl, which they imitate admirably, as a distant signal to one another. In the conduct of the horse Indians there is something open and chivalrous, and I never hated them for chasing me; we contended for the possession of the land, which they certainly held first, but which nature assuredly created for a better object than that a few wild hordes should use it for their hunting and war forages. It always seemed to me an honourable contest between civilization and savageness when I was attacked by these steppe-horsemen, and I never felt that blood-thirsty hatred which beset me when I noticed the Weicos and Tonkaways creeping about like vipers. I more than once all but fell victim to their cunning, and it is always a pleasant memory that I frequently punished them severely for it.

CHAPTER III.

A FIGHT WITH THE WEICOS.

As I mentioned, my fort stood on the south side of the Leone river, and in front of it lay one of the richest and most fertile prairies, which ran to the bank of Mustang Creek, a small stream running parallel to the Leone, beneath the shade of lofty peca-nut trees, magnolias, cypresses, and oaks, to join the Rio Grande. The prairie between the Leone and this stream was about five miles broad; and often, when I had spent the day at home, I rode off to pass the night there, in order to shoot at daybreak as much game as my horse could comfortably carry, and be back to breakfast. I had found, in a coppice close to the stream, a small grassy clearing, where Czar was always comfortable. Around it stood colossal primæval oaks and magnolias, in whose shade many varieties of evergreen bushes, such as myrtle, laurel, and rhododendron, formed an impenetrable thicket, as they were intertwined with pendant llianas and vines the thickness of my body. In this thicket I had built a sort of hut of buffalo hides, in which I hid away a frying-pan, an old axe, and a coffee-pot. At this spot I passed many a hot summer night, for I found there a cool, quiet bed, which the sun never reached, for myself and my faithful companions, and ran no risk of being betrayed by my camp-fire and disturbed by the Indians.

After one of these hot days, I rode Czar out of the fort, and Trusty, released from the chain, sprang joyfully at my horse's head, delighted at getting into the open country again, and the prospect of fresh deer or buffalo kidneys. We went slowly toward the thickly-wooded bank of the creek, which bordered the prairie ahead of us like a purple strip, through large gay fields of flowers, with which the prairie is adorned. Blue, yellow, red, and white beds, in the most varied hues, succeeded each other, and filled the air with the sweetest and most fragrant perfumes. Wherever the eye turned it fell on herds of deer, that were sheltering themselves from the burning sun under isolated elms and mosquito trees, and rose on our approach to be ready for flight. Further on grazed many herds of migratory buffaloes, from which the prairies at this season are never quite free, and, here and there, antelopes were flying over the heaving sea of grass and flowers. As I rode along, my eye was certainly rejoiced by this abundance of game, but I did not change my direction on that account, because I was not any great distance from the thickets in advance of the forest on Mustang Creek, where I could approach the game with much less trouble. These wooded intervals, which run for about a mile into the prairie, consist of dwarf plum-trees, four feet in height, partly separate, partly in clumps, which are closely interlaced with wild vines, but always leave small openings between, and here and there are overshadowed by a densely-foliaged elm. You are obliged to wind between these clumps till you reach a broad open grassy clearing, which extends between these thickets and the high woods on Mustang Creek.

I had hardly reached these advance woods, ere I saw a very large stag standing in the shadow of an old elm-tree, driving away the flies with its antlers, and feeding on the fine, sweet mosquito grass, which is much more tender in the shade than when it is exposed to the burning sunbeams. The beautiful creature was hardly sixty paces from me, and I seized my rifle, which was lying across the saddle in front of me. In a moment Czar, who was well acquainted with this movement, halted, buried his small head in the grass, and began seeking the green young shoots which are covered by the dry withered stalks. I shot the deer, and as I saw that it could not go far I allowed Trusty to catch it, which always afforded him great delight. I rode up, threw the bridle before dismounting over the end of a long pendant branch, and then dragged the deer into the shade to break it up, and cut off the meat I intended to take with me. I had knelt down by the deer and just thrust in my bowie knife, when Trusty, who was sitting not far from me, began growling, and on my inquiring what was the matter, growled still more loudly, while looking in the direction behind me. I knew the faithful creature so well that I only needed to look in his large eyes to read what he wished to tell me. They had turned red, a sure sign of his rising anger: but I believed that wolves were at hand, which were his most deadly enemies, because he had fared badly from their claws now and then before I could get up to free him from his tormentors. I ordered Trusty to be quiet, as I heeded the dangers which had beset me for years much less than I had done at the beginning of my border-life, and bent down again over the deer, when Trusty sprang, with furious barks, toward the quarter where he had been looking. I quickly rose, and on turning round saw two perfectly naked Indians, armed with guns, leap out of the tall grass about sixty yards from me, and dash away like antelopes. My first step was to seize my rifle, which was leaning against the tree, but the savages took an enormous bound over one of the clumps of plum-trees, and disappeared from sight. In a few minutes I had unfastened Czar, and rushed after the Indians through the many windings between the close-grown bushes. They had gained a great start, and had increased it by leaping over clumps, which I was compelled to ride round; still I kept them pretty constantly in sight, and reached the open prairie in front of the creek, at the moment when the savages had crossed about half of it. I gave Czar a slight touch of the spur, and urged him on with the usual pat on his powerful hard neck; he leaped through the grass as if he hardly touched the ground, and I was obliged to set my hat tightly on my head for fear of losing it, for the pressure of the atmosphere was so great that I could hardly breathe. The Indians ran like deer, but the distance between us was speedily lessened, and I was only sixty yards behind them, when they were still fifty from the forest. I stopped my horse, leaped off, aimed with my right-hand barrel at the savage furthest ahead, and dropped him. In the meanwhile the other Indian reached the skirt of the wood, and sprang into the shade of an old oak, at the moment when the bead of my rifle covered him. I fired and saw him turn head over heels. At this moment Trusty came panting over the prairie, who had remained behind as I had leapt over some clumps which he was obliged to skirt; he saw the first Indian leap out of the grass, like a hare which has been shot through the head, and his legs seemed too slow for his growing fury; a loud shout urged him on still more, and in a few seconds he and the savage disappeared in the tall grass. A frightfully shrill yell, which echoed far and wide through the forest, proved that the Indian was feeling Trusty's teeth, and the heaving grass over them showed that it was a struggle for life or death. Loading my rifle detained me for a few minutes at the spot whence I had fired; then I ran up to Czar, who had strayed a little distance, and rode to the battle-field. The contest was over; the savage was dead, and Trusty's handsome shaggy coat was spotted with blood. He was standing with his fore paws on his enemy, and tearing out his throat. A dog like Trusty was invaluable to me, and for my own preservation I dared not assuage the creature's savageness; besides, the man was dead, and it was a matter of indifference whether the buzzards devoured his body or Trusty tore it piece-meal. In the meanwhile I fastened the dead man's short Mexican escopeta, hunting-pouch, and necklace to my saddle; then I called Trusty off, mounted Czar, and rode back to my deer, as I did not dare venture into the forest, where a large number of these Weicos were very probably lying in ambush. The two had come down from the mountains to the banks of Mustang Creek, whither the great quantity of game of all descriptions had attracted them; on hearing my shot, they crept up unnoticed, had got within distance of me, and in a few seconds would doubtless have settled me, had not my faithful watcher scented them, or remarked their movements in the grass.

On coming within sight of my deer, I saw that a dozen buzzards had collected, some on the trees, others circling slowly in the air, and watching with envious glances three wolves, which had already begun greedily to share my deer. Although I hardly ever expended a bullet on these tormentors, I was annoyed at their impudence, for though they saw me coming, they did not interrupt their banquet. I shot one of them, a very old red she-wolf, took the loins and legs of the deer, hung them to my saddle, and rode home to pass the night.

My dogs inside the fort announced to the garrison the arrival of a stranger, and they were no little surprised to see me return at so unusual an hour. The gate was opened, and after Czar had been relieved of his rather heavy burden, I led him once more into the grass to let him have a good roll; and after he had been put into the stable with a feed of Indian corn, I described the events of the day at the supper-table. My news aroused the apprehensions of my men, for they knew the vengeful spirit of these Weicos, and we therefore resolved to keep watch during the night. We were still smoking and talking at midnight, when the dogs, of which I had fourteen, began making a tremendous row. They all ran out through the small apertures left for the purpose in the stockade, and stood barking on the river bank at some foe on the other side, at the spot where my maize field in the forest joined the river. It was a pitch dark and calm night. We listened attentively, and could distinctly hear the trampling of dry brushwood in the field. It might be occasioned by buffalo, which had broken through the fence, and were regaling on my maize. But these animals rarely move at night, and there was a much greater probability of Indians being there. We gently opened the gate. I took my large duck gun, which held sixteen pistol bullets in each barrel, and crawled down on my stomach to the river bank, where I lay perfectly quiet. When I arrived there, one of my dogs was yelping, and I distinctly heard the twang of a bow-string. I noticed the quarter very carefully; the river was only forty yards across, and the direction was shown me still more plainly by the crackling of brushwood. I shot one barrel there, upon which human cries and a hurried flight were audible; then I sent the second after it, and fresh groans echoed through the quiet forest and mingled with the roar of my two shots. I remained lying in the grass, as I might be easily seen against the starry sky from the other bank, which was thirty feet lower. The leaping and running through the maize retired farther and farther toward the wood, and scarce reached my ear, when suddenly a wild war yell resounded in the forest, which was answered by countless wolf howls on the prairie behind me. This was the last outbreak of fury on the part of the Indians, of whom I never saw anything more beyond the various bloody traces which they left in the field. We found several arrows sticking in the river bank, whose form led me to conclude that the assailants were Cato Indians. The damage I received from this nocturnal visit only consisted in the trampled maize and a harmless wound which one of my dogs had received from an arrow in the leg. The morning was spent in following the trail of the savages to the prairie on the other side of the forest, where a number of horses had awaited these night-wanderers and borne them away. In the afternoon I rode again to Mustang Creek with one of my people—to the spot where the second Indian had disappeared on the previous day. The entrance into the wood and the roots of the old oak were covered with blood. I sent Trusty on ahead to see whether the road was clear, and if we could penetrate into the gloom of the forest without danger. We cautiously followed the dog, who kept the blood-marked trail and reached the river, on whose bank the Weico was sleeping the last sleep. He was cold and stiff my bullet had passed through his brown sides. The wounds were stopped with grass, and his escopeta lay ready cocked close to him. He was a very young and handsome man, and death had chosen him a glorious resting-place under the dark arbour of leaves. The rapid, crystalline, icy stream laved his small, handsomely-shaped feet, and on a pillow of large ferns reposed his head, round which his raven silky hair fell, while the mossy bed beneath him was dyed by his blood, till it resembled the purple velvet of a lying-in-state.

We stood silently before this painfully-beautiful picture, and even Trusty seemed to feel that this was no longer an object for wild passion, for he lay down quietly in the grass. Death had reconciled us: the dice had fallen in my favour, and if they had been against me, I should not have found such an exquisite grave: my bones would have been bleached for years by the sun on the open prairie, and greeted with shouts of joy by passing Indians. Feelings which are rarely carried into these solitudes, and still more rarely retained there, gained the mastery over me. I could not leave this noble creation of nature to the wolves and buzzards. We therefore fastened a heavy stone round his feet, and another round his neck, and gently let him down into the clear water, where he found his last solitary resting-place between two large rocks. Taking his few traps, more as a reminiscence than as a booty, we returned to our horses, which we had left in the first thicket. They greeted us with their friendly neighing and impatient stamping while still a long distance off, and away we galloped over the open prairie, up hill and down hill, after a flying herd of buffalo, at one moment leaping across broad watercourses, at another over aged trees uprooted by storms, until several of these primæval monsters had kissed the blood-stained ground. Our melancholy thoughts had been dispersed by the light prairie breeze, and, merry and independent, like the vultures in the blue sky overhead, we returned heavily laden to our fort, whose inhabitants, down to the dogs, gave us a most hearty welcome.

CHAPTER IV.

HUNTING ADVENTURES.

It is scarce possible to form an idea of the abundance of game with which the country near me was blessed in those days. It really seemed to be augmented with every year of my residence, for which I may account by the fact that the several vagabond hordes of Indians—who prefer the flesh of deer, antelopes, and turkey to that of buffaloes, whose enormous mass they cannot devour at once, while the smaller descriptions of game could be killed in the forests and coppices, without revealing themselves to the enemy on the wide prairie—that these Indians, I say, more or less avoided my neighbourhood, while, for my part, I had greatly reduced the number of wild beasts, especially of the larger sort. I consumed a great quantity of meat in my household, owing to the number of dogs I kept, but I really procured it as if only amusing myself. There were certainly days on which I shot nothing. At times I did not get sight of a buffalo for a week, or the prairie grass was burnt down to the roots, which rendered it extremely difficult to stalk the game, while just at this period, when the first green shoots spring up, the animals principally visit the open plains, whence they can see their pursuers for a long distance. For all that, though we had generally a superabundance of meat, and too often behaved with unpardonable extravagance, I have frequently killed five or six buffaloes, each weighing from a thousand to fifteen hundred pounds, in one chase, lasting perhaps half-an-hour, and then merely carried off their tongues and marrow-bones. Often, too, I have shot one or two bears, weighing from five to eight hundred pounds, and only taken home their paws and a few ribs, because the distance was too great to burden my horse with a large supply of meat. I could always supply our stock in the vicinity of my fort, although at times we were compelled to put up with turkeys, or fish and turtle, with which our river literally swarmed.

Bear-meat formed an important item in our larder—or, more correctly speaking, bear's-grease—which was of service in a great many ways. We employed it to fry our food, for which buffalo or deer fat was not so good; we used it to burn in our lamps, to rub all our leather with, and keep it supple; we drank it as a medicine—in a word, it answered a thousand demands in our small household. This is the sole fatty substance, an immoderate use of which does not turn the stomach or entail any serious consequences. The transport of this article, though, was at times rather difficult, especially on a warm day; as this fat easily becomes liquid, and will even melt in the hunter's hand while he is paunching a bear. This is chiefly the case with the stomach fat, which is the finest and best; that on the back and the rest of the body, which at the fatting season is a good six inches thick, is harder and requires to be melted over a slow fire before it can be used in lamps.

These animals were very numerous in my neighbourhood. In spring and summer they visited the woods, where with their cubs they regaled upon wild plums, grapes, honey, and young game of all sorts, and at times played the deuce in my maize-field. In autumn the rich crop of peca-nuts, walnuts, acorns, chestnuts, and similar fruits, kept them in our forests; and in winter they sought rocky ravines and caves, where they hybernated. Very many took up their quarters in old hollow trees, so that at this season I had hardly any difficulty in finding a bear in my neighbourhood. Trusty was a first-rate hand at this, for he found a track, and kept to it as long as I pleased; and at the same time possessed the great advantage that he never required a leash, never went farther than I ordered him, and never followed game without my permission. When a bear rose before me it rarely got fifty paces away, unless it was in thorny bushes, where the dog could not escape its attack; for, so soon as the bear bolted, Trusty dug his teeth so furiously into its legs, and slipped away with such agility, that the bear soon gave up all attempts at flight, and stood at bay. It was laughable to see the trouble the bear was in when I came up; how it danced round Trusty, and with the most ridiculous entrechats upbraided his impudence; while Trusty continually sprang away, lay down before Bruin, and made the woods ring with his bass voice. Frequently, however, the honest dog incurred great peril during this sport, and his life more than once depended on my opportune arrival.

In this way I followed one warm autumn day a remarkably broad bear trail on the mountains of the Rio Grande. Trusty halting fifty yards ahead of me, showed me that it stopped at a small torrent, where the bear had watered on the previous night. I dismounted, examined the trail carefully, and saw that it was made by a very old fat bear; it was in the fatting season, when the bear frequently interrupts its sleep and pays a nocturnal visit to the water. At this season these animals are very clumsy and slow, and cannot run far, as they soon grow scant of breath; they soon stop, and can be easily killed by the hunter—always supposing that he can trust to his dog and horse, for any mistake might expose the rider to great danger. I ordered Trusty to follow the trail; it ran for some distance up the ravine, then went up the bare hill-side, which was covered with loose boulders and large masses of rock, into the valley on the opposite side, in the middle of which was a broad but very swampy pool, girdled by thick thorny bushes. Trusty halted in front of this thicket, looked round to me, and then again at the bushes, while wagging his long tail. I knew the meaning of this signal, and that the bear was not far off. I ordered the dog on, and drew a revolver from my belt; feeling assured that the bear would soon leave the underwood and seek safety in flight. Trusty disappeared in the bushes, and his powerful bark soon resounded through the narrow valley. It was an impossibility for me to ride through the thicket, hence I galloped to the end of the coppice, and saw there the bear going at a rapid pace up the opposite steep hill, with Trusty close at its heels. I tried to cross the swamp, but Czar retreated with a snort, as if to show me the danger of the enterprise. By this time Trusty had caught up to the bear at the top of the hill, and furiously attacked it in the rear. The bear darted round with extraordinary agility, and was within an ace of seizing Trusty, but after making a few springs at the dog, it continued its hurried flight, and disappeared with Trusty over the hill-top. I had ridden farther up the water when I heard my dog baying; I drove the spurs into my horse, and with one immense leap, we were both in the middle of the swamp up to the girths; then, with an indescribable effort, Czar gave three tremendous leaps, which sent black mud flying round us, and reached the opposite firm ground with his fore feet, while his hind quarters sunk in the quivering morass; with one spring I was over his head, when I sank in up to the knees, and after several tremendous exertions, the noble fellow sprang ashore, trembling all over. Trusty's barking, as if for help, continually reached me as I galloped up the steep hill-side; I arrived on the summit at the moment when the bear sprang at Trusty, and buried him beneath its enormous weight. My alarm for the faithful dog—my best friend in these solitudes, made me urge Czar on; he bounded like a cat over the remaining rocks, and I saw Trusty slip out from under the bear in some miraculous way, and attack it again on the flank. I halted about ten paces from the scene of action, held my rifle between the little red fiery eyes of the bright black monster, and laid it lifeless on the bare rocks. The greatest peril for dogs is at the moment when the bear is shot, for they are apt to attack it as it falls, and get crushed in its last convulsive throes. I leapt off Czar, who was greatly excited by the sharp ride, went up to Trusty, who was venting his fury on Bruin's throat, examined him, and found that he had received three very serious wounds, two on the back and one over the left shoulderblade, which were bleeding profusely, though in his fury he did not seem to notice them. I took my case from the holster and sewed up his wounds, during which operation he lay very patiently before me, and looked at me with his large eyes, as if asking whether this were necessary. Then I took off my jacket and set to work on the bear, stripped it, and put the hide as well as a hundred pounds' weight of the flesh on Czar's back. If my readers will bear in mind that the sun was shining on my back furiously, and that I was on a bare blazing rock, they will understand that I was worn out, and longed for a cool resting-place. The bear weighed at least 800 lbs., and it requires a great effort to turn such an animal over.

I was a good hour's ride from the shade of the Leone, and only half that distance to the mountain springs I have already described. I therefore selected the latter, although they took me rather farther from home. I walked, although I made Czar carry my jacket, weapons, and pouch, and reached my destination in the afternoon, with my two faithful companions at my heels. Czar had a hearty meal after I had bathed him in the pond, and poor Trusty, whose wounds had dried in the sun, and pained him terribly, felt comfortable in the cool grass, and did not disturb the linen rag which I moistened every now and then. Nor did I forget myself; I rested, bathed, and after awhile enjoyed the liver and tongue of the old vagabond, until the evening breeze had cooled the air, and I reached home partly on foot, partly on horseback.

Nature seems to have selected the buffalo before all varieties of game for the purpose of bringing to the door of the man who first dares to carry civilization into the desert, abundant food for him and his during the first years, so that he may have time to complete the works connected with his settlement, and have no trouble in procuring provisions. When this time is passed, nature withdraws this liberal support from him; in the course of a few years he must go a long distance to obtain this food as a dainty, which he grew quite tired of in the early years, for the buffalo is not frightened by the pioneer's solitary house and field, but as soon as several appear, the animals depart and are only seen as stragglers.

The woolly hides of the buffaloes supply the new-comer in the desert with the most splendid and comfortable beds. When laid over the roof they protect his unfinished house from rain and storm; he uses their leather for saddles, boot-soles, making ropes of all sorts, traces, &c.; its meat, one of the most luxurious sorts that nature offers man, seems to be given to the borderer as a compensation for the countless privations and thousand dangers to which he subjects himself. Buffalo's marrow is a great delicacy, and very strengthening. The fat can be used in many ways, and the horns converted into drinking cups, powder flasks, &c.; in a word, the whole of the buffalo is turned to account in the settler's housekeeping.

These animals are hunted in several ways. With an enduring, well-trained horse, you ride up to them and shoot them with pistols or a rifle, for a horse accustomed to this chase always keeps a short distance from the buffalo, and requires no guidance with the reins; but this mode of hunting can only be employed on the plains, for in the mountainous regions the buffalo has a great advantage in its sure footing over a horse that has to carry a rider. In such regions, and in wooded districts, you stalk the animals, which is not difficult, and if you keep yourself concealed you may kill several with ease, as they are not startled by the mere report of a rifle. On the prairies, too, where the grass is rather high, you can creep up to them through it, and if it be not sufficiently tall to hide you, you make use of some large skin, such as a wolf's, and covered with this, crawl up within range. This, however, is always a dangerous plan, for if you are noticed by a wounded buffalo, you run a great risk of being trampled to death by it. On these crawling hunts, I always had Trusty a short distance behind me, who moved through the grass quite as cautiously as myself, and when it was necessary, I set him on, and had time to run to my horse, while Trusty attacked the buffalo and pinned it to the spot.

I always preferred riding after buffaloes, for this is one of the most exciting modes of hunting I am acquainted with, as it demands much skill from the rider and agility and training on the part of the horse. Horses that have been used to the sport for any time are extremely fond of it, and at the sight of the buffalo become so excited that there is a difficulty in holding them in. The revolver is the best weapon to

use. You have the great advantage with it of firing several shots without reloading. I always carried two in my belt, which gave twelve shots, and also two spare cylinders. I also had my double rifle with me, which lay unfastened between me and the saddle cloth. The American revolvers are admirably made, and carry their bullets very accurately for a hundred yards; but at longer distances they cannot be depended on, as it is difficult to take aim with them. It requires considerable practice to kill a buffalo at a gallop, for you may send a dozen bullets into it, and yet not prevent it from continuing its clumsy-looking though very rapid progress. The buffalo's heart lies very deep in the chest behind the shoulder-blades; it can be easily missed through the eye being caught by the hump on the back; and besides, it requires very great practice to hit with a pistol when going at full speed. If you shoot the buffalo at the right spot, it drops at once, and frequently turns head over heels. The animal is in the best condition in spring, when it has changed its coat. At this season its head is adorned with long dark brown locks, and its hind-quarters are covered with shining black hair. So long as old tufts bleached by the sun are hanging about it it is not in prime condition, and the experienced hunter never selects such a quarry.

On a spring morning—I need not add a fine one, for at this season the blue sky rarely deserts us for more than a few hours—I rode at daybreak down the river toward the mountains; a cold, refreshing breeze was blowing, which had an invigorating effect upon both men and animals. Czar was full of playfulness. He often pretended to kick at Trusty, his dearest friend, who was trotting by his side, shook his broad neck, and could hardly be held in. Trusty ran ahead, every now and then rolled in the tall grass, kicked up the earth behind him, and then looked up at me with a loud bark of delight. I too was in an excellent humour; the small birds-of-paradise, with their long black and white tails and crimson breasts, fluttered from bush to bush. The humming birds darted past me like live coals, and suddenly stopped as if spell-bound in front of some flowers, whence they sucked the honey for a few seconds with their beaks, and then hummed off to another fragrant blossom. Countless vultures described their regular circles over my head; above them gleamed against the ultramarine sky the brilliant white plumage of a silver heron, or the splendid pink of a flamingo; whilst high up in ether the royal eagles were bathing in the sunshine. The prairie was more beautiful this day than I had ever seen it; it was adorned by every designation of bulbous plants, the prevailing flora in the spring.

Lost in admiration of these natural beauties, which words are powerless to describe, I reached the hilly ground near the mountain springs; and first learned from Czar's tugging at the bridle, and his repeated bounds, that I had come in sight of a herd of about forty buffaloes, that did not appear to notice me yet. Probably they were engaged with that portion of the beauties of nature which most interested them; for, at any rate, they all had their huge shaggy heads buried in the fresh young grass. I was never better inclined to have a jolly chase than on this day, and the same was the case with Czar and Trusty. I let loose the reins, drew a revolver, and dashed among the astounded herd, looking for a plump bull. Surprised and disturbed, these philosophers turned their heads towards the mountains, raised their tails erect, and started in their awkward gallop, with the exception of one old fellow, the very one I had selected for the attack. He looked after the fugitives for awhile, as if reproaching them with their cowardice; shook his wild shaggy mane several times, and then dashed furiously at me with his head down. I was so surprised at this unexpected attack that I did not fire, but turned my horse to fly. The buffalo pursued me some thousand yards, keeping rather close, while his companions halted, and seemed to be admiring the chivalric deed of their knight. At length he stopped, as he had convinced himself that he could not catch up to me, and stamped with his long-haired front legs till the dust flew up in a cloud around him. I turned my horse and raised my rifle, to make more sure of hitting the bull, as his determined conduct had imbued me with some degree of respect. I fired, and wounded him in the side a little too far back; at the same instant he dashed ahead again, but then thought better of it, and tried to rejoin the flying herd. I now set Trusty on him, who soon brought him at bay, and I gave him a bullet from the revolver. Again he rushed at me, and again fled. In this way, pursuing and pursued in turn, I had given him five bullets, when he left the herd in a perfect state of mania, and dashed after me. I made a short turn with my horse; the bull rushed past; I turned Czar again towards the buffalo; and as I passed I put a bullet through his heart at the distance of three yards. The monster fell to the ground in a cloud of dust, and raised up a heap of loose sand which it stained with its dark blood.

AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR. [

[p. 27.]

To my surprise I noticed that Trusty did not come up to the fallen buffalo, but rushed past it, loudly barking, to the thicket at the springs, whence I saw an immense panther leap through the prickly plants. I galloped round the ponds and saw the royal brute making enormous leaps through the tall prairie grass toward the mountains. Trusty was not idle either, and was close behind it. I spurred Czar, and kept rather nearer the mountains, so as to cut off the fugitive's retreat and drive it farther out on the plains, while my hunting cry incessantly rang in its ears. It had galloped about a mile, when we got rather close to it; it altered its course once more, and climbed up an old evergreen live oak, among whose leafy branches it disappeared. I called Trusty to heel, stopped about fifty yards from the oak to reload my right-hand barrel, and then rode slowly round, looking for a gap in the foliage through which to catch a glimpse of this most dangerous animal. The leaves were very close, and I had ridden nearly round, when I suddenly saw its eyes glaring at me from one of the main branches in the middle of the tree. I must shoot it dead, or else it would be a very risky enterprise; and Czar's breathing was too violent for me to fire from his back with any certainty. I cautiously dismounted, keeping my eye on the panther, held a revolver in my left hand, brought the bead of my rifle to bear right between the eyes of the king of these solitudes—and fired. With a heavy bump the panther fell from branch to branch, and lay motionless on the ground. I kept Trusty back, waited a few moments to see whether the jaguar was really dead, as I did not wish to injure the beautiful skin by a second bullet unnecessarily, then walked up and found that the bullet had passed through the left eye into the brain. It had one of the handsomest skins I ever took; it is so large that I can quite wrap myself up in it, and now forms my bed coverlet. When I had finished skinning it and cut out the tusks with the small axe I always carried in a leathern case, I rode back to my buffalo, with the skin proudly hanging down on either side of my horse. On getting there I led Czar through the narrow entrance into the thicket, where I came upon a freshly killed, large deer, one of whose legs was half eaten away. It was the last meal of the savage beast of prey, and I was surprised it had left its quarry. The noise of the buffalo and the horse galloping, Trusty's bass voice, and the crack of the revolver in such close vicinity, must have appeared dangerous to it, and it had fancied it could slip off unnoticed.

My buffalo was very plump; it supplied me and Trusty with an excellent dinner, and for dessert I had the marrow-bones, roasted on the fire and split open with my axe, which, when peppered and salted, are a great delicacy. A little old brandy from my flask, mixed with the cold spring water, was a substitute for champagne; my sofa was the body of the deer, covered with the skin of its assassin.

CHAPTER V.

THE NATURALIST.

Years had passed since the first establishment of my settlement, but it was still the greatest rarity to see a strange white face among us; and though I visited the nearest town more frequently than at the outset, it led to no settled intercourse. I rode there several times a year, taking to market on mules my stock of hides, wax, tallow, &c., and brought back provisions, tools, powder, and lead. On these occasions I received the letters which had arrived for me in the interval, posted my own, took my packets of books forwarded from New York, and then my intercourse with the world was at an end for six months. The mules and horses certainly left traces during these rides in the clayey soil, but they were soon destroyed by heavy rains or trampled by herds of passing buffaloes, and thus hidden from the most acute eyes. Moreover, on these journeys I never kept the same road, as I always guided myself by the compass, and altered my course according to the seasons, as I had to pass spots which were inundated at certain periods, and others where water at times was very scarce. The first two-thirds of the country was a wretched sandy region, without grass, on which stunted oaks grew here and there, very mountainous and dry, where no one would dream of settling or undergoing the perils of a pioneer for the sake of the land. Nearer to me no one ventured to come, as many attempts had been made to settle on this fertile soil, but had all turned out unhappily; the last of them entailing the destruction of a family of nineteen persons: on my hunting expeditions I often saw their bones bleaching in the sun. As I said, no change had occurred in my position, save that my mode of life was safer and more comfortable; the country alone still remained a solitude, which no isolated visitor could enter without staking his scalp.

Hence I was greatly surprised one morning when the sentry came into my house and informed me that a white man was riding alone along the river, mounted on a mule, which is the most unsuitable of animals in the Indian country. I ran with a telescope to the turret at the south-east end of the fort, and not only found the watchman's statement confirmed, but also that the man had not even a weapon; unless it was hidden in two enormous packs which dangled on each side of his mule. The rider drew nearer, at one moment emerging on the ridges, and then disappearing again in the hollows. At length our growing curiosity was satisfied, and a white man, a German, saluted us with an innocently calm smile. On my asking how he had come here alone and unarmed, he said cheerfully:—"Well, from the settlement. I was able to find your mule-track quite easily. Mr. Jones accompanied me for a whole day, and during the last four I have seen nobody." It soon came out that his name was Kreger, and that he was a botanist who had come to examine the Flora about us, which had not yet been collected. For this purpose he brought with him two enormous bundles of blotting-paper, which hung on his Lizzy—so he called his gallant charger—and, like woolbags in a battery, might have protected him against Indian arrows, if he had had any missiles to reply with; but he only had a pistol in his trowsers' pocket, which would not go off, in spite of all the experiments we made with it. Everybody had warned him of the danger to which he exposed himself on his journey to me; and the last pioneer he passed, a Mr. Jones, had tried to keep him back by force, but he had merely laughed, and declared that an Indian could not touch him on his Lizzy.

There are men who wantonly rush into perils because danger has something attractive for them, and who seek them in order to have an opportunity of expending the energy they feel within them; there are others who incur danger in order to display themselves to the world as heroes, though their courage is not very genuine; lastly, there are men who expose themselves calmly and delightedly to great dangers, because they are entirely ignorant of them, and cannot be persuaded of their existence till they are surprised and destroyed by them. Such a man was our new acquaintance, Mr. Kreger: we all tried to make him understand how madly he had behaved, and that it was only by a miracle he had escaped the notice of the Redskins, which must have entailed his inevitable death, during his long solitary journey to us, and while sleeping at night by a large fire. He merely smiled at it all, and said that it could not be quite so bad, while making repeated applications to his snuff-box. As regarded his intentions of making his excursions from my house, I told him it was impossible; because when I went out hunting I did not waste my time over plants, and he, as no sportsman, would be a nuisance to me; on the other hand, we could not think of letting him wander about alone, the danger of which I confirmed by telling him various adventures of mine. For all this, I received him hospitably; gave him a place to sleep in, and a seat at table; showed him where to find corn for Lizzy, where he could wash his sheets—in a word, made him as comfortable as lay in my power.

I had long intended to explore more distant countries than those I had visited during my sporting excursions, especially the continuation of our plateaux to the north, and had made my arrangements for this tour, when Mr. Kreger surprised us by his advent. On the day after his arrival we took a walk round the fort and the garden, during which he broke off the conversation every moment, and plucked some rare plant to put in his herbal, which he called his cannon; and laughed at the revolver in my belt and the rifle I carried. I told him that I intended to make a journey, in which, if he liked to accompany me, he would be able to make his researches, as my hunting on this trip would be restricted to my meat supply. He was delighted, and agreed to come with me; to which I consented on condition of his riding one of my horses, and I recommended the mustang, whose powers of endurance I knew and tried to prove by telling him how it came into my possession. But it was of no avail, for none of my cattle possessed the qualities of his Lizzy; and he offered a bet that no one could catch her. For the sake of the joke, the mustang and the mule were soon saddled; a mosquito tree on the prairie, about half a mile from the fort, was selected as the goal; and away we started through the tall grass. It was really surprising how fast Lizzy went, cocking up her rat-like tail and long ears; she accepted with pleasure the shower of blows that fell on her, and reached the goal only twenty yards behind me. I laughed most heartily at the amusing appearance of our naturalist, and expressed my admiration at his mule's pace; but remarked at the same time, that for no consideration in the world would I ride her in the country I intended visiting, because I was well acquainted with the obstinacy of mules, and knew that when called on to show their speed they refuse to do so, and neither fire nor sword could induce them. All such remarks, however, produced no change in Kreger's invincible faith in his favourite; and, as if he had assumed a portion of Lizzy's obstinacy through his long friendly relations with her, he irrevocably adhered to his resolution of only entrusting his carcass to her during the impending excursion.

Our preparations, which were very simple, occupied us about a week; they consisted in removing Czar's shoes, and rubbing his hoofs frequently with bear's grease, for the Indians follow the track of a shoed horse as wolves do a deer's bleeding trail; in grinding coffee, and forcing it into bladders, and in plaiting two new lassos, for which I fetched two new buffalo hides, in which chase the botanist accompanied me, and felt a pride in having given me an indubitable proof of his Lizzy's powers, for she followed close at Czar's tail during the entire hunt. Mr. Kreger assisted me in making the lassos. The hide is fastened tight on the ground with wooden pegs, a very sharp knife is thrust into the centre, and a strip about the breadth of a finger is cut, until the whole hide is transferred into one very long line, which, though not so long as the one with which Dido measured the ground to build Carthage on, attained a very great length. This strip was then fastened between trees, the hair shaved off with a knife, after which it was cut into five equal lengths, and these were plaited into a lasso about forty feet long, which was once more fastened between trees, with heavy weights attached to it, and thus stretched to its fullest extent. When such a line has been dried in the open air, it is rubbed with bear's grease, through which it always remains soft and supple, and will resist a tremendous pull. The one made by Mr. Kreger, though not plaited so smoothly and regularly, was useful, and afforded him great pleasure as a perfection of his Lizzy's equipment. One end of this lasso is fastened round the horse's neck; it is rolled up, fastened by a loop to the saddle, undone when the animal is grazing, and bound round a tree or bush.

The day for our start arrived, and the morning was spent in saddling our horses and arranging our baggage in the most suitable way for both horse and rider, a most important thing in these hot regions, for the horse's back is easily galled, and then you are compelled to go on foot, which is very wearisome and fatiguing in a country where there are no roads. The naturalist at length completed his equipment of Lizzy, who looked more like a rhinoceros than a cross between a horse and a donkey. In front of the saddle hung the two bales of blotting paper over the large bearskin holsters, which, in addition to two pistols I had supplied, were crammed with biscuit, coffee, pepper and salt, snuff, &c. Over the saddle hung two leathern bags, fastened together by a strap, on which the rider had his seat. Behind the saddle, a frying-pan, coffee-pot, and tin mug, produced a far from pleasing harmony at every movement of the animal. Over the whole of this a gigantic buffalo hide was stretched, and fastened with a surcingle round Lizzy's stout body, so that, like a tortoise, she only displayed her head and tail, and caused a spectator the greatest doubt as to what genus of quadruped she belonged. In order to complete the picture, Lizzy had two enormous bushes of a summer plant, which we call "Spanish mulberry," stuck behind her ears, as a first-rate specific to keep the flies off. I had repeatedly told Kreger of the absurdity of covering Lizzy with this coat of mail, in which she would melt away. But he said that I too had a skin over my saddle, and he wanted his to protect him at night against rain and dew. On the back of this monster our naturalist mounted, dressed in a long reddish homespun coat, trowsers of the same material, though rather more faded, with Mexican spurs on his heels with wheels the size of a dollar, and a broad-brimmed felt hat, under which his long face with the large light-blue eyes and eternally-smiling mouth peeped out. Over his right shoulder hung his huge botanizing case, and over his left a double-barrelled gun of mine loaded with slugs; his hat Mr. Kreger had also adorned with a green bush, and sitting erect in his wooden Mexican stirrups, he swung his whip, and declared his readiness to start. I rode Czar, and the only difference from my ordinary equipment was that I had a bag full of provisions hung on the saddle behind me; this and a little more powder and lead than usual, was all the extra weight Czar had to carry, and too insignificant for him to feel. With a truly heavy heart I bade good-bye to Trusty, and most earnestly commended him to the care of my men. I could not take him with me to an unknown country, where I might feel certain of getting into situations where I must trust to the speed of my horse, and Trusty might easily get into trouble. The firearms I left at the service of my garrison, and consisting of nearly fifty rifles and fowling pieces, were carefully inspected. We then rode off, and soon heard the gate of the fort bolted after us.

It was the afternoon when we rode down to the river-side and waded through the stream. For the stranger this river is most beautiful and charming, for at its greatest depth it is so clear, that, were it not for its motion and the leaves, brushwood, &c., floating on it, it would be doubtful to say whether it contained any water or not. This is noticed more especially with horses which have to cross such a stream for the first time; generally they object, and look down at the water, whose depth they are unable to gauge. You see the stones at the bottom as clearly as if there were no water, and can distinctly watch the slightest movements of the countless fish and turtle with which the streams in my neighbourhood swarm. At the same time the banks are covered with the most luxurious vegetation, and the gigantic vines cross it from the tops of the trees, and are in their turn intertwined with other creepers so as to form a hanging wood over the darting waters. Most of these creepers adorn the woods with a magnificent show of flowers, and some trees are so overgrown with them, that none of their own foliage is visible. The stream in these rivers is so violent that it is very dangerous to ride through them, especially at spots where the water is deep enough to reach the horse's girths, and the danger is heightened by the extremely slippery soap stones which cover the bottom.

I rode first into the river, and Lizzy followed obediently after me, though it cost some persuasion to make my companion refrain from riding a few yards lower down in order to pluck some specimens of the beautiful aquatic plants growing on the surface, for he fancied it was no depth, while he and his Lizzy, heavily laden as they were, would have sunk, and never reached the bank again alive. I remember, while hunting, swimming on horseback through places where the current was extremely violent, and carried away my dog, which reached the bank eventually, bruised by the rocks and bleeding terribly. We reached the opposite side without any difficulty, and followed a deep-trodden buffalo path into the forest; which runs with a breadth of several miles along the river. After you have been riding ever so short a time in the sun, you feel the benefit of the gloomy and impenetrable shade of such a forest in an extraordinary degree; the air beneath the leafy aisles seems quite different; it is not only cool and refreshing, but appears to have been purified in its passage through the leaves, for these forests grow on elevated ground, where no swamps or standing waters poison the air with the exhalations of putrified vegetable matter, as is the case on the banks of the Mississippi and other eastern rivers of America. There is not a more majestic or imposing sight than such a forest; trees of the most gigantic size grow in the wildest confusion, strangest shapes, and most varied hues, so closely together that you cannot understand where all their roots find room. You see, perhaps, twenty varieties of the oak, among which the burrel oak is the handsomest and largest; it is eight feet in diameter, and its stem measures forty feet to the first branches, while its crown attains a height of one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet. On the river banks cypresses stand side by side for miles, so close together that there is hardly room for a man to pass between them. The black walnut, the tulip tree, the peca-nut, several sorts of elms, the mulberry, maples, ashes, planes, poplars, &c., press against each other, and wherever death makes a gap and restores one of these giant trees to the earth, young shoots start up from its dust in the opening through which the blue sky is visible, and soon fill up the room. Countless varieties of smaller trees flourish in this gloom, and force their way between the colossi of vegetation, for instance, the wild cherry, wild plum, a small chestnut, and several species of nut trees; beneath these the bushes and cactuses spread with an incredible variety, and relieve the gloom with their magnificently coloured perfumed flowers, which seem to maintain an eternal rivalry with the blossoms of the llianas swinging from tree to tree in the airy height. Finally, the earth itself, beneath the darkest bushes, is covered with a dense carpet of delicate plants, which, although hidden from every sunbeam, are not the less worthy of being sought by the fervent admirer of the masterpieces of nature; they gleam like subterranean fires in the shade, and diffuse their perfume far around in this palace of foliage.

The queen of the whole virgin forest, however, is the magnolia. It raises its haughty head one hundred and fifty feet above a silver grey, smooth trunk, spreads its branches regularly far around, and is so closely covered with its broad, dark green, smooth and shining leaves, that its branches are rarely illumined by a sunbeam. Among this dark mass of foliage, which is unchanged throughout the year, it puts forth in spring its large snow-white roses, with orange petals, in such profusion that you can hardly see whether white or green is the fundamental colour. Far around it spreads a perfume of vanilla which is so strong that it is dangerous to sleep under the tree unless a breeze be blowing. The flowers last a long time, and as the pearls fall one by one on the ground, their place is taken by a bunch of berries, redder and more fiery than any colour on an artist's palette. They gleam far and wide through the majestic forest like candelabra in a cathedral.

Our path ran with a hundred windings through the solemn silence; it seemed as if every living creature that had sought this sanctuary, or fled from the heated plain, were silently revelling in its beauty and gratefully reposing in its coolness; not a bird or insect could be heard, not even the sound of a falling leaf interrupted the tranquillity, and only the footfalls of our animals and the snorting of Czar echoed through the forest. Too soon for us, too soon for our horses, we reached the end of our path, where it entered the prairie on the other side, after we had walked the greater part of the distance, because the crossing creepers frequently compelled us to bow our heads under them, as the makers of the path did, for we saw their brown shaggy hair floating in all directions. We followed the path into the prairie, which begins about two miles from the forest. On either side of the path deer sprang out of the bushes, and flocks of turkeys darted backwards and forwards with long, quick steps in front of us. The former I left undisturbed, but I shot one old fat turkey-cock, and hung it on the saddle behind me.

The sun was rather low when we rode through the wide prairie, and we could only advance slowly because the grass at many spots came up to my horse's back; our cattle were very worn, and poor Lizzy panted painfully under her harness, while the perspiration poured from her in streams. The sun was setting when we reached a small affluent of the Leone, where I knew of a good camping place, at which I determined to spend the night. We unloaded our animals, which I soon completed, as I merely undid the belly-band, pulled saddle and all over Czar's croupe, removed the bit, and then gave him a few taps on his damp back, as a sign that he could go wherever he pleased. My companion was much longer in removing all the articles of his household from Lizzy's back; and when he had finished she was a gruesome sight. White foam and dust had matted her long hair, her ears hung down and almost touched the ground, and her generally melancholy face was rendered still more so by the bushes waving over it. I really felt sorry for the poor wretch, and bluntly told Mr. Kreger that I would not ride a step farther with him unless he left the buffalo hide here. He was also convinced by his Lizzy's wretched appearance, that she could not carry this weight for long, and we agreed, that I should tan the hide of the first deer I shot, and let him use it. Lizzy was led into the grass and tied to a bush, and we arranged our bivouac for the night. Kreger fetched dry wood and water. I lit the fire, set coffee to boil, spitted strips of the turkey breast and liver, rubbed the meat in with pepper and salt, and put it to roast. Then I laid my horse-rug on the grass, with the saddle, holsters, and saddle-bag on it, hung the bridle and lasso on a branch, and took my seat in front of the fire on my tiger skin, while watching the naturalist, who was making a thousand arrangements, as if we were going to remain at least a month here.

It had grown dark. Supper was over. We fetched our animals and took them to water. Lizzy was hobbled in the grass near our camp, and Czar lay down behind a bush, but kept his head up for a long time, as if looking for somebody. It was Trusty, his playmate, that he missed; nor did I feel altogether comfortable under my rug. I dreamed nearly the whole night of Indians, and continually woke, when I made up the fire and lay down again with my rifle on my arm. The botanist, on the contrary, slept like a top, packed up in his buffalo hide, with his head on an open bundle of blotting paper; at the same time he snored nearly the whole night, which did not help to improve my rest. Before daybreak Czar got up, shook himself, and walked up to Lizzy, who still lay half dead in the grass, as if to wish her good morning. I roused my companion. We led the cattle to water, and while I got breakfast I advised Mr. Kreger to make some botanical researches, which he did. He came back with such an armful of plants, that I told him I thought he had better not take more than one specimen of each, as otherwise, by the end of our journey, Lizzy would be unable to carry the load. He laid the plants in the blotting-paper, bound his bundles, and ere we started, I rolled up the buffalo hide with the hair outwards, and thrust it between two branches of a thickly-leaved tree, where it would remain until our return.

CHAPTER VI.

MR. KREGER'S FATE.

We had a good day's journey to our next bivouac, and I was acquainted with the country so far. We rode rather sharply in spite of the tall grass, and at mid-day reached another small affluent of the Leone, where we granted ourselves and our cattle a few hours' rest. During this time I went down to the river side and shot a large deer, whose hide I conveyed to our resting-place, along with some of the meat and the skull. After scraping the skin quite clean, I split the skull, took out the brains, made them into a thin paste with water, smeared the skin on the inside with this, and then rolled it up tight and gave it to Mr. Kreger to carry, promising to get it ready for use next day. Brains dress skins famously, and this is the way in which the Indians prepare them. After lying in this state for four-and-twenty hours, they are washed clean, hung up in the shade, and, while damp, pulled over the sharp edge of a plank or the back of a bowie knife till they are quite dry, which makes the skin as smooth and soft as velvet. In order to prevent a skin prepared in this way from turning hard when exposed to the wet, it is spread over a hole in the ground in which rotten wood is kindled, and it is smoked on both sides till it becomes quite yellow. My botanist employed the halt in exposing the plants plucked in the morning to the sun, while he collected fresh ones. The greatest heat was past, and it was about 3 p.m. when we set out again. The country here became more broken, the prairies were not so extensive, and here and there were covered with clumps of trees and bushes. The grass was not so tall as on the flat prairies, which considerably accelerated the pace of our cattle. Lizzy especially seemed to feel the difference between yesterday and to-day, and trotted lightly and cheerfully by the side of Czar, who on such tours always ambled, a pace which is very pleasant for the rider, does not tire the horse, and gets over the ground wonderfully quick. This pace is natural to barbs. I knew my Czar's sire, who was one of six stallions presented by the Emperor of Morocco to Taylor, the President of the United States.

At nightfall we reached Turkey Creek, as I had christened it from the great number of those birds I found here. It was still light enough to choose a good spot for our bivouac, where we were near water; we were tolerably hidden, and had very good grass for our cattle. This evening, however, Czar was hobbled, that is to say, a short line round his neck was hooked to a padded ring he always wore on his near forefoot, so that he was obliged to keep his head to the ground or his foot in the air, and hence could only walk. This was an invention of my own, suggested by the fear of losing my horse, and when fastened in this way, he could not be unexpectedly scared and driven off. I prefer it to binding the two feet, for this often lames a horse, and to tying it up with a lasso, because the horse can easily entangle its feet in the latter and be seriously injured. In this manner I could leap from my horse in the most dangerous neighbourhood, and renders it in an instant incapable of bolting.

Lizzy was again picketed, and we kept a watchful eye on the animals during the two hours they were grazing; for I had nearly reached the end of my terra cognita and the border of regions which had never yet been visited by Pale-faces. Ere we went to sleep, the logs were covered with ashes, the cattle fastened to trees close to us, and we lay down to rest after supper, but I could not sleep so soundly as when I had Trusty by my side; the slightest sound disturbed me, and it was always a long time ere I fell asleep again. About midnight I started up and fancied I had been dreaming about a storm; I looked up and saw that all the stars had disappeared; at the same moment the surrounding landscape was lit up by a flash of lightning, and a violent thunder-clap rolled down the valley. I sprang up, blew the fire into a flame, laid wood on it, and woke the snoring naturalist, who asked, in great alarm, about the cause of being disturbed. I advised him to do as I did, then broke off an armfull of bushes, laid them in a heap, put my pistols and bags on it with the saddle over them, covered them with the horse-rug, and laid the jaguar skin over all; after which I helped Kreger to put his traps in safety, in which he greatly missed the buffalo hide.

While we were occupied with these preparations, the thunder rolled almost uninterruptedly, and the incessant flashes kept the tall trees brilliantly illumined. From the north we heard a sound like a distant waterfall, and the turmoil soon rose to the mournful howling of the tempest which is only to be heard in these regions. I was well acquainted with the approaching spirit of the storm, for I had often met it; hence I went up to Czar, put on his head-gear and threw the bridle over my shoulder, giving Kreger a hint to do the same with Lizzy. But he had quite lost his head, and ran first to his heap of traps and then to the mule, when the storm burst over our heads in all its fury, and made the primæval trees crack in their very roots. It swept the earth and carried away with it an avalanche of dust, leaves, and branches; our fire stretched out long tongues of flame over the ground, and sent its sparks whirling through the coal-black night into the gloomy wood. The groans of the hurricane were blended with the deafening peals of thunder, which at every second made the earth tremble under our feet, and I had the greatest difficulty in making Kreger understand that he should come to me. I had selected a young white oak, whose branches were interlaced with creepers, to shelter myself and Czar, and had got out of the way of two lofty planes which were singing their death plaint.

The fury of the storm still increased; blast followed blast crash followed crash; the crowns of the two planes bent more and more, and with a shock resembling an earthquake, they suddenly fell across our fire, which scattered in all directions like a bursting shell, and hurled logs and brands over our heads. Czar started back, and in his terror would have broken half-a-dozen lassos, had I not been prepared for this, and followed him with the bridle, while Lizzy dragged my companion, who would not loose the lasso, for a long distance through the grass.

The first drops of rain now fell, and I knew that the greatest fury of the storm had passed. I led Czar back under the oak, held my rifle with the hammer down under my armpit, shouted to Kreger to follow me, and stood as erect under my broad-brimmed hat as I could. The rain fell in torrents, so that in a few minutes we had not a dry thread on us; a stream flowed between our feet, and the storm chilled us to the marrow. We stood silent, like herons; and though it was so dark that we could not see each other, we were contented at being still alive, and having our horses with us. It rained nearly till morning, which was never more heartily greeted than by us two; and, ere long, a clear blue sky cheered us. The greatest difficulty was to light the fire again. My traps had remained perfectly dry, as they were protected by the bushes underneath, and the storm had been unable to touch them; I had the means of making fire, but dry wood was not so easy to procure: still I succeeded in getting some out of a hollow old oak, and the botanist's blotting-paper helped to kindle the flame. It was scarce blazing ere we laid arms-full of dead wood from the fallen trees upon it, and soon produced such a heat that it dried us in a very short time. Kreger's traps had become rather wet, but the damage could be easily repaired; and we did not the less enjoy our breakfast on that account. The sun came out with its warming, cheering beams, and lit up the ruin which the storm had created during the night, while a calm glad smile on the face of surrounding nature seemed to contradict the possibility of it being capable of any such wild passion.

We were ready to start at a tolerably early hour, but an obstacle offered itself which threatened to take us far out of our course. The usually insignificant stream had swollen into such a rapid torrent, and spread so far over its banks, that we could not hope to cross it. I could not forgive myself the oversight of not crossing the stream over night, which is an established rule with travellers and hunters in this country, for the waters often rise fifteen to twenty feet in a few hours, and the hunter who incautiously bivouacs on the bank runs the risk of being so begirt by the swelling tide as to be unable to escape its fury. Not only men are exposed to this, but also the quadruped denizens of these parts, and I repeatedly saw drowned buffaloes and stags being carried away by such swollen rivers. However, as a rule, the inundation only lasts a few hours, because the small streams have but a short course, and are only swollen by the mountain torrents.

I had no intention to stop here, and preferred riding up the stream in order to try and find a ford where we could cross without danger. We rode for a good two hours along the bank. The trees continually grew scantier, and the road more difficult through scattered boulders and rocks. Between these, huge ferns sprang up, and with the fallen trees, frequently blocked the way, so that we had to make a long circuit to fetch the river again. At length we reached a spot where the stream was more contracted, and an old cypress lay across it, which had been probably levelled by some storm. I went across the trunk, cut a long bough and sounded the ground on the opposite bank; it rose at a steep pitch from the water, and was firm, so that I had no doubt but that our animals could easily clamber up it. I took the packages off Czar, carried them across, then fastened the lasso to my horse's bridle ring, and crossed the stream with it, shouting to him to follow me. The bank on his side was rather steep, which fact he had discovered by feeling with his fore feet, but he leaped with all four feet into the stream, bounded up the other bank, and set to work on the grass, which had been freshened by the last night's rain. Kreger followed my example, but Lizzy would not venture the leap; I therefore went across, suddenly seized her hind quarters, and pushed her into the stream, which she entered headforemost, but soon reached the other side uninjured.

We loaded again, and rode down the stream opposite the spot where we had spent the night. It was mid-day by this time, and though the heat was not oppressive, our animals required a rest. We dined, and mounted again at about two o'clock. From this point the country was quite strange to me, and it was necessary to make sure of the direction in which we proceeded. I compared the compass let into my rifle-butt with the one I had in my pocket, and we rode at a quick pace toward the north-west.

All traces of the rain disappeared about four miles from our last bivouac, and hence the hurricane had been limited to the course of Turkey Creek. This is often found to be the case. Such storms at times are not more than a mile in breadth, but dash with equal fury for thousands of miles over hill and valley, so that nothing remains standing which does not bow to the ground before them.

The country again became flat, but very pleasant for ourselves and our horses. The prairies are frequently covered for miles with post oaks, that is to say, oaks growing so close together, that their foliage is interlaced, and hardly allows the sun a peep at the ground, covered with fine short grass. Large and small clumps of trees of this sort are scattered over these grassy plateaux, and give the country an appearance as if human hands had been active here years agone, and these are the remaining and border lines of former grounds and gardens. Riding under this roof of foliage is extremely pleasant: you are not checked by any obstacle, or diverted from your course, and the horses move lightly and quickly over the short grass. It was at the same time a fine day, the wind blew freshly, and hence we resolved to ride late, as we were in the moon's first quarter, which promised us light for some time after sundown. About six in the evening we crossed another small stream, which probably also flows into the Rio Grande, where we could have spent the night very comfortably; but we only filled our gourds, let our steeds take a hearty drink, and rode on, as we could at all events pass the night now without water. At about nine o'clock we reached, with pleasant conversation, the end of the post-oaks, through whose middle a clear stream wound. We greeted it gladly; for it is always disagreeable to camp without water near at hand. Our animals were soon unpacked, a small fire was lit in the thickest bushes, and at about eleven o'clock we lay down, with Czar and Lizzy by our side, hoping for a better night than the last. We slept gloriously, and awoke the next morning invigorated and in the best spirits.

The sun had just risen over the horizon when we mounted and rode over the plain, after taking, with the help of the compass, the nearest direction to the forest rising in the blue distance above the wide prairie. According to my calculation, it was about ten miles off. The prairie was very flat, and only a few mosquito trees grew on it here and there, which sufficed to estimate distances, for that is a difficult job without such marks. I told Kreger it would be better for us to push on, now the road was good, for a feeling of anxiety involuntarily oppressed me on this broad plain, where we could be so easily observed from the woods that formed a semicircle round it. I spoke to Czar every now and then, and we had nearly reached the middle of the prairie when my horse gave a start, and tried to break into a gallop. I attempted to pacify him, but he soon began snorting, and could not be held in.

I had examined the prairie on either side of us, and when I looked behind, to my horror I saw a band of Indians coming after us at full speed, in front of a cloud of dust. My next glance was at the forest ahead of us, to calculate how far it still was, and then my eyes fell in terror on the mule at my side. The band of Indians consisted of at least a hundred, and hence must belong to a powerful tribe, possessing the best horses and weapons. I turned deadly cold when I looked at Kreger, who as yet had no idea of our peril, and was carelessly whistling. I made the utmost efforts to remain quiet, or at least to appear so, in order not to terrify my companion, and begged him to urge on his mule, while I loosed the rein of my snorting steed, and allowed it to make a few forward bounds. Whether Kreger noticed a change in my countenance or voice I do not know, but he looked round, and noticing the approaching savages, with the ejaculation, "Great heavens, Indians!" he drove his enormous spurs into his mule's flanks, and pulled his bridle so tight, that the excessively sharp bit lacerated the wretched Lizzy's mouth, Kreger had turned deadly pale. He looked wildly around him, and showered blows with his whip on Lizzy's hind-quarters. At his first movements I foresaw what would happen, and tried to make him understand that if he let go the reins Lizzy would be sure to follow Czar, and we should be able to reach the forest, where the Indians could not hurt us. He did not hear—he did not see. A picture of horror, he stared fixedly before him, and Lizzy, putting her head between her legs, began kicking out behind. The danger grew every minute, for the yell of the cannibal horde, borne on the breeze, was already echoing in our ears. I rode up to Kreger and tried to drag the reins out of his hand; but it was of no use; no prayers, no remonstrances, reached his ear. It was almost impossible for me to hold Czar in any longer, for at one moment he reared, at another bounded onward.

The Indians during this time had drawn so near that I could hear their several voices, and distinguish the bright colours with which their faces were painted. Our life was in the greatest danger. My horse was terribly excited, and any slip on its part would infallibly entail my death. Once more I shouted to Kreger to be reasonable, and let go the reins, but he did not hear me. Minutes pressed. I let Czar go, and flew like the wind away from the hapless man, who was left to his fate, and my staying longer would be of no avail. I quieted my horse, and looked back at my unfortunate companion. The horde was now close behind him; in a second a dense cloud of dust surrounded him and the savages, while a yell of triumph, whose cause I could guess only too well, reached my ears. I pressed closer to Czar, patted his neck, and away we flew like light. I looked round again; a dense mob of Redskins was after me, and by their inhuman yells they gave me to understand that I was to be their victim also.

The distance between us, however, had been increased. I drew a fresh breath, and my passion soon dispelled my feelings of pity and its sister fear. The forest rose rapidly before me, and my safety only depended on this question: Was there a stream on this side the wood? Firmly resolved even in that event to force Czar in, I clung closer to him with my knees and gave him a cheery chirrup. Like a swan he flew over the grass towards the woods, whose single trees I already distinguished. There was no river on this side, and I soon reached the dense foliage, and led Czar snorting and champing in, while my pursuers, now few in number, stopped a long way from me on the prairie. I took out my handkerchief and waved it at them to annoy them, for I would but too gladly have avenged my unhappy comrade; but they turned round, and I went along the buffalo path into the forest, dragging Czar after me.

For about an hour I walked through the gloomy shade, cutting my way among the numerous creepers, till I reached a stream whose banks were quite forty feet above the water. The forest on both sides of the path where it led down to the river was so overgrown with thorns that it was impossible to go up or down the river side, especially with a horse; nor would it do to stay here all night with Czar, as there was nothing for him to eat; and in event of pursuit I could be easily tracked. Hence I soon made up my mind, mounted Czar, hung my pistol-belt and saddle-bags over my shoulders, took my rifle in my right hand, and forced him to follow the path down to the stream. It was so steep that walking was impossible, but the faithful creature, once on the steep, half slipped, half fell into the river, as the bank was very smooth and slippery. The waves, as he fell in, broke over the saddle-bow; but the horse at once raised the whole of its back above the surface, and snorting and puffing, passed the crystalline flood.

In spite of the rapid current, we reached the other side, when the path again ran up the bluff; but had it been a few yards lower down, the horse would never have been able to climb the steep; the bank, as it was, was very high and precipitous, but my steed's strength was equal to the emergency, and burying its delicate feet in the soft loose soil, it sprang up the bank, forcing me to cling round its neck lest I should slip off behind. I had noticed from the prairie that the forest grew lower down the stream and gradually ended, which led me to the conclusion that further on the banks would not be so steep, though the river might be broader; hence I rode down the waterside, for the wood was not so close and impenetrable as at the spot I had recently left, for about three miles in this direction, and found a spot where the bank was not so steep, and I could easily lead Czar to water, while at the same time wild oats three feet in height, grew close by. Hence I resolved to spend the night here.

I led Czar into the nearest thicket, unsaddled and hobbled him, and lit a small fire, partly to dry my clothes, partly to make a cup of hot coffee, for I had turned chill, and felt quite worn out. I had chosen my bivouac so that I could see for a long distance along the road I had come, and kept my weapons in readiness, so that I might sell my life as dearly as possible were I pursued. The scene of horror I had witnessed so lately, the probably frightful death of the naturalist, rose vividly before me, and though I had accustomed myself to society again for a very short time, I now felt very lonely, and reproached myself for having ever consented to let Kreger ride a mule on this journey, when I knew the great danger. That he had fallen a victim to this error there could be no doubt; still I resolved to make certain of his fate.

Night set in; the fire had burnt low; Czar lay close to me, and I threw myself over his neck, patting him for his pluck and fidelity: he was very tired, and frequently gave a sigh, nor did he stir the whole night through. I remained awake till near morning, and although I dozed now and then, I was soon aroused by the hoot of an owl, the yell of a wolf, or the mournful cry of a panther, and I then listened to the sound of every falling leaf and every leaping squirrel. The night was cool too, the ground under me rather damp, and the dew very heavy, so that I really awaited daylight with longing. Czar, however, would not get up, and I let him lie, for I knew that he needed rest, and I might very possibly be obliged to trust to his powers during the day. I had drunk a cup of coffee, and eaten a slice of venison by the time my faithful comrade rose. I led him down to the water, and saw a number of turkeys taking their morning draught at the river side, but dared not fire for fear of betraying myself. It was about ten o'clock when I started down the stream again to find a convenient ford. The forest grew thinner, the shores flatter, and I soon found a deeply-trampled buffalo path which conveyed me without difficulty across the river, for though it was very wide it was quite shallow. Within half an hour I was again on the same prairie where Czar had saved me yesterday, and where the poor botanist had probably met his fate. I cautiously examined the whole plain with my glass, and could not see anything except a few herds of buffalo, and a number of deer grazing carelessly among them. I rode up the forest side to the path, where I found my previous trail, which was crossed by later hoofmarks, and then proceeded cautiously in the direction of the spot where I had left my companion.

While still a long way off, I saw the fearful sight before me. The sun lit up his bloody corpse stretched out on the grass. I rode up to him, and found that he was lying on his back, without his scalp, and covered all over with lance and arrow wounds. None of his clothing had been left him; the only things I found were my destroyed pistols and double-barrelled gun, from which I removed the locks; even the blotting-paper had been taken, though for what purpose was a mystery. I would have gladly dragged the body to the wood and buried it, but the distance was too great to do so without help. I therefore bade him a silent farewell, and turned my horse to the ford where I had crossed the river that morning.

CHAPTER VII.

A LONELY RIDE.

My route led me from here through a very fine country, consisting of undulating plateaux, covered with splendid mosquito grass, and picturesquely broken up by post oaks; here and there a single conical mound, whose top was covered with a thicket, rose some hundred feet from the plain. It was still early in the evening when I neared one of these mounds, and let my horse refresh itself in a rippling stream at its base. The stream came straight down from the thicket on the mound, and the spot pleased me so well, that I resolved to pass the night there. I rode up the hill to the wood, whose tall trees chiefly consisted of holm oaks, with a thick undergrowth of rhododendra and azaleas. A creeping bignonia was remarkably beautiful as it clambered to the tops of the trees and spread over them its scented blossoms like a shower of fire. The shady green of this wood was relieved by flowers of the most varied hues, one of which I can still remember that is rightly called "the traveller's delight." The flowers of this plant hang in clusters two feet long, rivalling the purest blue of the sky above them, and greet the approaching traveller with a perfume which the fabled East could not surpass. The sources of the stream welled up in the centre of the copse, and were girdled by beds of flowers which, as regards colour and form, could not have been better arranged by an artist.

Here I encamped and hobbled Czar, who mercilessly plucked many a beautiful flower and champed it between his teeth with the tender grass. I then took my rifle in order to see whether there was any dangerous animal in the wood, which was about a thousand yards in diameter. I had crept through it and met nothing except a few old does that had their fawns hidden here, and when I stepped out on to the prairie I saw a herd of large male antelopes grazing about a thousand yards from me. This graceful animal, though frequent in our parts, is rarely killed by the sportsman, for it is the most shy of animals. Great curiosity alone brings it at times in the vicinity of the watching gun, and hence I tried to attract the bucks grazing ahead of me. I chose a spot covered with rather tall grass, lay down on it with my cocked rifle by my side, but drew my ramrod out and fastened my handkerchief to it. I then whistled so loudly that the sound reached the antelopes. All looked round towards me at once, and I raised one foot in the air and lowered it again a minute after. I saw that they had noticed it and were leaping about; I then raised the pocket-handkerchief and lowered it again, upon which the herd got in motion, led by one of the largest bucks. They came near me in a large circle, but I continued my telegraphic motions till the antelopes, urged by their fatal curiosity, came within shot, and their leader fell bleeding among the flowers, giving the flying herd a sad parting glance with its large beauteous eyes. I jumped up and fired my second barrel after the fugitives. Clap! I heard the bullet enter the mark, and another buck fell on the grass after a few more bounds.

Hunting is the most cruel sport to which a man can devote himself; I repented of my second shot, for I could make no use of the animal, as a few pounds of the meat amply satisfied my wants. The charm lay solely in the query, "Can you hit or not?" If this doubt be removed, it is all over with the passion, and no one would go out sporting for the pleasure. I must naturally see where the animals were hit, for that is the real enjoyment to know how near you have gone to the right spot, and hence I walked up to the bucks to choose the best of the meat for my consumption at the same time. The one first shot was the plumpest, and carried a pair of large beautiful horns which I regretted I could not take with me. The antelopes do not shed their horns like stags; they are formed more like goat's horns, and annually grow further out of the head: they are brown and bent back at the point like chamois horns. The form of the antelope much resembles that of the deer, but it is rather lighter on the legs and of a brighter hue; its weight does not exceed 120 lbs. The eye of this graceful creature is certainly one of the loveliest that nature has given to any of her creatures, and I have often turned away from the look of a dying antelope because I could not endure the reproach that it expressed.

I cut off the best lumps of game and went back to the dark shade, in which Czar greeted me with a whinny of delight, and rested on my horse-rug, refreshed by the delicious perfumes of hyacinths, jonquils, daffodils, and narcissuses, that surrounded me. The night was warm, and I required no fire after I had finished supper. I slept splendidly, with Czar at my side, and the sun was high when I awoke, to find my horse browzing on the grass within reach of his tether. I washed Czar clean, which I never neglected when I had the chance, and rode out of my arbour down the side of the hill, whence I could survey the country before me for many miles.

A glorious picture was spread out. The sun was not very high yet, so that the shadows over the landscape were rather long, and the light mist gave the distance that reddish-blue tone which renders a landscape with a rich bold foreground so exquisite. I remained for some time at the spot, examining the road to the hills whither I was going, but which were still too far for me to reach them on this day. Up to these blue mountains the ground appeared to be much the same as I had ridden over yesterday; rich in arable land, supplied with the most luxuriant pastures and abundance of wood, and watered by magnificent streams. This earthly paradise awaited men to raise the unlimited treasures which it promised to bestow so bountifully. It was a saddening thought, that these boundless plains were entirely uninhabited, for the nomadic hordes of savages cannot be called such. From where I stood to the north pole, with the exception of a few trading ports of the fur companies, no white man had yet erected his cabin. Westward the enormous regions were unpopulated almost to the Pacific, and even eastward the distance to the first settlement was so great that I felt very solitary, and for the first time was overpowered by a sort of yearning for the social life which I had left in vexation. Still these feelings took no deep root in my breast; they were soon driven away by the joys of hunting, which can only be found in their full extent far away from the civilized world.

For two days I wandered through these gardens of nature without being checked by any material obstacle. On the third day I reached the mountains, and at evening found myself at the height where the limestone leaves off and the red granite begins. To my surprise I saw a splendid spring flowing from a narrow fissure in the granite, with sufficient grass growing near it to give Czar his supper and breakfast. I stopped here for the night, and had a glorious view from this stony height. The misty blue outlines of the Rocky Mountains were only just visible; between them and myself I looked down on the most fertile valleys, which were begirt by lofty mountains. The precipice behind me was overgrown with splendid cactuses, which were just opening their cups after sunset, and diffusing their fragrance. The moon had risen; it illumined the large snow-white clustering flowers of the yucca which grew in the rock fissures, and spread over the whole scene a silvery light, which, though inferior to that of the day in brightness, was far superior to it in pleasantness.

It was a rather cool night, so that from time to time I made up my fire with the dry wood of old mimosas, the only

tree that finds nourishment on these stony heights. Many of these grew round my fire, which when it flared up, displayed the beautiful pink flowers with which these trees are literally covered, so that the delicate pendulous leaves can scarce be distinguished. Rarely did a sound disturb the surrounding silence; now and then the yelp of a white wolf reached my ear through the cold damp fog from the valley below me, or the hoot of an owl was repeated by the echoes among the rocks.

Day awoke me from a refreshing sleep as the sun was gilding the summits of the mountains that emerged from the sea of fog at my feet, round which the large eagles were circling. Greatly invigorated, I bade adieu to my pleasant resting-place, and led Czar over the rocks to the nearest valley, which soon received us under its shady trees. I traversed the valley for about two hours in a northern direction, following the course of a clear stream which ran through, with a thousand windings, like a mighty snake, and was framed in on both sides by thick bushes and old overgrown trees.

About mid-day, as I was following one of these windings, I suddenly found myself a few paces from a camp of Cato Indians, and a general "ugh" reached my ear, as the men, about thirty in number, sprang up, and we gazed at each other in surprise, watching for a signal of peace or war. My presence of mind did not desert me; and knowing that these savages, when they have their wives and children with them, prefer a peaceful understanding, I waved a good morning to them with a pleasant smile, and rode, holding my rifle and watching every movement of the men, to the next bend in the river, while the savages looked after me with open mouth, as if petrified. When I had got round a curve and was protected by the bushes, my first idea was to give Czar the spur and gallop away, but this would only have been a challenge to the Indians to pursue me; hence I made him amble, as well as he could manage it in the tall grass, and hastened to get out of this unpleasant company. It was highly probable that the savages would follow me, if only to get hold of my fine horse; hence I was obliged to calculate my next steps. I had but the choice of two ways—either to throw out the savages by riding in the water and on stony ground, where they could not follow my trail, and then concealing myself at some easily defended spot—or else to ride quickly away from them so far that they could not follow me on their wretched horses. The former was difficult and dubious, as the Indian's eye surpasses the nose of the best pointer, and hence I chose the other, trusting to my horse's speed.

I cut off a slice of the antelope's leg, which was hanging on my saddle, about enough for supper, and left the rest behind, not to give my horse any unnecessary weight; then I set Czar at a sharp trot where the grass was dry, and when I reached barren ground made him amble—a pace at which he could do his mile in three minutes when put to it, though he took eight minutes when not hurried, and could go on for hours without a rest. I followed the course of the water, and at the end of some hours reached a gorge where the river ran through perpendicular rocks, and where my horse had scarce room to pass. I could see the water for nearly two miles ahead; the current was wilder and swifter here, and on looking down at its surface I noticed several spots where the water rippled and foamed as it ran over rocks and stones. On both sides of the pass the granite walls rose many hundred feet, so that it was impossible to scale them; and though, farther to the right and left, buffalo paths ran up them, the Indians must be well aware of this fact, and were probably lying in ambush for me there, as they must have noticed from my course that I was quite a stranger to the country. There was only one choice for me, and I quickly made up my mind. I put my holsters over my shoulder, placed in them those articles which must not be wetted, and guided Czar into the river, in which he floated down with me at a tremendous pace past the rock walls. I was not at all afraid about swimming him for an hour; the sole danger of the undertaking consisted in the large masses of rock over which the stream broke, and against which we ran in less than ten minutes. The river bed was here rather wider, and hence fortunately the stream not so violent, or else we should probably both have found a watery grave. Czar raised himself by his forefeet on the rock, which was not covered by more than a foot of water, but his hind-quarters sank as he did so, for he found no bottom, and the waves dashed over my saddle. The current had turned us against the rock, when I pressed Czar with my thighs, and with a frightful effort he worked his way along to the end of the rock, where I felt that he had a footing, though it only consisted of a few boulders. I was compelled to cross this dam, as I could not go back, and the uncertain ground threatened every moment to bury us between its rocks. My horse, first slipping off the smooth stones, and then leaping up again, struggled in vain to find a footing in the rapid stream, and I saw that any hesitation would be certain destruction. I therefore dug both spurs into the flanks of my brave steed; he leaped desperately out of the foaming waves, sprang on the rocks before us, and scrambled over them into the river on the other side, where he sank up to the nostrils, and the waves met over my head. My alarm lest Czar had injured himself was alleviated by his speedy return to the surface, and as he blew the water from his nostrils we followed the stream to a wall of rock, where I noticed that the water was calm at the right hand end. I steered for this point, and we swam unimpeded through this channel into the deep water till the valley opened again before us, and my brave horse trod on the sand. I led him into the grass, examined him carefully, and found that he was slightly grazed on the near foreleg and the knee, but this caused me no apprehension. I let him rest in the shade for half an hour, as he was greatly excited, gave him all the white sugar I had brought expressly for him, and which was now wet, and then continued my journey along the river, as the grass, which must have been burnt here late in winter, and the fresh grown crop had not yet sprung up, did not impede Czar's speed.

The valley constantly grew wider, and trended to the west. I left it at about 6 P.M., and followed a stream which ran from the north. Going along it till nightfall, I reached its source in the mountains, and was at least forty miles from the Indians, when I unsaddled Czar, and hobbled him in the soft grass. I felt quite secure here, for I was no longer frightened about pursuit by the Catos, and it was not probable that accident would lead other Indians here at so late an hour, when they never march except for some special reason. My bivouac was in the only coppice far and wide, in which the springs bubbled up at the foot of a very tall cypress. All around me was a glorious meadow, and, further north, rose barren rocks, on which only a mimosa, a yucca, and varieties of brambles and cactus grew. Czar was tired, and soon came to me, holding up his hobbled leg, begging me to set him at liberty; and when I had thrown the lasso over his neck, he stretched his delicate limbs on the grass. I too fell back on my saddle, and slept so soundly till morning, that I did not once look after the fire, and on waking did not find a spark among the ashes. It was soon lighted again and breakfast prepared, before which I had a bathe in the spring. Then I lit a pipe, washed Czar all over, and left the well-head, going toward the mountains in the north.

The road was so steep and fatiguing that I dismounted; still, I seemed to be on a path at times trodden by buffaloes, which was continued when I reached the top, where a wide tableland covered with rich vegetation was expanded before me. This plain, only interrupted by a few hillocks, was about twenty miles in diameter: it was covered with very high grass and small patches of mosquito trees, elms, dwarf oaks, and yuccas. The ground was quite black and very rich, and this earth was in some places fifteen feet deep, as I could see by the numerous channels cut by rain storms. I did not see a trace of spring water. This country is entirely dependent on the rains, which are frequent in these mountains, as well as the peculiar nature of the soil, which long resists evaporation of the humidity. On all sides I saw herds of grazing buffalo, but, though my mouth watered for a slice of hump and a marrow bone, I did not like to distress my horse, or go too far away from him while stalking. More antelopes were feeding here together than I had ever seen, and the same was the case with deer. I rode quietly on through the tall grass, resolved only to shoot some animal I could ride up to, and succeeded in doing so toward evening, when I saw something dark moving in the grass, which I recognised as a black wolf. In a second I was off Czar's back, as I should be very glad of such a skin, and was just about to fire, when I saw, on the other side of a ditch I had not observed in the tall grass, a very large bear running away. Owing to the high plants, I could not fire, and, forgetting my former resolution, I leapt on Czar's back, and flew after the fat fellow. His road led through a number of low mosquito trees, so that I was obliged to bend down over my horse's neck to escape being caught in the branches. I was close to the bear, but it coursed so rapidly under the branches, that I could not give it a shot from my revolver. At length we emerged from the trees, and I flew a few yards after the bear, when suddenly Czar made such a leap to the right, that I must have been thrown, had it not been for the heavy holsters that kept me on. I turned the horse round again, and then noticed that the bear had disappeared in a gap before me; and on drawing near, I found a cañon, going down a hundred feet sheer, and about twenty feet wide at this part. It was a gully washed out by the rain, which I had not observed owing to the tall grass. I dismounted, and walked to the spot where the bear had disappeared: saw that the bushes had been uprooted about thirty feet lower down, but could not discover a trace of the bear. What I had been told by old hunters now appeared to me probable—that a bear will, in a case of need, put its head between its legs, and roll like a ball from some height, without hurting itself; which can be explained by the remarkable elasticity of its bones, and the thickness of the fat over its body, I owed it solely to the agility of my horse, that I had not followed the bear down the precipice, and I willingly resigned the delicate ribs which, in imagination, I had seen roasting at my camp fire.

I continued my journey over the grassy plateau. The sun poured its last vertical beams on the dry soil, which was intersected by deep cracks a foot in breadth. This bursting of the ground during great heat is very common on plateaux where the earth is very rich, and often endangers the rider, as the fissures, being covered by the long grass, are difficult to detect. There was not a breath of air; my horse became very warm, and looked in vain for water in the deep dry ditches. I also pined for a fresh draught, for the water in my pouch had become quite warm, and Czar could not swallow it when I poured some into his mouth. My horse rug was so hot that I was hardly able to sit on it, and the barrels of my rifle almost blistered my hand. I stopped several times in the shade of an isolated tree to draw a little breath, but this did not advance my journey, and I could not possibly spend the night here without water. How far I still had to ride to the next stream I did not know, but I was aware that I might travel for days in these mountains without finding a spring or a stream. The sun was on my left hand when I reached the end of this plateau, but, instead of perceiving the longed-for sign of water, a poplar tree, I saw before me almost impassable hills covered with loose stones, that rose behind one another like sugar-loaves. I could only reckon on an hour's daylight, and it was highly probable that I should have to pass an unpleasant night. So far as I could see northward, the hills were piled on each other, without offering a prospect of water, hence I turned my horse westward, on the chance of reaching the valley which ran along parallel with the plateau. I was obliged to dismount, for in the hollows between the hills the torrents had torn deep ravines in which old trees washed down were piled up and became very dangerous to pass. The rocks over which I wearily climbed were red hot and burnt my feet, and at the same time I suffered intolerable thirst. I had shared the last water in my flask with Czar. My mouth was very dry and my tongue clove to the palate. In vain I looked from every height I reached for the longed-for sign, and wandered up hill and down, till the sun sank behind the distant blue mountains, and the first shadows of night spread over the land. I had passed over several hills in this manner, when I saw a valley before me in the twilight which I greeted with renewed hopes, but the darkness set in so rapidly, that I was unable to continue my journey. Feeling quite knocked up, I threw myself on the warm rocks, holding Czar by the rein, to wait for the rising moon. The sky behind me grew more and more red; the anxiously awaited light rose slowly about the hills, and looked down on the deadly silence that was spread over the whole landscape.

I had rested about an hour ere it grew light enough to continue my journey, and I soon reached the plain, where unfortunately the grass grew very high. I was obliged to mount my horse again, for it was impossible to walk through the grass; and though I was very sorry to do it, I urged the poor creature on, while he continually strove, by hanging his head and shaking his neck, to make me understand it was high time to go to rest. I had continued my journey for two hours without stopping, when the grass grew shorter, my horse every now and then stepped on stones, and I saw a tree or two again. I had probably passed the lowest part of the valley, and as I had found no water in it, there was no prospect of doing so at a greater elevation. I was awfully tired and sleepy, and my horse was quite as bad; I therefore unsaddled under an elm, fastened Czar to the tree by his long lasso, and in ten minutes I was dreaming of cool crystalline water; but for all that woke at daybreak exhausted and feverish, and to my horror missed my horse.

I sprang up, surveyed the wide plain, and who can describe my delight when I saw Czar's white coat shining a few hundred yards off over a small mimosa bush, behind which he was enjoying the fresh grass in a hollow. The knot of the lasso had come undone, and thus Czar had been able to look about for more agreeable fodder. I led him nearer my bivouac, and was just going to light my fire, when I saw smoke rising in the west, about three miles from me. I quickly pocketed my flint and steel, saddled, and rode toward the highest part of the ridge which divided the valley in half. When I had nearly reached the top I dismounted and crawled to the highest point, whence I surveyed the valley, and observed an Indian camp, round which some three hundred horses and mules were grazing. I saw through the grass that the various families were sitting at the fires in front of their leathern tents, with the exception of a few children that were playing about. The camp was on the other side of a stream which wound through the valley from the north. Though I longed so for water, I must avoid the neighbourhood of these savages, who might prove very dangerous to me in such an unknown and desolate country. I rode back through the valley in which I had spent the night, and into the mountains on its eastern side; for, if I had followed the valley to reach the river, I must have been noticed by the Indians on my white horse. The road was tiring, as I was frequently obliged to walk, and the heat on these barren hills soon rendered my thirst intolerable.

It was midday when I with a firm resolution to ride to the water, cost what it might, guided my horse down a ravine, and suddenly saw before me the fresh verdure of plants which only grow at very damp spots, under a heap of dry piled-up trees, among which a number of turkeys were running; I forgot the Indians and the risk, shot two old gobblers, and threw myself between the tall ferns, over the cold springs that welled up among them, in order to quench my fearful thirst. I lay for nearly half-an-hour, ate a bit of biscuit, and as I could not fully quench my thirst, continually applied to the spring. This was one of the most glorious meals I ever enjoyed, and I believe that I would sooner have defended myself against a whole tribe of Indians than leave this spot unsatisfied. The shade here was not sufficient, however, and hence I went a little lower down the stream with Czar and my two turkeys, where I found a cooler resting-place under a group of elms and oaks. After this hunger began to be felt, for, with the exception of a small slice of antelope and a little biscuit, I had eaten nothing since the preceding morning. I set to work on one of the turkeys, and spitted such a quantity of the meat, fat and lean, that I was obliged to laugh at myself. The exterior of the meat hardly began to get roasted ere I cut it away. In the meanwhile, the coffee was getting ready and I concluded my repast; after which I found great difficulty in keeping my eyes open. I fetched Czar, who had also enjoyed himself, and fastened him to a tree, took my rifle in my arms, and in a few minutes was fast asleep, forgetting all the dangers that surrounded me.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE JOURNEY CONTINUED.

At about five o'clock I was awakened by the sun, whose oblique beams were able to reach me through the trees. I felt refreshed and strong, made Czar get up, saddled, and followed the stream, which led me to the river I had seen in the morning. I approached the valley cautiously when I rode out of the mountain gorge, and carefully surveyed it with my glass, without finding a trace of the Indians anywhere. It was very important for me to know whether they had gone up or down the river; the latter was the more probable, because most of the buffalo herds I had seen lately were going southward, and the savages, as a rule, follow these animals. As the banks of the river were not high, I rode into it, watered my horse, and without any difficulty reached the other side, when I was soon on the path of the Indians, who had gone south, as I expected. I rode up this trail northwards, in order, if possible, to reach before sunset some stream coming from the mountains, as I would not pass the night where I was, for it appeared to be a pass greatly used by Indians, so that I ran greater danger here of meeting fresh hordes than I did among the hills. I rode very quickly, and at sunset turned into a narrow valley, bordered on either side by very lofty precipices. For about two miles I followed the torrent which wound through loose blocks of granite, and frequently could scarce get through the tall ferns and reedy plants which grew between the wildly scattered boulders. The gorge gradually became narrower and the granite walls steeper, and in the twilight I saw the end of it no great distance from me.

I had dismounted and was going with Czar round a block of granite, when a large stag dashed past me from the end of the gorge, hardly fifty yards off, and I distinctly saw another darker-coloured animal bounding after it through the tall grass. In an instant the flying stag, with its broad antlers thrown back, was twenty yards from me, and bounded over a rock close by, while at the same moment a panther of enormous size covered the track of the deer with its gigantic paws. It had scarce touched the ground, however, ere the bullet from my rifle crashed through its shoulder-blade, and the crack, echoing through the gorge, thundered in its ears. The panther ran its head into the grass, while its hind quarters flew up in the air, but at the next instant it rose furiously in the grass, showing its dazzlingly white teeth and stretching out its claws to leap on me. I held my rifle firmly to my shoulder, and as the animal rose, fired at the white stripe under the throat. The bullet passed through its breast, and rising on its hind legs it turned a somersault and died with a furious kick. It was very old, and had probably inhabited this tempting spot for many years, to surprise the game that came here to drink at the spring, and enjoy the fresh green pasturage. Eight feet long from the snout to the tail, the prince of the valley lay stretched out before me, and round it the bones of its victims were bleaching in the grass. I found above a dozen skulls of deer and antelopes, all of which had a hole an inch wide in the top. In addition to them, the skeletons of two buffaloes and an elk, and countless bones of other animals glistened in the grass. I went up to Czar who, probably recognising his foe, had run some hundred yards down the valley, and was looking after me with his head up. I led him up to the slain panther, but it needed much persuasion ere he would draw quite close to this arch foe of his race. After making Czar stand by the panther awhile, which I dragged about to remove his natural fear of the creature, I led him to the end of the ravine where the ground was covered with young tender grass, unsaddled him, and laid my traps under the evergreen oaks, in order to prepare my camp.

FACE TO FACE. [[p. 67.]

As the darkness had greatly increased I ran back to the panther, fastened the lasso round its neck, and dragged it to my camping-place, intending to skin it in the morning. I lit the fire, prepared supper, and lay down on my horse-rug, every now and then turning the spit or piling up the sticks round the coffee pot. The fire flared brightly, and produced a peculiarly beautiful illumination on the thick foliage of the oaks and the projecting shadow of the high reddish rocks, whose fissures and crevices appeared all the blacker in consequence. The russet moon was still low on the very dark sky, it peered into the ravine from the east, and did not spread sufficient light to overpower my fire.

While I was observing this pretty scene I noticed a light spot under the rock which was lit up by the fire. I took it at first for a buffalo skull, but drew a brand from the fire and crept under the low-branched oaks to make certain what it was. I held the brand over it, and saw a human skull grinning at me out of the damp dark background, and carried it to the fire. From its shape it was the skull of a Weico with a low forehead, and strong thick high back part: judging from the fine, slightly worn teeth it must have belonged to quite a young man, who probably fancied he had found a safe resting-place here, and carelessly yielding to sleep had fallen a victim to the panther, for the marks of teeth were quite distinct upon it. I kept up the fire during the whole night, which did not disturb my rest, as I had grown into the habit of waking up every hour to see all was right and going to sleep again. If it can be managed, as was the case here, the hunter chooses a large fallen tree, and makes his fire close against it with small wood, so that the trunk may catch. This smoulders during the whole of the night, and the fire can easily be made to blaze at any time by throwing on brushwood. The night passed without the slightest disturbance, and at dawn I skinned my panther, which had a great number of scars, principally arrow and lance wounds, as it seemed. After cleaning the skin from all fleshy particles, I spread it out to dry at the fire, while I bathed and swallowed my breakfast. I sought all round the bivouac for weapons or other articles belonging to the dead man, but found none, and as the sun was already high I set out on my wanderings again.

Just as I reached the entrance of the gorge I saw a herd of seven buffalo bulls grazing. In a second I leaped off Czar and ran from stone to stone, till I got within ten yards of the shaggy monsters, from which I was only separated by a large rock. I crept under this on the ground, till I had the buffaloes before me; the nearest one stood motionless, with its broad, hairy forehead turned toward me, and I aimed at the centre of it, although I had often tried in vain to kill a buffalo by a shot through the head. This time, however, the bullet did its work, and the other bulls fled round the rock toward the valley. As the fat buffalo would supply me with food for several days, I fetched my horse, took the axe hanging from the saddle, and set to work cutting out the sirloin, while Czar grazed by my side and now and then licked up the blood. It is very difficult for a novice to cut up a buffalo, for the hide is remarkably hard and elastic, and sits very close to the flesh, while any attempt to turn the carcase about is hopeless. We may fairly say that a novice in these countries, if what the practitioners call a "greenhorn," would starve with a dead buffalo, if he had not some one to show him how to cut pieces off it. I thrust my sharp bowie knife between the ribs close behind the shoulder blade, ran it up along the spine and down again to the chest, then in the same way separated the two last ribs from the spine, and made a cut under the belly to the end of the first cut. I then hacked the ribs with the axe, lifted the entire side up, which broke the hacked ribs, and thus opened the interior of the animal, like lifting a trap door. The entrails were removed without much difficulty, and the two enormous loins under the spine cut out. I removed a piece of the hide from the hump, in order to secure a part of the streaky meat; cut out the tongue between the jaws, as I could not think of opening the mouth, took two marrow bones, and left the remaining 1400 lbs. of meat for the wolves and buzzards. All these dainties were hung about my saddle, for the hotter the sun shines on them the less does the meat putrefy. With a parting glance at the ravine, I again struck the Indian trail, which I followed northwards up the river.

At 2 P.M. I crossed the river, as it trended to the west, and followed a beautiful valley, for some hours, to the north-east, where I did not notice a single trace of horses or Indians, while the path I had hitherto been following seemed to be exclusively made by nomadic savages. The valley I now traversed rose gradually with the stream, and seemed to form a plateau in the distance. It was covered with splendid mosquito grass, which is only the case with the richest soil. This grass never grows very high, but is very fine, and hangs in tresses like hair. Horses are excessively fond of it, and grow fat on it in a very short time. So far as I could see, the valley was covered with game of every description, among which I noticed several moose deer, the first I had seen on this tour. These animals are only found separately so far south, while they form herds farther north, especially in the southern Rocky Mountains. It is a deer of enormous size, reaching the weight of seven or eight hundred pounds, the antlers spread very wide, and often weigh as much as forty pounds. The flesh is not very toothsome, being hard and fibrous, and is not eaten by the hunter when he can get any better. The animal is not difficult to kill, for it is not very fast, and can be caught up by a good horse; the Indians throw a lasso over it, and then kill it with lances. For the time I was amply supplied with meat, and hence felt no great longing for these animals, but let them graze at peace. Like the other game here they were very familiar, and allowed me to ride within shot, which was a further proof that this valley was rarely visited by Indians. The country was well covered with stately elms, poplars, mosquito trees, and mimosas (I call the last tree thus to distinguish it from the mosquito tree, which is also a mimosa). Of course, such specimens as grew on the Leone were not to be found here. This valley will certainly in time be visited by settlers, for though poor in wood, no better ground can be desired by cattle breeders.

At about six in the morning I reached a spot where two streams joined, and I could not make sure of water further up the valley. Hence I followed the eastern arm, and reached at sunset the hills bordering the valley, between which I bivouacked, as I had everything I required. For several days I continued to follow a northern course. The character of the soil varied as before; the mountains had the same shape, were bare at top, and covered with loose stones, between which a few low cactuses, aloes, and torch weeds grew. I also rode over a good deal of tableland, but got away from it as soon as I could, for through the entire want of water the ground here grows very hot, and you are thoroughly roasted.

I found the grass on the prairie not very high, which made it easier going for my horse, but more difficult for me to approach the game, which appeared remarkably shy and restless. My stock of meat was exhausted, and I ate my biscuit and salt tongue as rarely as possible, so as to have food by me in case of need. I dared not ride down the buffalo, as my white horse could be easily distinguished from the uplands, and I must spare his strength. Nor did I care to go far from Czar afoot, as a single foot Indian might easily be hidden in the grass, and reach him more quickly than I could. Hence I deferred my chase till I reached the woods that rose ahead of me.

I rode over the rolling prairie till, on emerging from a hollow, I saw three very plump old deer grazing not far from me behind a few low mosquito bushes. I sprang off Czar, hobbled him, and crawled on my stomach through the grass towards the deer, dragging my rifle after me. Although I had got within shot, I wished to advance a few more yards in order to reach a hollow where I should be able to kneel and fire. On reaching it I pulled my rifle after me, and was just about to fire when a monstrous rattlesnake glided away from under my hand. I sprang up in terror, watched it darting through the grass with head erect, and away fled my deer over the prairie, and I had had all my trouble for nothing.

Though rattlesnakes are so numerous in these regions the sudden announcement of their vicinity through the movement of the rattles is a most unpleasant surprise, which never failed to produce a painful impression on my nerves. The whole south-west of America is troubled with these and other snakes, but accidents through their poisonous bite are rare. In spring and autumn, when the heat is not great, the bite of a rattlesnake rarely kills, and only in cases when a large artery is injured. If that be not the case, it only produces a soft swelling, which soon disappears again, only leaving a want of sensitiveness for a few days. In summer, however, when the heat attains its acmé, such a bite is more dangerous, and curatives cannot be employed too quickly. Cutting out to the seat of the wound without a moment's loss of time is the most certain remedy. Salammoniac, which has so often been recommended, is not of the slightest use; but sometimes a cure is effected by rubbing the wound with oil or lard, or by a poultice of the leaves of the large burr, which is so often entangled in the hair of domestic animals. The most infallible specific, however, is a bulb known to all the borderers by the name of "Seneca root." It has a leek-green leaf a foot long with a few brown spots. It is chewed into a pulp, which is laid on the wound and a small portion of the juice is swallowed; ere long the pain is reduced, the fever disappears, and the swelling ceases. This bulb may be carried about for years without losing its virtue. Moreover, all these snakes shun man, and it is only when they are startled by his sudden approach that they dart at the limb nearest to them. The rattlesnake rarely exceeds eight to ten feet in length, but the royal variety is somewhat larger, much more poisonous, and marked with the most brilliant colours. Other poisonous snakes found in our parts are the brown and black moccassin, which lives both on land and in the water, and the copperhead, a small but very venomous snake. When I settled on the Leone, these snakes were so numerous that after sunset I did not dare let my horse walk along a buffalo path, because they used to come out and cool themselves there. But as my swine increased in number, they gradually disappeared, for the former are exceedingly fond of eating them, and are not hurt by their bite.

I was very much annoyed: sent some strong language after the snake, and returned to my horse, who had been taking advantage of his rest in the long grass. I took off his hobble, and rode toward the forest, which seemed inviting me to enter its friendly shade. It was midday when I reached the wood, thirsting for a fresh drink. I hung my hat on the saddle, and greedily inhaled the cool breeze that blew through the majestic trees, and then followed on foot a buffalo path, which wound between the bushes. It led me to a clear stream, which poured over loose masses of stone, between rather high banks. I let Czar glide down, for the path was very steep; watered him, and made him leap up the other bank: then I filled my gourd, and quenched my thirst with the cold water.

I was just going to remount, when I heard the sound of a herd of peccaries or Mexican swine coming toward me, probably in search of water. As the undergrowth was not very dense on the side of the stream, I was able to see them coming for some distance. There were about twenty old pigs, with a lot of sucklings; they ran very slowly, and I had time to pick out a fat boar. I shot it; sprang on my horse at once, and, as I expected, found the whole herd dash furiously after me. I had room before me, and dashed through them into the forest. They did not follow me, and I granted them time to bid adieu to their fallen comrade, while I led Czar into the wild oats which grew luxuriantly here. In a quarter of an hour I rode back to my game. The herd had retired; and I at once cut away the musk gland which the boar had on its back, of the size of an egg: for if I had allowed it to grow cold it would have been impossible to eat the meat, owing to the powerful musky taste. The boar weighed about fifty pounds; I cut off the best joints, and took one of the tusks as a souvenir, on account of its remarkable length. The peccari is very frequently met in the western mountains of America, and often in herds of a hundred head. It has a handsome, silver-grey, long-haired skin, an enormous head for its size with tremendous tusks, and is remarkable for its extraordinary courage. If disturbed, it will attack a man as soon as a horse or a tiger, and is very dangerous through its agility, strength, and tusks five inches long. I have known a hunter to be attacked by a herd, and forced to take shelter up a tree, where he remained the whole night till the herd retired.

I rode for about two miles along the skirt of the next forest I came to without finding a buffalo path; and yet the forest was so densely overgrown with thorns and brambles that I could not enter it without a path. At length I found one, which had been probably trodden for centuries by millions of buffaloes. I followed it into the wood, and soon reached a small river, whose steep banks were about eight feet high. Here I refreshed my horse and myself, and followed the path on the opposite side, where the forest grew clearer, and I soon caught a glimpse of the prairie. The bushes and a few isolated trees ran for some distance out into the prairie. I dismounted and led my horse to the last bushes, in order to survey the plain ere I entrusted myself to it, and because I was undecided whether I would not bivouac here. I had advanced to the furthermost bushes, which were brightly illumined by the western sun, and I found the prairie was populated by a few deer and buffaloes, whose evident watchfulness and restlessness I could not ascribe to my appearance. I looked down the wood to the rocks, and to my terror, saw close under them on the prairie a war-party of about a hundred and fifty Indians, who were riding towards the forest one behind the other. I sprang in front of my horse, in order to cover its bright chest, and hurriedly raised my telescope. They were Lepans. I knew them by their plumed lances, gaily-decorated shields, and fine horses; for these Indians are the best mounted and most warlike on the western steppes. I stood as if petrified, for fear lest they might see a movement on my part, while I held Czar by the rein. They had not yet seen me, for they rode past, and drew close to the wood: a few yards farther and they would have been out of sight, and the danger momentarily passed. Suddenly, however, the whole party halted, and pointed toward me. I had been seen, there could be no doubt of the fact; for I noticed through my glass that they were holding their hands over their eyes to have a better look at me. There was not a mile between us; my horse had been travelling all day. The wood was very narrow, and the path leading through it very broad. I was aware of the courage of these Lepans, and saw no salvation save in the endurance of my horse. With one leap I was on his back; threw away the flesh and darted into the wood, with the whole band of savages after me like a whirlwind. The river made a number of bends, which I was compelled to follow. The Indians' horses were extremely swift; this was the first time I had ever known any horses keep up with mine. But I had not yet called on Czar: I now drove the spurs into him and let go the reins. I flew round the next corner, and then round the next, ere the Indians reached the first, which was a good mile behind. At this moment I saw that the river bank was covered for the next half mile with loose pebbles. I turned Czar round, and leapt him down the eight-foot bank into the river, whose bottom, composed, of soft sand and shallow water, he reached without injury. I then galloped up the stream in the direction I had just come, covered by the tall bank, and the wood between it and the prairie, calculating that the Indians would not miss my track among the loose stones, but would gallop through them to the next angle of the wood, which would give me a grand start. I remained at a gallop for about a hundred yards, so that the water met over my head, until I reached a deeper spot, where Czar was obliged to swim for a short distance. At this moment I heard the savage horde dash past, and the war yell of these unchained demons echoing through the forest! Probably the short extent of deep water saved me, for at this spot only a few thin bushes grew on the bank, and though the savages were some distance off, they would infallibly have noticed the water being dashed up by Czar. I again reached a firm bottom, and followed the stream as quickly as I could; while the yells of the Indians were audible a long way behind me.

I was beginning to feel more secure, when my progress was impeded by large masses of rock, between which the shallow water rippled. I leapt on one of these blocks, and gave Czar a gentle pull to follow me: he sprang up, clambered across, and reached without injury a good sandy bottom on the other side. I hurried down the stream—partly swimming, partly climbing—till I saw the lofty rocks on my right through the forest, and hence knew that I was below the spot where the Lepans had halted when they first sighted me. I still followed the stream, although the water came up to my horse's girths; but it suddenly made a curve, and ran close past the rocks, at a spot where they opened like a narrow gateway, leaving a passage for a rivulet that flowed from the interior. The entrance through the granite walls was not more than thirty feet wide, and the gorge about a hundred feet deep, beyond which was a beautiful little valley enclosed by the rocks, about a mile in length, through which the stream rippled.

I rode up the rivulet; on both sides of which the most exquisite flowers grew. Among them I specially noticed a sort of tiger lily, not only through the brilliancy of its hues, but the masses that covered the banks, so that the ravine seemed to be strewn with live coals. Sitting down on a rock at the entrance, I listened, but did not hear a sound of my pursuers. The rippling of the stream alone interrupted the silence, and only at intervals did the shrill cry of the white-headed eagle rise above it. That the Lepans had overridden my trail was certain; but it was equally certain that they would ride back when they noticed their error, and find my track; for my horse, in leaping into the stream, had left distinct marks on the bank, and its track might also be followed in the sandy bed. Moreover the banks were splashed with water, and that was sufficient to show an Indian the road I had followed. Hence it was certain that the savages could follow me, but doubtful whether they would do it, as they might be sure that I should get under cover, when my firearms would be very dangerous, and they would be unable to surprise me. Hence it was far more likely—supposing that they attached so much value to a white man's scalp or the possession of a fine horse, as to interrupt the war-trail for some days—that they would guard the prairies on both sides of the forest, as it was almost impossible for a horseman to ride through the latter.

While I was thus weighing my situation I inspected my firearms, which had got slightly wet; put on fresh caps, and was taking a look at my water-tight powder-flask, when a yell echoed through the wood from the east. I knew its meaning perfectly well: the Lepans had found my trail, and were assembling for a consultation. At this sound all prospect of an amicable arrangement departed, and I was determined, in the event of an attack, on defending myself here, as in case of need I could always escape down the stream.

All became silent again; evening spread her veil over the earth; the silver herons and flamingoes uttered their hoarse cry as they flew homewards; and the owl announced the setting in of night. The outlines of the trees and rocks continually grew more indistinct, and it was time to fetch up Czar, who was nibbling the tender grass along the stream. I secured him with the lasso to a very large stone behind the rock on which I was sitting, and threw before him an armful of grass and weeds, which I picked. In the event of an attack from the river, he was tolerably protected behind this rock, and he was close at hand if I wanted to mount in a hurry. Though I regretted having to leave him saddled through, the night, I only took the pistols out of the holsters and laid by them by my side.

Suddenly a loud, long, lasting yell was raised, which, however, seemed much farther off, and to come from the prairie on the south side of the forest. Probably, the Lepans had found my trail through the prairie, but it was a satisfactory sign to me that they had not attempted to follow me along the river bed. In all other directions my hiding-place was unassailable, unless there was a second entrance into the valley in my rear, as was probable. It had already grown so dark, that I could not distinguish my white horse from the rocks, although the stars shone brilliantly above me. Before it was quite dark I sat down by the side of Czar, to prevent him lying down. I grew very sleepy, but the yell of the Indians still sounded too loudly in my ears for me to indulge in repose. I tried to keep awake by smoking, which helped for a while; but smoking in perfect darkness is no enjoyment; hence I soon grew tired of it, and tried to keep awake by walking up and down. Czar, too, was tired of standing; he stamped impatiently with his fore-feet, and tried the strength of the lasso by tugging at it. At length, nature claimed her dues, and I could not possibly keep awake any longer: I took off Czar's load, laid it in the darkness against the stone to which he was secured, spread out my rug, and lay down on it with my rifle on my arm. Czar was not long in following my example, and tried as usual to have a roll before going to sleep, which might have injured me or the saddle in the darkness; hence I pressed his head to the ground, and we were both, ere long, as soundly asleep as the rocks around us.

Day was scarce breaking when I started up and looked around me with a disagreeable feeling of self-reproach: for how easily could an Indian have crept up and done to me while asleep what all the whole tribe could not effect while I was awake! Czar lay motionless, and I did not disturb him, for it might easily happen that his strength alone could bear me away in safety. I went out of the gorge and brought in some dry wood, lit a fire and made coffee, being obliged to breakfast on my biscuits and salt tongue, for the dainty lumps of pork I had cut yesterday had probably served a wolf for supper. While I was breakfasting, my faithful steed raised his head and rested it on my knee, that I might remove the bridle which I had left on during the night. I did so; hobbled him out in the grass, and then sat down again at my small fire, where I could see along the river and up the valley behind me, whose steep granite walls were just beginning to be illumined by the rising sun. In the valley itself the fog still lay like a white veil, and only a few tall trees raised their crowns above it. The stream by which I was sitting was all aglow with its tiger lilies, with which the dazzling white of my horse grazing among them formed a beautiful contrast. The mist in the valley was dissipated, and revealed the rich vegetation which grew there apart from the world. I remembered the fairy tales of childhood,—the enchanted Princes and sleeping Princesses, the Palace of Glass, and the Magic Valley,—and had they not been narrated before this continent was known to Europeans, I should have believed that the fables had their origin in this valley. I was very curious to learn whether there was another entrance besides the one I commanded; for if not, it was very possible that my hiding-place was unknown to the Indians, as the steep hills around did not reveal that they concealed such a fairylike kingdom in their interior.

AFTER A DAY'S SPORT. [[p. 81.]

It was about nine o'clock when, after washing and saddling Czar, I rode off to examine the secrets of the wonderful valley. I looked around at the lofty walls of granite, but could not notice any other connexion with the external world but the one through which I had come. The valley, about a mile in diameter, was covered with a most luxuriant crop of young grass and a number of clumps of trees and bushes, through which the rivulet wound. It struck me as curious that I saw no game on such rich pasturage, for, excepting a flock of turkeys, I had put up nothing, although I had reached the centre. The turkeys were very shy, and ran off when I dismounted to shoot one; but just as I was going to mount again, an old cock came running up, and my bullet put a speedy end to his existence. The report had hardly begun to echo through the rocks, ere a swarm of aquatic birds of all sizes rose right in front of me like flies in the sunshine; but, as I remained quietly seated on the grass, reloading my rifle, they soon settled down again. I walked through the bushes, and noticed a large pond with flat banks covered with all sorts of gaily plumaged birds, among which herons and flamingoes occupied a prominent place. The banks were literally covered with these birds, some of which were standing sentry on one leg, while others were up to their knees in the water and engaged in catching frogs. When I stepped out of the bushes all the birds rose again, a portion seated themselves with loud croaks on the nearest trees, while the rest rose in the air, and proceeded in various directions to less disturbed regions. It now appeared as if all the inhabitants of the valley had left it, and I was not sorry at having secured a good meal, for my stomach was beginning to complain about neglect. I hung the turkey on my saddle and rode to the pond, whose banks were so trampled by the birds that not a single blade of grass grew on them, but I noticed a great number of jaguar tracks, some old, others quite recent. The animals to which these tracks belonged must consequently live in the valley, as they would not climb over the rocks and had not passed my night quarters. It was now clear to me why this splendid pasture was so deserted and only visited by birds, while hundreds of buffaloes and deer would have found abundant food. I rode nearly round the valley, with a revolver in my hand, as I expected at any moment to meet the landlord; but I did not see him, and not a living creature remained in the valley but the few turkeys which had probably strayed thither. I rode back to my bivouac, as it was midday, and both myself and Czar felt hungry, and prepared a part of the turkey for dinner, while Czar had a hearty feed of grass. When we had finished our meal, I tied him up close to me under the overhanging rocks where the sun did not fall on us. I threw wood on the fire, and lay down to sleep to make up for the last night's lost rest. The sun was hardly illumining the tops of the eastern mountains of the valley when I awoke invigorated, and led my horse out into the grass again.

CHAPTER IX.

HOMEWARD BOUND.

I had already made up my mind to spend the night here, so I got about my supper at an early hour, and soon carried a good stock of wood to my camp with which to keep up my fire during the night. I slept undisturbed till daybreak, took a refreshing bath in the cold stream while my breakfast was getting ready; then rode Czar into a deep spot, washed him thoroughly, and was soon ready to leave this mysterious but so pleasant spot, with the resolution to visit it again sooner or later.

My road led into the river again, on whose rippled surface the night mist rolled along with the current. But on further reflection I saw how many obstacles now stood in my way. The current was very powerful, and the waves broke against my horse's strong chest; the bottom, covered with loose boulders, rendered its footsteps unsteady, and constantly put it in danger of falling. At length I reached the bed of rocks which blocked the entire breadth of the river, over which Czar had clambered with such agility: it now seemed to me purely impossible that a horse could achieve such a feat, although the marks of his shoes proved to me the contrary, I would not venture, however, to make my horse leap it again, but took my axe out of its sheath, entered the water, which was shallow here, and cut away the creepers and bushes hanging over the bank, and thus formed a much better path beneath them over a very few large but flat stones. I led Czar across, and then slowly walked on, constantly thrusting on one side the vines hanging with a length of fifty feet over the water, in order to force myself through them.

After great exertions I at length reached the buffalo path by which I had crossed the river on the previous day but one, and followed it again to the skirt of the wood, but this time with greater caution. I left Czar behind in the thick bushes and crept out alone to the edge of the prairie, and examined the latter carefully with my glass. The grassy expanse before me, far as I could see, was covered with countless buffaloes and numerous deer, which were grazing quietly and carelessly, and I recognised at a great distance a large troop of wild horses, which must consist of several hundred. These were the surest signs that no Indian had shown himself on this day upon the plain, so I returned to my horse, and pursued my journey northward through this prairie.

In about an hour I drew near the horses, which were giving vent to their playfulness by rearing, kicking, and galloping about. I rode along a hollow under the hill, in order to get as near them as I could, in which I perfectly succeeded as the wind was favourable. I rode to within a short distance of them under the hill on which they were standing, when Czar scented them, suddenly raised his head, and expressed his delight at the friendly meeting by a loud snort. In an instant the troop dashed up to greet the stranger. It was led by a coal black very powerful stallion, whose mane, some five feet in length, flew wildly round his broad neck. The thunder of their hoofs rolled along like a tempest toward me, till we faced each other at a distance of about twenty paces. The black stallion fell as if struck by lightning, and the nearest horses fell upon him in the wildest confusion, while Czar gave them to understand by a friendly whinny, that there was really no reason for such fear. It was a wondrously beautiful sight, when these noble powerful animals rose again and flew over the grassy sea, like smoke before the blast, the black with wildly flying mane, flashing eyes, and scarlet nostrils at their head. I looked after them for a long time, and regretted that I could not risk leading a captured horse home, as I could have easily thrown my lasso over the stallion. It is undoubtedly one of the most exquisite sights to watch closely a troop of perfectly wild horses in a state of excitement, especially on the western steppes, where every breed is represented. These horses are originally descended from those of the old Spaniards, who established a great number of military colonies in these parts, each consisting of several hundred men. These settlements, whose remains may still be found here and there, were established in the richest districts, and, when necessary, strongly fortified; maize was planted there, and silver, copper, and lead mines opened.

I found in this country numerous relics of the old Spanish times; more especially well-preserved dams in the rivers and water-courses, led through large plantations which are now overgrown with grass. These were employed to irrigate the country during a protracted drought, and thus always secure an abundant harvest, which was a matter of great importance to the settlers, as they were many hundred miles from civilized Mexico, and thus it was impossible to obtain provisions thence. The people were entirely left to themselves, produced their own food, had a great quantity of cattle, and bred many horses and mules. Even at that day, when these colonies were flourishing, it might now and then occur that some of their horses bolted, and lived and propagated in the glorious climate and on the rich prairies without the aid of man. At a later date, however, more warlike Indian hordes poured from the north over the south, which was inhabited by tribes held in subjection by the invaders, and destroyed these remote Spanish outposts whose garrisons they cut down and scalped. From this date, in all probability, came the numerous troops of wild horses, now spread over the whole of Western America; for the numerous horses of the military colonists were set at liberty, and even at the present day the old Spanish horse, with its long fine mane, small head, long neck, and hanging long tail can be recognised. Since, however, eastern civilization has been advancing toward the west, these troops have become crossed with all possible breeds and not of the worst sort, for the men who risked their lives on the border always spend their last farthing in taking a good horse with them, in whose speed and bottom they could trust when they came in contact with the savage Indian hordes.

From these border settlements, where the horses are necessarily turned out to graze on the prairie, some frequently escaped, as they are constantly surrounded by the wild horses. And every horse that has once got among such a troop, bids an eternal farewell to captivity. Hence we find among these animals the pure Arab blood, we recognise the clumsy English cart horse, the pony, the thorough-bred, and the racer. In short, there is such a display of every breed as no horse-fair in the world is able to show. I especially noticed an enormous number of greys, piebalds, and black horses among the troops; and that the differences of colour are far more frequent among them than with trained horses. They possess great speed for a short distance; for, on a lengthened race, owing to their grass feeding, they cannot keep up with a horse fed on corn, and hence they are often hunted down and captured by men mounted on the latter. For this purpose, the lasso is employed, whose noose is thrown over the horse's neck. So soon as the wild horse's neck is squeezed it falls quivering on the ground, and the captor finds time to place a halter or leathern thong round its neck. The noose is then slightly loosened, and a trial is made whether it will follow the rider by the halter. If it resists, the operation is repeated as often as is necessary to make the animal understand that it must yield to captivity. As a rule it follows soon; and can be easily tamed, especially when it is not too old. If these horses are fed on maize for awhile, they grow very strong and enduring. The fillies are the easiest to capture and tame. You need only chase a manada for some miles, and the fillies fall exhausted and do not rise again, and if they are raised on their legs after recovery, they will immediately follow the ridden horse, as their mares have disappeared with the troop.

These animals become as tame as dogs, and are of great value to the borderer, as it costs nothing to rear them, and they can be put to any work. For all that the wild horse is greatly detested in the vicinity of a settlement, and many a noble brute has died there with a bullet in its heart. The borderer cannot shut up his horses and mules in stables. They must seek the food which nature offers them in such profusion, and hence they have the gate of liberty always open; but they do not fly, because they do not know what liberty is. But scarce do they see a troop of their wild comrades dash past, ere they dart off too, never again to bow their neck to the plough or the bit. They in such cases become the wildest of the troop, and can always be recognised at its head. My black stallion, whose wildly flowing mane I followed for a long distance over the prairie, had, however, never yet bent his neck beneath the yoke of man, for it displayed too fully the pride and strength which nature imparts to liberty alone on its black curly forehead: these animals had never seen the low roof, the simple palisade of a frontier house, and no fugitive thence had ever complained to them about the fate he had endured.

Czar was beside himself that he was not allowed to join in the race, and tried for a long time to check the speed of the fugitives by his snorts; he danced, threw his croupe from one side to the other, and furiously tore at the bit, but it was all of no use, and serfdom still lay on his broad neck, even though with rosy bonds.

The sun was rather low on the horizon when I found myself about five miles from what seemed to be a very large forest, behind which rose the mountains which I had noticed a few days previously in the azure distance when I took my first glance at this valley. I leapt from my horse, hobbled it, and crawled through the grass after two very old stags, one of which was quietly grazing behind a fallen mosquito tree, while the other, as if it had noticed something, thrust its thick neck over the stump in my direction. I had left my hat with Czar in order to attract less attention, and the sun shone hotly on my head; but what will not a hunter readily endure if it enables him to draw nearer the game? At length there were about one hundred yards between us, and I had reached a small patch of flowering jalap trees which covered me. I raised myself on one arm, and fired, aiming at the head. I saw that the deer was hit close to the heart: it ran about fifty paces with its comrade, and then fell dead.

After reloading, I rode up to the deer and laid in some days' supply of meat, hung it on the saddle, and continued my journey to the forest, which I entered about sunset by a very broad open buffalo path. I was sure that the forest was traversed by a stream, and resolved to seek the latter ere I selected my night quarters. I followed the path with my rifle on the saddle-bow, when suddenly my horse gave a start, and a very old bear entered the path hardly twenty yards ahead of me, stopped, and with its head turned from me, began nibbling at the roots of a few small bushes. It took scarce a moment to raise my rifle and pull the trigger, and in the next I pulled Czar round, and rode for the prairie. On looking round, however, I perceived that the bear had only sprung a few yards after me, and was now half sitting, half lying on the path and showing its savage teeth. When I slowly approached it, I noticed that its fury was heightened with every step I took, and only its inability to rise prevented it from attacking me. I, therefore, rode close up and sent a second bullet through its head. It was a very heavy fat bear, and I was really sorry that I could turn it to so little account.

Not very far from this spot I found the stream, and resolved to pass the night on its bank, as the forest on the other side seemed very extensive, and it was doubtful whether I should find there good provender for my horse. I watered Czar, filled my bottle, and rode back to the bear, from which I cut a paw, the tongue, and some ribs. I then camped in the forest at a spot where the most splendid wild oats awaited my horse. The paw was put to cook in the ashes for the next morning, but the ribs were to make their appearance on the supper table. A roasted bear's rib is indubitably one of the greatest dainties which the desert can offer the hunter, and I enjoyed it the more because I had been riding all day and had eaten nothing since my very early breakfast. A man soon grows used to this mode of life, which is necessary in the case of violent exertion in the hot sun, as it is very easy to bring on a fever by riding with a full stomach.

The night was dark and rendered the light which my fire cast upon the dark green roof above my head all the more attractive, while the giant brightly illumined trunks looked like pillars supporting it. I lay on my tiger skin and amused myself with counting the blood-red funnel-shaped flowers of the bignonia, which swung in long drooping festoons from one tree to the other, and, lit up by my fire, resembled so many red glass lamps. Around me a number of whip-poor-wills strove to outvie each other in uninterruptedly uttering their name, and frequently circled round my fire. At the same time fire-flies and huge glow-worms glistened and flashed in all the bushes, and the rustling of the adjoining stream supplied the music for this Italian night. My eyes gradually closed, the pictures of dreams became more and more blended with those of reality, until a calm sleep fell on me to strengthen and refresh me.

Day was breaking when I opened my eyes, and the scene which had so sweetly lulled me to sleep had faded away: the fire was out, and instead of the glow-worms a grey mist lay over the bushes, the grass around me was very damp and the bear's black hide was silvered over with dew. From all sides the loud chuckling of the turkeys reached me, and I felt a tickling in my forefinger to bend it upon one of these birds: but then I looked at the mountain of flesh which lay before me and rested my rifle again against the tree, and went to the fire to pull the paw out of the ashes. The fire soon burnt brightly, and dispersed the cold damp air around me; I put coffee on and a bear's rib before the fire, led Czar to the stream and refreshed myself and him. Then I returned to the fire, led my horse into the oats, and paid my respects to the bear's paw and rib. The sun was also darting his rays through the trees, when I was ready to start and rode through the stream towards the dense forest.

I rode for about three hours in this labyrinth, passing from one buffalo path to another, until the ground began to grow more uneven, and here and there large masses of rock rose between the trees. I dismounted, and was leading my horse up a narrow path by the side of a great boulder, when I suddenly saw, on raising my head, the entire forest literally covered with wild cattle. I returned to the rock, as a meeting with these most dangerous animals on an impracticable path like this was not desirable, and hanging the bridle over a branch, I again ascended the height in order to convince myself in what direction the cattle were going. The herd passed me bound westward, and I am certain I saw over 300 head pass. These denizens of the desert are the most savage and dangerous animals in Western America. Like the horses of the first Spanish settlements they are runaways, and have now entirely returned to a state of nature. You never see a spotted or black head among them: they are all chestnut with black extremities, and a yellow stripe down the back, and are more lightly and gracefully built than our cattle, and as rapid as deer. They shun man, but when startled or excited, they attack with the most frightful courage and obstinacy, and I would sooner defend myself on foot with a bowie knife against a black bear than with a rifle against a furious bull of this description. I remained for about an hour behind the rock before the last of the herd had disappeared between the trees, after which I rode across their deeply trampled path, and soon found myself on the edge of the forest.

From this point gradually rose a bald desolate mountain range that ran from east to west, and whose base was covered with bad grass and a few scattered granitic rocks. These mountains, the San Saba, are spurs of the Rocky Mountains, which I had already noticed from the elevation, where the granite follows on the limestone. I might calculate on wandering about there for weeks before again reaching watered valleys. Hence I resolved to alter my course and go farther east, until I reached the mountains which were the source of all the streams I had lately crossed, and return home along their base.

On this side of the forest the soil was too bad to produce good grass, hence I looked about for a buffalo path by which I could cross it again in a southern direction. These eternally wandering buffaloes, however, appeared to avoid the sterile mountains, and though here and there a lightly trodden path entered the forest, it was not open enough to be followed by a horseman. It was already noon, and I was still on the outside of the forest, when I noticed a tolerably beaten path in an angle where the forest jutted out farther into the mountains. I was very glad of it. Indescribable was the feeling of comfort when I reached the dense shade of the first trees: I threw my leathern jacket over the saddle, hung my hat by its side, and followed the path which ran between the rocks that rose among the trees and led deeper into the forest.

Suddenly a sound reached my ear resembling the fall of distant water, and the nearer I drew the more distinct it became. It was possible that the river here took a wide curve to the foot of the mountains, and I greeted it with delight. I soon saw that I was not mistaken, for on turning a large rock I stood close in front of a waterfall, which aroused my admiration both through the peculiarity of its shape and the refreshing coolness that it spread far and wide beneath the shady trees. A powerful mountain torrent, about thirty yards wide, fell over an immense rock twenty feet high, down upon another rock which had been hollowed to a depth of about three feet by the water, which had fallen on it for centuries and formed a basin, over whose front the agitated foaming stream dashed at a height of about forty feet over widely scattered masses of rocks and aged trees suspended between them, while on either side enormously lofty trees laid their thick crowns together over the roaring cataract and repulsed the inquisitive sunbeams. I soon stripped Czar, and hobbled him, lit a small fire, put the coffee-pot on it, and lay down on my blanket close to the fall in order to make a sketch of it.

When I was sufficiently rested, I went up to the basin, undressed and leapt into the foaming water. Never in my life have I found so glorious a bathing-place as this, which nature appeared to have made for the express purpose. The very cold waves dashed up to an immense height, and it was hardly possible to stand under the cataract, while behind it I was entirely shut off from the outer world as if I were in a palace of crystal. I remained till about five o'clock at this Diana's bath, as I christened it, and it is known by that name to all the hunters who have since visited it. It was too early, however, for me to camp; hence I mounted my horse and rode up once more to bid adieu to the cataract.

Far through the forest I was followed by the roaring of the fall, till the rustling of the river I was approaching overpowered it. At about one hour before sunset I reached the prairie at the southern end of the forest, and until nightfall followed its skirt in an easterly direction till I reached a spot where the stream emerged from it. I camped here quite concealed, and on the next day rode eastward towards the mountains. From this point I altered my course to the south, and rode there for several days. One afternoon, when greatly troubled by thirst, I reached a pleasant grass

valley on which several mosquito trees grew; a fresh stream wound through the verdant bottom, and a few deer were grazing on either bank. I dismounted to refresh myself with the eagerly desired draught and grant my horse a little rest. A very large deer was standing over two hundred yards off, and staring intently at me. I was well stocked with meat, but the query whether I could hit it led me away as it had so often done, and while sitting on the bank I fired at it. The deer bled, ran a short distance in a circle, and then fell lifeless on the ground. After reloading I went up to it to fetch the fillet, and while engaged in fastening it to my saddle I noticed two foot Indians, one armed with a rifle, the other with bow and arrows, come out from behind some bushes and advance some twenty yards before they caught sight of me. I saw their terror and amazement, and that one of them crossed his arms on his breast, and laid his arms on his shoulders, which among them is a sign of friendship. I made them a signal to be off, and assured them of my friendly sentiments in the same way. Upon which they described a large circle round me, and escaped from sight a long way down the stream. I felt convinced that several of their tribe were hunting in the vicinity, as they must have heard my shot, and would assuredly not have emerged so carelessly from behind the bushes had they not believed it was fired by one of their comrades. I put Czar at a sharp amble, as the grass was not high, and hurried down into the valley, while carefully looking round in order to escape this menacing place.

About sunset I reached another small stream, where I halted, lit a fire, and prepared my supper, while Czar was enjoying his. Here I rested till night had set in; then saddled again, filled my gourd, and rode on for about five miles. Here I led my horse into a thicket which ran between two steep hillocks, and remained in it during the night. It was very probable that the Indians had informed their comrades of the presence of a paleface, and that they had followed me to my camp-fire, but had been unable to strike my trail in the darkness.

From this point my journey was for several days a most fatiguing and far from pleasant one. I constantly went up and down barren, stony hills, and found scarce grass enough to feed my horse; we also both suffered from the want of water, which was the more perceptible on the bare, heated rocks. I could only proceed short distances, as through the constant marching on very hard stones Czar's feet were beginning to swell, and though he was not lame, he put them down very gingerly. There was certainly no lack of game, as I always met turkeys and deer in the neighbourhood of water, and on such uneven ground it is very easy to stalk the game. Although it may offend the feelings of the true sportsman, I will confess that on this ride I shot several fawns for the sake of their tender flesh: I also killed a very large jaguar, which I attracted by imitating the cry of a complaining fawn. It leaped within twenty yards of me ere it noticed me, but then stopped, and looked round for its victim, swinging its long tail high up in the air. The bullet went through its head and laid it dead. The Indians make a sort of wooden pipe, which so admirably imitates the moan of a fawn, that every old animal within a distance of a mile round comes dashing up, and is startled neither by a horse nor its rider. I have seen instances where old animals continued to advance after being missed two, three or four times, till they lamentably fall victims to their maternal love. I always carried such an instrument about me, as all the larger beasts of prey can be easily attracted by it, such as bears, tigers, panthers, wolves, lynxes, &c., and the beautifully-striped leopard cats, which are very numerous about us, and are easily deceived by it.

I at length again reached the limestone region; but I must have been a great deal too far east; for the mountain chain was much lower than at the spot where I had crossed it. This view was soon confirmed when I went down into the valley and found all the streams I crossed small and insignificant. The country continually became more pleasant and rich, the valleys grew broader, and the vegetation was more luxuriant than in the desolate melancholy ravines I had been lately riding along. I daily expected to see well-known mountains, and looked about more especially for a very high point on a mountain chain which runs southward from Turkey Creek to the Rio Grande, on which the Indians have built a pyramid of large stones, either put up as a finger-post for the wandering tribes, or as a border mark between the different hunting-grounds.

One morning I had just left camp and was riding through an extensive prairie, when I fancied I could recognise this landmark, and convinced myself by the aid of my glass that I was not mistaken. I felt myself at home again, although this point was a good day's journey from my house: still, I knew in which direction my road lay, and eagerly went along it. About noon I reached one of those most troublesome cactus woods, which frequently run across the prairies. The present one ran like a wall for miles across my path. There is no chance of riding through these thickets, as the prickly plants grow closely together. Though they are most disagreeable to the hunter, their appearance is most attractive to the naturalist, through the brilliant colour of the cactus flowers, and the peculiar shape of the plants. This obstacle led me a long way from my route, as I was obliged to ride round it for several miles.

While I was riding close along this wall, still hoping to find a free passage, I suddenly noticed a deer, about twenty yards off, poking its head out of the prickles, and staring at me in surprise. I raised my rifle—Czar stopped instantly—and fired at the head, as I could not see any more of the deer. I could distinctly see through the smoke that the bullet smashed the right side of the deer's head, and heard it dash away a few yards, and then fall; but it was impossible to penetrate the prickly wall for this short distance, and reach the deer. The cactuses were here from sixteen to seventeen feet high, and so close together that I could not go a foot into them. Hence I was obliged to give up the deer, and was very glad on at length reaching a narrow glade which ran through the wood.

Late at night I rode along the bank of a river, which I took for one of the western arms of Turkey Creek, and was forced to halt and pass the night here by the numerous rocks that rose from the tall grass and ferns. The next morning I passed the spot where I crossed the river with the unfortunate Kreger by means of the trunk of the tree, and at noon reached the camp where the storm had treated us so ill. The revived memory of the unhappy man was very painful to me, and I hurried from the spot, in order to get rid of the blood-stained picture of the scalped naturalist. I now came again into my own hunting-grounds, where nearly every tree and shrub reminded me of a fine chase, and my desire for home and my faithful Trusty urged me on. I rode late into the night, till I reached at ten o'clock a camping-place, where I and Czar had often stopped before. It was evident that the sensible creature recognised his home, and again sought the same spot to rest where he had before stretched his beautiful limbs.

When day broke, I rose from my blanket with a feeling resembling that I felt on my birthday when a child: but soon wretched doubts forced themselves on me, whether I should find my little colony all right. Czar, on this day, was washed extra clean; all the beards of the turkeys I had shot on the tour were fastened on the bridle: the beautiful skin of the tiger shot on the mountains was laid over the panther skin to display it in the best way, and I then continued my ride toward the Fort, which I hoped to reach at noon, with a joyously beating heart. The grass, however, was so high and rendered going so fatiguing for my horse, that I advanced but slowly, and did not reach our first resting-place at the commencement of the tour till noon. Czar was very hot and tired, so I did not ride on, as I had intended, but unsaddled and boiled coffee, while the horse was reposing in the shady grass. When the greatest heat was passed, and I had washed Czar down in the stream, I started again homewards, and saw, as the sun was setting, my beloved virgin forest appear above the prairie, and the two immense poplars indicating the spot where the buffalo path that led to my settlement, entered the forest. It was about ten miles off, so that I could calculate on reaching home by nightfall without any great effort.

I had ridden through a small wood and had advanced into the prairie some hundred yards, when I noticed on my left at about a mile distance, five horse Indians emerge from a clump of oaks. Their horses were going at what is called a dog trot, although it seemed to be increased or diminished according to Czar's pace. I looked at them through my glass, and saw that only two of them had bows and the other three were unarmed. As their appearance did not cause me any apprehension, I quietly followed my road at a gentle walk. We constantly came nearer, and I soon saw that the Indians designed to meet me on the path. I therefore held my horse in so that they reached the path when I was about one hundred yards distant from them. They stopped, and when they saw that I did the same, one of the armed men turned his horse toward me and rode a few paces nearer. I made signs to them to go their way, and when I saw they had no result, I leapt from my horse and raised my rifle, again intimating to them to ride on. They now shouted to me, "Kitchi, Kitchi, Delaware, Delaware!" the names of friendly tribes, and at the same time made the signals of amity. I, however, signalled to them again, and raised my rifle to my shoulder, upon which they spoke together and went up the hill very slowly, one behind the other, till I lost sight of them.

The suspicions which I entertained of all Indians induced me also to ride up the hill to see what had become of them. To my great surprise I saw them a long distance ahead galloping across the prairie. This sudden haste could not be explained through fear of me. It must have another cause which I could only find in the fact that their camp was no great distance off, and that they wished to inform their tribe of my presence, so as to cut me off on the prairie, and lay wait for me in the woods on the Leone. From the direction they followed, if the tribe were encamped no great distance from the path that led into the wood, they could get there before me, whence I soon made up my mind and galloped off to another ford of the Leone, about twenty miles higher up. Czar galloped nearly the whole distance, and I reached the forest before sunset. I was now safe, for no one could pass through the wood on horseback, and the narrow buffalo path could be easily defended. I reached the Leone, welcomed it with heartfelt joy, and hurried down the opposite bank toward my home. About three miles from it I had to cross a hill, whence I could see my fort. I approached its crest with a loudly beating heart, because I must here obtain certainty as to the fate of my settlement.

I looked across the valley, and on the other side I saw the fort glistening through the gloom. A heavy load fell from my heart; I took my glass, everything was quiet, the smoke rose straight from the kitchen, and suddenly two of my dogs ran up from the river, and disappeared through the palisades into the interior of the fort. Czar, too, knew perfectly well that he was going home, for though I had ridden him unusually hard, he kept up his amble, while usually when he was tired he had a habit of stopping and biting the grass.

It had grown very dark when I rode up the last hill to my fort, and was received by the loud barking of my dogs which dashed through the holes in the palisades. But all their voices were overpowered by Trusty's bass from the interior of the building. The dogs soon recognised me, and springing up to Czar expressed their delight at my return by loud whining. I now raised my hunting cry, which was responded to by Trusty tugging furiously at his chain, and a hearty welcome from my garrison. The chain of the gate fell, and Trusty flew out and up at me, so that I was hardly able to keep my feet under his demonstrations of delight. My three comrades received me most heartily, and strove to show how much they were attached to me. My horses and mules raised their voices from the interior of the fort, and Czar answered them by his friendly whinnies.

When the first greeting was over, my three men asked almost simultaneously, "but where is Mr. Kreger?" I pointed to heaven and intimated by a short "by-and-bye," that I would tell them all about it presently. Czar was soon liberated from his burden, rolled himself heartily at his old place in the grass, and consoled himself with his long absent maize-leaves, while I doffed my travelling accoutrements indoors, and made myself comfortable by a wash and change of dress. We were soon seated round the old table at supper, at which I refreshed myself with a draught of fresh milk, and then I described the unhappy fate of my companion Kreger. An almost unanimous "did I not foretell it?" burst at the end of my narrative from the lips of my comrades, who all felt great sympathy in the unhappy man's fate.

In spite of my weariness it had grown rather late. Hence I rose, went out once more to Czar, who had heartily enjoyed his husked corn, and then proceeded indoors with my faithful Trusty, who resumed his old post on a thick bearskin with delight. But I felt so confined in my room that I was obliged to open all the doors and windows, and lie down on a buffalo hide on the floor, instead of resting in my bed. It is remarkable how soon a man forgets rooms when he has been living for any length of time in the open air, and how he feels like a fish out of water when he returns to them.

CHAPTER X.

THE BEE HUNTER.

I was the first to rise from my bed when day broke, and went forth to enjoy the cooling breeze. Czar was not yet awake, and merely raised his head a little from the ground, gazing at me with his glorious eyes as if he wished to say that it was too soon to rise, and then laid his head down on the ground again and accepted my patting without stirring. The cream-colour whinnied and turned about till it came up to me, when it took from my hand a piece of biscuit: the dogs leapt about me, but kept at a respectful distance, because Trusty was by my side and none dared venture near him. I aroused my garrison and then proceeded to the river, whence I could survey my maize field, which glistened like a dark pine forest, and in which a horseman would have been completely hidden; then I went into the garden, which I found in admirable order, and in which the most magnificent melons were ripening. When I returned to the fort the milch cows were leaving the enclosure, and shone in the morning sun as if they had been curry-combed. My favourite cock, Whip, called his numerous harem out to breakfast on the prairie; and two pigs hurried with their farrows towards the river, for the purpose of going to the wood.

After breakfast I saddled the cream-colour, for which the saddle girths had grown much too tight, and rode with one of my men and Trusty to the other side of the river, towards the old buffalo path that led to the prairie; we reached the skirt of the wood, and had not ridden far through it when Trusty, who was ahead, stopped and looked up at me. I dismounted and perceived a number of footsteps made by mocassins. A little farther on the grass was trampled down by a great number of horses' hoofs. My foreboding was then confirmed. The entire Indian tribe had laid wait for me in the woods, and I should certainly have fallen a victim to their treachery if my good star had not warned me of their design. I silently thanked my guardian angel, who had already led me through so many dangers, and rode back to the fort, which I reached shortly before noon, with a very fat deer I had shot on passing through the wood, and which hung across my comrade's saddle.

A few days' rest at home did me a wonderful deal of good; and I felt remarkably comfortable. In the afternoon I swung in a hammock in the verandah before my house, smoking a cigar; and in the evening I sat till a late hour in a rocking chair in my neatly furnished room, and sang to the guitar songs from the past days of youth and passion. My house consisted of but one large room, whose walls and ceiling were covered with the finest dark-haired buffalo hides, while a carpet of smooth summer deer hides enlivened the floor. Over my bed was the skin of a splendid spotted jaguar, and in front of it was spread a coal-black bear skin, on which Trusty slept. The walls were adorned with excellent oil-paintings; among them being a very fine specimen of Murillo; and from the ceiling hung a lamp, which, throwing its faint light on the dark walls, produced a weak but pleasant illumination. On the table in front of the glass stood two large orange-hued gourds filled with water, in which stood splendid bouquets of magnolias, which spread their vanilla perfume through the whole room; close by was a glass case containing my firearms; and on all the walls were displayed the most

splendid antlers of our common deer, the giant deer, elks, moose, and antelopes. A collection of good engravings, a small library, and my drawing apparatus, completed the furniture of this asylum, to which I frequently retired when I returned home from a long tour, covered with dust and blood, and was beginning to grow tired of this rough, savage mode of life. At such times I looked out the clothes of civilization—the tail coat and polished boots; and Trusty in his amazement would not take his eyes off me, as if he were afraid that I should at last become quite another man. Although this metamorphosis may appear so ridiculous, it had something about it most soothing and pleasant for me. I then occupied myself for some days with reading, answering my letters, drawing, and music; after which I again donned my deer-hide suit, and threw myself into the arms of nature with my faithful companions.

I had been at home for about a week, had only hunted close to the fort, and in addition to domestic arrangements, occupied myself principally with fishing, for which purpose I fastened a strong cord across the stream, on which were a number of lines and hooks hanging baited in the water. A small bell in the middle of the cord informed us when a fish or turtle was tugging at it, and we fetched them ashore with the canoe. We only cared for large fish, and it was no rarity for us to pull up cat-fish and buffalo-fish weighing thirty pounds, trout of twelve, and turtles of forty pounds.

Early one morning I was engaged in shoeing Czar's forefeet, as I always kept a stock of shoes and nails by me, after which I returned to my room to write letters, as I intended to send one of my men in a few days with commissions to the nearest settlement. I had been writing about half an hour, with Trusty lying under the table in the middle of the room, when the door opened, and I of course expected it was one of my own people. Trusty, however, sprang up barking, from under the table, and pulled me down as I tried to hold him back by the tail. In an instant the furious animal leaped at the throat of a stranger dressed in leather, who came into the room with a long Kentucky rifle, pulled him down, and would certainly have killed him in a few minutes, if I had not thrust my hands between the dog's jaws and forced them open, though his teeth were buried deep in my fingers.

With all my strength I lay on the desperate dog, and my men dragged the stranger out of the door, while I was scarce able to hold back the animal, which leaped up madly at the closed door. I hurried out to the stranger, in whom I recognised a bee-hunter, who had paid me a visit about a year previously. He was seriously hurt, though not mortally, as it seemed. I at once took him into the house, continually applied cold bandages and nursed him as well as I could during the four days he remained with me. Then I discharged him, after stocking him amply with powder and ball, coffee and salt, needles, thread, and other articles, and begging him, when he next visited me, to knock at my door first. I was very anxious not to have these bee-hunters against me, as they might prove even more dangerous than savages. They are generally scape-gallows from the States, and live in the desert with their horse and rifle by hunting, and collecting honey and wax, the former of which they pack in fresh-sewn deer hides, and carry it with the wax and peltry to the Indian settlements for the purpose of selling or swapping. He left me perfectly contented, and with assurances of gratitude and friendship, and I was very glad to get rid of this unbidden guest.

One evening, as the sun was setting, I felt a necessity of hearing the crack of my rifle. Czar had fattened up again, and Trusty was anxiously awaiting the day when I should recover from my indolence. I rode down the river to a small pond on the prairie, which was filled with rain water in the winter and retained it till far into the summer. Strangely enough, all animals prefer this water to any other, and will go a long distance to drink it. I led Czar into the bushes, threw his bridle over a branch, and sat down on the edge of the forest upon the roots of an old oak, waiting for the game that might come to water.

It was growing dark when a herd of deer came across the prairie and posted themselves on a hill behind the pond. They were all rather large, but one of them had antlers far larger than the rest. After a short halt they advanced up to the water hole, with the big deer at their head. It had drunk, and was raising its head with the mighty antlers, when I pulled the trigger, and the bullet struck behind the shoulder blade. He ran away from the other deer to a broad, rather deep ravine, formed by the torrents, and which gradually grew narrower. I mounted Czar after reloading, and rode after the deer, which suddenly rose before me and leaped up the steep wall of the ravine. It was already very dark, and I was afraid of losing the deer, hence I called Trusty to follow it. Nothing could please him better; he ran after it up the wall, and pursued it into the prairie with loud barking. As the spot was too steep for me, I ran back, and when I reached the prairie lower down I saw the deer proceeding towards the woods, and two dogs instead of one following it. I gave Czar the reins, in order to cut the deer off; but Trusty caught it at the moment, and the supposed second dog, an enormous white wolf, attacked my dog. All three lay atop of each other, when I leaped from my horse within shot, and hurried to the scene of action. The wolf noticed me and tried to bolt, but Trusty held it tightly, and I ran within ten paces of them. The two animals were leaping up savagely at each other, when my bullet passed through the wolf's side, and Trusty settled it. The deer, which had thirty tines, had got up again, but soon fell on a leap from Trusty, and I killed it. I then rode home, fetched a two-wheeled cart drawn by a mule, drove out with one of my men, and brought back the deer and the wolf, whose skin, though not so fine as in winter, still made an excellent carpet under our dining-table.

There was nothing to do now in the fields, whence we seldom went there, and our visits were limited to one of us crossing the river at daybreak in a canoe hollowed out of a monstrous poplar, and walking round the field with a fowling piece, in order to put a check to the countless squirrels which sprang over the fence to reach the forest at daybreak, partly because they did great damage to the young maize, partly because they supplied an excellent dish for breakfast. Another animal which we killed in these walks was the racoon, which also injured the maize, and inhabited our forests in incredible numbers. We merely shot it because it injured the maize, for its flesh is uneatable. Its skin, though highly valued in Europe, fetches no price among us. It visits the fields at night, clambers up the maize stalks, nibbles a few seeds out of a cob, and then runs to another plant. The result is that the gnawed cobs rot and die.

I was taking this walk one morning round the field, when I saw on the railings at the hinder end several whole stalks hanging, and found one on the ground in the forest. I went into the field and found large spaces where all the stalks had been pulled up and carried off, but could not recognise a trail on the soil, which was thickly overgrown with weeds and grass. I followed the trail into the forest, and found at no great distance from the first maize stalk a footprint on the ground, which seemed made only with the heel, and which I took for a mocassin. The maize, however, was not ripe yet, and not even large enough for boiling, and hence it seemed to me improbable that Indians had carried off the plants. I sought farther, and soon found a quite distinct enormous bear's footprint, which indicated the thief more clearly. When evening came, I and one of my men seated ourselves in the maize with Trusty on a couple of chairs we carried there. I had my large double-barrel loaded with pistol bullets, and my comrade a double rifle. We sat for a long time, as the moon shone now and then; but at length we grew tired of waiting, and I got up to go home, but at the same moment fancied I could hear the crackling of drift wood. I fell back on my chair; at the same moment the railing in front of me grew dark, and almost immediately Bruin appeared with his broad chest, and peered about in all directions. Piff! paff! I let fly both barrels at him; he disappeared behind the railing, and we could hear him dashing through the wood. We went home, and on the next morning at daybreak we followed the trail along which Trusty led us to the dead bear, which had only run a mile. Its fat and meat fully compensated for the damage it had effected in the field.

It was the summer season, and the heat was growing very oppressive. Hence I carefully avoided hunting buffalo, for fear of tiring my horse too much, and restricted myself to supplying our wants with deer, turkeys, and antelopes in the vicinity; but our supply of salted and smoked meat was at an end, and I resolved to go after buffalo on a day which was not quite so hot. Trusty had run himself lame in following deer recently, as his feet had grown soft through doing nothing, so I left him at home and rode down the river on Czar early one morning.

About ten miles from home I saw from the wood whose skirt I was following, a small herd of about twenty buffalo bulls grazing on an elevation on the prairie. I hid my rifle in a bush that I might ride more easily, took a revolver from my belt, and went cautiously under the hill as near as I could to the animals. Suddenly they saw me, broke into a gallop, and tried to escape; I went after them, and though I had to ride over many stony broken places in the bottom on the other side, I soon caught them up, and fired a bullet behind the shoulder blade of a fat old bull; it at once went slower, remained behind the herd, and bled profusely from the mouth and nostrils, but still galloped on, as I did by its side a short distance off.

At a spot where a valley entered the prairie, I shot ahead, and, as I expected, it turned aside into the bottom. It was in a very bad state, and I awaited it to turn at bay any moment, when I would kill it with another shot; still it kept up its speed, and I, tired of the chase, rode up behind to kill it with a shot from a short distance. I had hardly risen in the right stirrup, however, and leant over to fire, when the bull turned with lightning speed, drove his horn under the stirrup, and hurled me such a height in the air, that, on looking down from above, I could see Czar dash off frantically and fall in the tall grass.

In an instant I sprang on my legs again, and three paces from me stood the monster with its head on the ground, braying furiously, and stamping its fore feet. It was nearly all over, but still I held my revolver pointed between the bull's little blood-red eyes, and waited like a statue for the moment when it charged, to send a bullet through its shaggy forehead. But it was in too bad a state, and hence turned away a few minutes after and went round me; the mortal spot was now exposed, I fired, and the bull fell dead; I then ran up the nearest hillock, through the tall grass, where I arrived greatly fatigued, and looked about for Czar, whom I saw in the distance flying over the prairie with his snow-white tail fluttering in the breeze.

I felt terribly frightened at this sight, for this region was rarely free from wild horses, and I was well aware that if Czar once got among them he would be eternally lost to me. I was looking after him in desperation, when I noticed in front of him a long black line apparently coming towards me; I looked through my telescope, and recognised a herd of buffalo which, aroused by some cause, were galloping towards my horse in a long line; Czar stopped, raising his head high in the air, then turned and came straight towards me with flying mane; I collected all my strength to reach one of the highest spots around that lay in the course of my terrified horse. He dashed through the last bottom over the trailing grass, dragging the tiger skin after him which hung down on one side of the saddle.

On hearing my cry he stopped and recognised me, ran to me, and stood trembling all over by my side, while timidly looking round at the pursuing column. With one bound I was on his back, and felt myself once more lord of the desert. The buffaloes halted on the nearest elevation, looked at me for some minutes, and then dashed into the bottom on the right. I then rode back to my buffalo, broke it up, hung its tongue and fillet on the saddle, and started home, fetching my rifle as I passed. I reached the fort at noon, saddled the cream-colour after we had drunk coffee, and then went out with the cart, to fetch the very fat meat of my vanquished foe. It was then cut into long thin strips, and packed into a cask with alternate layers of salt; after it had lain thus for a few days it was put up on long sticks, and hung over a very smoky fire in the burning sun, when in a few hours it became dry enough to be carried into the smoke-house, where it kept good for a very long time.

One morning my men were busily engaged in hanging up the dried meat in the smoke-house, when one of them came running up to me and informed me that a herd of buffaloes was coming up close to the garden on the river. I seized my rifle and darted out, shouting to my men to keep back the dogs, but to let them all loose when I waved my handkerchief. I ran out of the fort, and in a stooping posture along a prairie hollow, in order to get before the buffaloes, which were marching two and two in a long row up from the river to the prairie, and lay down in the long grass under an elevation for which they were steering. I had been lying there but a few minutes when the first bulls appeared on the heights, and I shot one of them, though without showing myself. The buffalo stopped, sank on its knees, and fell over, while the others gathered round it, looked at it for a long time, and then tried to make it get up by pushing it with their horns. If you do not show yourself, you can in this way kill a great number of these animals, as they are not frightened by the sound of a rifle.

After reloading I rose on one knee and shot a second, which I hit in the knee, however, instead of behind the shoulder. I saw that it had noticed me, for it turned round, and, with its head down, dashed upon me from the heights. I sprung up and waved my handkerchief, and then threw myself full length in a narrow gully, while the hunting cry of my people in the fort reached my ear, and I recognised Trusty's voice among my dogs.

I heard the thunder of the savage bull approaching me, as it made the ground shake under me, and I looked up, expecting every minute to see the monster leap over me; but when it was within about twenty yards of me it stopped with a terrible roar, as it had lost me, and now saw my dogs dashing up the valley like unchained furies. Prince Albert, one of my young bloodhounds, was the foremost, and behind him came Lady Elsler, his bitch, both equally fast and courageous. They dashed past me. I rose, and now came Trusty with his mouth wide open, furious that another dog should dare to assault the enemy before him. My hunting-cry echoed far over the prairie, where the two bloodhounds hung by the thick hide of the infuriated buffalo on its wounded side, while Trusty pinned its monstrous muzzle, in which he buried his fangs, which never loosed their hold.

The buffalo fell back a few paces, and then rose, with Trusty still hanging to its snout, on its colossal hind legs, snorting furiously. I could not shoot on account of the dog, and the raging brute dashed over the prairie, holding Trusty in the air, who only every now and then was able to touch the ground with his feet. Ere long, however, the whole pack had caught up the fugitives, and the brave dogs hung like leeches from the buffalo's shaggy coat. Still it dashed on with them toward the river, at a spot where the bank was forty feet high.

I looked after them with terror, for there was no doubt but that the buffalo would dash over, and in that case most of my dogs, and Trusty more especially, would be buried beneath it. A few more leaps, and they would have reached the precipice, but at this moment the monster rose in the air and turned over, covered by my dogs. It roared and raged, till the sound echoed through the forest, but was unable to get on its forelegs again, because Trusty kept its head pinned down to the ground. I could hardly breathe when I reached the buffalo: I held my rifle to its broad forehead, and sent a bullet through its hard skull. The fight was at an end, and Trusty came up to me, panting and wagging his tail, while he looked up to me as much as to say that it had been a tough job. He limped a little, and Leo, a very brave dog, had a considerable wound between the ribs, but none of the others were hurt.

We returned to the fort, and were preparing to fetch the meat in the cart, when we saw a horseman coming down the river, who soon dismounted at the gate, and walked up to me with a pleasant good morning, and shook my hand. He was indubitably the handsomest man I had ever seen, and the beauty of his form was heightened by his tight-fitting and neatly-made leathern dress. He was scarce twenty years of age, above six feet high, with a small head, long neck, broad retreating shoulders, a full chest, a very small waist, and muscular though handsomely-shaped legs, which were supported by very delicate ankles and feet, almost too small for his height. His lofty forehead was surrounded by black shining silky locks, and beneath his sharply-cut black eyebrows his blue eyes shone with a calmness and decision, but also with a kindliness, that it was impossible to offer him an unfavourable reception. His black silky beard passed under his straight nobly-formed nose round his smiling, partly-opened mouth, between whose cherry lips two rows of transparent white teeth were visible, and heightened the white complexion of his oval face and the fresh ruddiness of his cheeks. Thus this god of the desert stood before me with a grace and propriety such as are rarely met with in the gouty circles of high society; and I thought to myself that his appearance would attract attention and respect, in spite of the leathern garb, among the nobility of the Old World.

Without asking him who he was, I gave him the hearty welcome which his amiability claimed, led him to the dining-room, had his luggage brought into the fort, and his horse put in a stall and supplied with maize leaves. Then a breakfast was set before my guest, and after begging him, in the old Spanish fashion, to make my house his home, I apologized for being obliged to leave him a little while, as I had shot some buffaloes close by, which I wanted to get home.

"Will you allow me to assist you? I am a good hand at it," was his reply. He had soon finished his breakfast, and went with me out of the fort to the river bank where the buffalo lay. Although I had introduced Trusty to the stranger, the dog still pressed between him and me, which he noticed and remarked.

"You have a fine hound there, who has grown up in the desert. I have heard of him before. He is no friend of bee-hunters, and yet he does not seem savage with me."

I begged him not to touch Trusty, as he might misunderstand it, and we soon reached my quarry. The stranger, whose name was Warden, as he told me, laid aside his leathern jacket, which was tastily ornamented with fringe, turned up his shirt-sleeves, displaying thus his finely formed muscular and white arms, and drew a splendid hunting-knife from its sheath. We set to work together in skinning the buffalo, in which operation Warden displayed a remarkable skill, then broke it up, and while my people carried the meat to the fort we proceeded to the other buffalo higher up the prairie, and prepared it in the same way for removal.

While we were engaged in skinning this animal, Warden remarked he was surprised at my using rifles of so large a bore, as it was a settled fact that the long Kentucky rifles, one of which he carried, produced much greater effect with small bullets. I contradicted this assertion, and an argument ensued, as neither would give up his opinion. Warden offered a wager, and staked his rifle against one of mine, which I accepted. We cut off the buffalo's head with the skin attached to it, and had it carried to the fort with the meat, in order to try our rifles on it. It was noon when we got back. We cleaned ourselves and enjoyed our dinner, a buffalo fillet roasted on the spit, and some of the marrow-bones.

After drinking coffee and smoking a cigar, we carried the buffalo head outside the fort, put it in front of an oak, pressed a piece of white paper on the forehead, and then walked eighty paces back, I shot first, and my bullet passed through the paper into the head, and an inch deep into the oak. Warden fired next, and also sent his bullet into the piece of paper, but there was no trace of the bullet on the tree behind the head. We removed the skin from the skull and found Warden's bullet lodged under it, close to the hole which mine had made. Warden at once allowed the bet lost, but at the same time requested me to sell him a gun, as he could not exist without one. I naturally laughed, as my only object in the matter was conviction, and the bet had only been a joke. Warden, however, shot with surprising accuracy at one hundred yards with his rifle, which was four feet and a half long, the whole weight resting on the left hand in front; but his ball rarely passed through a deer, except when he was close to it.

After supper, while we were lying on the grass on the river bank, my guest told me that he was a native of Missouri, the son of a farmer, but had been compelled by unfortunate circumstances to quit home, and had been living for five years as a desert hunter. At first he remained on the frontiers of his own State, but the cold winters had continually driven him to the south, until he at last got so far down to a country whose climate agreed better with him. He remained a whole week with me, and made himself useful during the day through his skill in making all sorts of trifles; for instance, carvings in poplar and cypress wood, plaiting strong tight lines of different coloured horsehair, tanning skins, making neatly ornamental powder flasks out of buffalo horns, and charge measures of the fangs of bears and jaguars, while in the evening he described in a most lively manner the numerous dangers he had fortunately escaped, and the many fights he had had with the Redskins during the five years.

The unchanging calmness which usually covered his noble face often deserted him when describing these scenes; his eyes flashed like daggers in the moonlight, his brow contracted, and we could read on his forehead that he must be a terrible foe when aroused. But these outbursts of passion soon passed away, and the ordinary gentleness spread once more over his features. Among the feelings reflected on various occasions in his face, there was an unmistakeable melancholy, which must be produced by events of his life before the period when he bade farewell to human society, and this was proved by the fact that he spoke reluctantly about that time, and always became silent when the conversation was accidentally turned to it. Hence I carefully avoided alluding to the period, for if a heavy crime lay hid in his bosom, I was ready to excuse it; while if he was suffering undeservedly, I pitied him, and would not augment his sorrow by unnecessarily evoking his reminiscences.

I would have gladly kept him with me, as he was a pleasant, attractive companion in my solitude; but he would go, and it seemed to me as if the tranquillity he enjoyed at my house did not permanently satisfy him, and as if he wished to deaden memory by the wild, perilous life he led on his hunting expeditions. I equipped him as far as lay in my power with everything that could soothe his fatiguing life, and took a hearty leave of him in front of the fort. He parted regretfully, and was greatly excited when he shook my hand in farewell and mounted his powerful horse, which he had trained like a dog. He promised to pay me another visit soon, and galloped at such a pace over the prairie, as if he wished thus to dispel the thoughts which had mastered him. I watched him for a long distance, till he disappeared in a cloud of dust on the edge of the prairie.

Some time after I learned from the bee-hunter whom Trusty received so savagely the history of this amiable but unfortunate man, whom the former had known as a lad in Missouri. Warden's father was the son of one of the first families in Virginia; was educated at a first-rate school and studied medicine. He got into bad company, turned gambler and then highwayman, and was for some years the terror of post travellers in North Carolina and Virginia. About this time he fell in love with a very beautiful, fashionably educated young lady in Virginia, and ran away with her to Missouri, which was just beginning to be colonized. He altered his mode of life, was greatly respected by his fellow-citizens, and in a few years sent to Congress as deputy for Missouri. Thus he lived most creditably till his son was twelve years of age, and his daughter was married at the age of seventeen to a farmer. One day, however, he rode to the nearest town where a court was being held, and for the first time during many years tasted spirits. He had scarce done so, ere his old wicked foe seized on him again with all its might, and he rode daily, in spite of all the prayers and representations of his family, to the town, and returned at night in a most frightful state of intoxication.

On the next court day he was about to ride again to town, when his wife begged her son-in-law to accompany him. Warden had been drinking already, and said he had a feeling he should be killed during the day. He made his young son take a solemn oath to follow his murderer to the end of the world and take his life. Then he rode off to the town, soon became intoxicated, began quarrelling, at length began wrangling with his son-in-law, who tried to hold him back, and drew his knife on him; the latter defended himself, and Warden ran on his knife, and was carried home in a dying state. Warden once again reminded his son of the oath he had taken, and expired. The law was put in work against his son-in-law, who fled to Indiana and lived there in concealment. Warden's son grew up, and in his sixteenth year was the favourite of the whole countryside, but then he took his rifle and his horse, bade good-bye to his mother and sister, rode to Indiana, and shot his brother-in-law in his own house. He escaped from the police with great difficulty, and fled to the desert, where he had been living five years when he visited me.

CHAPTER XI.

THE WILD HORSE.

The departure of the unfortunate Warden, who had fallen a victim to passions which had not been held in restraint at an early age, was very painful to me, and the evenings, which I generally spent alone, grew very long, as I had before gossiped half the night away with him. Hence I went to bed early, and followed my old habit of rising before daybreak, I generally took my rifle, went with Trusty across the river to the forest and watched for game. At that hour the wood was most beautiful; the coming day drove the darkness before it through the mighty masses of foliage, the birds aroused one another from their sleep, owls, blinded by the morning light, darted like the last shadows of night into the densest thickets, and deer returned home from their nocturnal excursions through the dewy grass; the bear, startled by the rapidly-increasing light, trotted with hoarse growls towards its secret hiding-place, while the herons, bearing the first golden sunbeams on their silver plumage, rose from the tall trees and passed with flapping wing through the refreshing morning breeze.

I was cautiously walking one morning along this my favourite spot, and inhaling the thousand perfumes which had filled the recesses of the forest during the tranquil night, avoiding every dry branch for fear of startling its denizens, while Trusty followed at a short distance all my windings round the bushes and fallen trees. It had become tolerably light, when I fancied I heard a rustling at an open spot, in the centre of which stood several very large pecan-nut trees. I stood still for a moment and listened, holding my breath, for a repetition of the noise. I heard it again, like the breaking of twigs ahead of me, but in spite of my utmost efforts could not perceive that even a leaf was moving.

Once again the same breaking and rustling reached me, and on looking up accidentally I saw a thick black lump shining among the foliage of the pecan-trees. I soon distinguished a young bear busily engaged in drawing to it with its long paws the thin branches of the nut-tree, and putting the unripe nuts in its mouth, I quickly sprang under the tree, so as to make sure of the bear, which was about the size of a sheep; but I remembered its mamma, who might be in the neighbourhood, and easily come up to fetch her pet home. I stationed myself under the tree on which the cub was, and made Trusty lie down by my side, as he was beginning to growl, and pressing his nose against the tree.

The bear saw me, and became greatly alarmed; sprang from one branch to the other, and looked timidly down to me. I did not move, but listened carefully to every sound in the vicinity, while my neighbour came down to the first floor, above my head; and, sitting among the lowest branches, produced a cry like that of little children. It soon repeated its wail, and I heard far away in the forest a hob, hob, hob, hob, coming towards me. I sprang up, and placed myself behind the trees, after again forcing Trusty's head into the grass. I distinctly distinguished by the leaps that it was an old bear hastening to the help of her cub. I pointed my rifle in the direction whence it was coming, and suddenly it parted the foliage in front of me with its broad shoulders, whereupon I gave a loud "pst." In a second the bear sat up on its hind-quarters, and as the fire flashed from my barrel it made a couple of leaps towards me, but was rolled over by a second bullet through the head, while I shouted a "Down, sir!" to Trusty, who was on the point of springing up. I drew a revolver, ran up to the old bear, and sent a bullet through her brain, as she was still furiously hitting out with her terrible paws.

I next reloaded my rifle, and looked up at my neighbour, who had fled to the top of the tree, and was swinging with the branches. I called Trusty away from under the tree, bade him lie down in the grass behind me, and gave the cub something which brought it down like a ball, crashing through the foliage to the ground, when I put the other barrel to its forehead, and stopped its young bearish existence. After reloading, I broke it up, to give Trusty his share of the spoil—the kidneys, the only bear-meat he ever touched, unless he was very hungry. I then hastened home, and after breakfast I went back to the forest with one of my men and three mules, when we broke up the old bear, and carried the meat home on two of the animals, and the cub entire on the third.

Thus several weeks passed, during which I went little beyond the immediate vicinity of my house, in order to lay in our stock of meat either in the morning or evening, when the heat was less oppressive. During the day we were cutting steps in the perpendicular river-bank, out of which a very strong spring gushed about ten feet from the top, and in building a small dairy over it. We led the spring through wooden troughs, in which we kept the milk and butter sweet; while we hung up on the walls meat which remained fresh for several days. The dairy was on the north side, so that it was very slightly exposed to the sun, whose effects we also neutralized by a thick layer of overhanging reeds. This spot was most agreeable in the midday heat, at which time the atmosphere in the houses was most oppressive, while here it always remained cool and refreshing through the ice-cold water. The spring, however, was not so pleasant for drinking as the one I had on the side of the prairie near the garden, from which we fetched our drinking water.

After finishing my job, most of my stores were nearly expended, and I required a number of new tools. Hence I went myself to the nearest settlement, sold there my stock of hides, honey, wax, and tallow, and took home the articles I needed on my pack animals. While at the settlement I met, at the store-keeper's with whom I was bargaining, a Mexican lad, sixteen years of age, who had accompanied a brace of mules brought here from Mexico for sale, and had remained as waiter at the hotel. His name was Antonio, and he offered to go with me and stop. He was recommended to me by an acquaintance as a first-rate horseman and lassoer, and as he pleased me in other respects, I accepted his offer, and he rode with me home.