A consultation was now held as to our future progress. We had thus far pursued a western course, and, having traversed the Cross Timber, were on the skirts of the Great Western Prairie. We were still, however, in a very rough country, where food was scarce. The season was so far advanced that the grass was withered, and the prairies yielded no pasturage. The pea vines of the bottoms, also, which had sustained our horses for some part of the journey, were nearly gone, and, for several days past, the

poor animals had fallen off wofully, both in flesh and spirit. The Indian fires in the prairies were approaching us from north, and south, and west ; they might spread also from the east, and leave a scorched desert between us and the frontier, in which our horses might be famished.

It was determined, therefore, to advance no farther to the westward, but to shape our course more to the east, so as to strike the north fork of the Canadian as soon as possible ; where we hoped to find abundance of young cane, which, at this season of the year, affords the most nutritious pasturage for the horses, and, at the same time, attracts immense quantities of game. Here, then, we fixed the limits of our tour to the Far West, being within little more than a day's march of the boundary line of Texas.

The morning broke bright and clear, but the camp had nothing of its usual gaiety. The concert of the farmyard was at an end ; not a cock crew nor dog barked ; nor was there either singing or laughing : every one pursued his avocations quietly and gravely. The novelty of the expedition was wearing off; some of the young men were getting as wayworn as their horses ; and most of them, unaccustomed to the hunter's life, began to repine at its privations. What they most felt was the want of bread, their rations of flour having been exhausted for several days. The old hunters, who had often experienced this want, made light of it ; and Beatte, ac-

customed, when among tli Indians, to live for months without it, considered it a mere article of luxury. " Bread," he would say, scornfully, '' is only fit for a child."

About a quarter before eight o'clock we turned our backs uj3on the Far West, and set off in a south-west course along a gentle valley. After riding a few miles, Beatte, who kept parallel with us along the ridge of a naked hill to our right, called out and made signals, as if something was coming round the hill to intercept us. Some who were near me cried out that it was a party of Pawnees. A skirt of thickets hid the approach of the supposed enemy from our view. We heard a trfimpling among the brushwood. My horse looked towards the place, snorted, and pricked up his ears, when presently a couple of huge buffalo bulls, who had been alarmed by Beatte, came crashing through the brake, and making directly towards us. At sight of us they wheeled round and scuttled along a narrow defile of the hills. In an instant half a score of rifles

cracked off; there was a universal whoop and halloo, and away went half the troop, helter-skelter in pursuit, and myself among" the number. The most of us soon pulled up, and gave over a chase which led through bush and briar and break-neck ravines. Some few of the rangers persisted for a time ; but eventually rejoined the line, slowly lagging one after another. One of them returned on foot : he had been thrown while in full chase ; his rifle had been broken in the fall ; and his horse, retaining the spirit of the rider, had kept on after the buffalo. It was a melancholy predicament to be reduced to ; to be without horse or weapon in the midst of the Pawnee hunting-grounds.

For my own part, I had been fortunate enough recently, by a further exchange, to get possession of the best horse in the troop ; a full-blooded sorrel, of excellent bottom, beautiful form, and most generous qualities. In such situations it almost seems as if a man changes his nature with his horse. I felt quite like another being, now that I had

an animal under me spirited yet gentle, docile to a remarkable degree, and easy, elastic, and rapid in all his movements. In a few days he became almost as much attached to me as a dog ; would follow me when I dismounted ; would come to me in the morning to be noticed and caressed ; and would put his muzzle between me and my book as I sat reading at the foot of a tree. The feeling I had for this my dumb companion of the prairies gave me some faint idea of that attachment the Arab is said to entertain for the horse that has borne him about the deserts.

After riding a few miles farther, we came to a fine meadow with a broad clear stream winding through it, on the banks of which there was excellent pasturage. Here we at once came to a halt in a beautiful grove of elms, on the site of an old Osage encampment. Scarcely had we dismounted, when a universal firing of rifles took place upon a large flock of turkeys, scattered about the grove, which proved to be a favourite roost-

ing"-place for these simple birds. They flew to the trees, and sat perched upon their branches, stretching out their long necks and gazing in stupid astonishment, until eighteen of them were shot down.

In the height of the carnage word was brought that there were four buffaloes in a neighbouring meadow. The turkeys were now abandoned for nobler game. The tired horses were again mounted, and urged to the chase. In a little while we came in sight of the buffaloes, looking like brown hillocks among the long green herbage. Beatte endeavoured to get ahead of them and turn them towards us, that the inexperienced hunters might have a chance. They ran round the base of a rocky hill that hid us from the sight. Some of us endeavoured to cut across the hill, but became entangled in a thick wood, matted with gTape vines. My horse, who under his former rider had hunted the buffalo, seemed as much excited as myself, and endeavoured to force his way through the bushes. At length we extricated our-

selves, and, galloping over the hill, I found our li,ttle Frenchman, Tonish, curvetting on horseback round a great buffalo wliich he had wounded too severely to flee, and which he was keeping employed until we should come up. There was a mixture of the grand and the comic in beholding this tremendous animal and his fantastic assailant. The buffalo stood with his shaggy front always pre sented to his foe, his mouth open, his tongue parched, his eyes like coals of fire, and his tail erect with rage ; every noAv and then he would make a faint rush upon his foe, who easily evaded his attack, capering and cutting all kinds of antics before him. We now made repeated shots at the buffalo, but they glanced into his mountain of flesh without proving mortal. He made a slow and grand retreat into the shallow river, turning upon his assailants whenever they pressed upon him 5 and, when in the water, took his stand there, as if prepared to sustain a siege. A rifle ball, however, more fatally lodged, sent a tremour through his frame. He turned and

attempted to wade across the stream ; but, after tottering a few paces, slowly fell upon his side and expired. It was the fall of a hero, and we felt somewhat ashamed of the butchery that had effected it ; but, after the first shot or two, we had reconciled it to our feelings by the old plea of putting the poor animal out of his misery.

Two other buffaloes were killed this evening, but they were all bulls, whose flesh is meagre and hard at this season of the year. A fat buck yielded us much more savoury meat for our evening's repast.

We left the buffalo camp about eight o'clock, and had a toilsome and harassing march of two hours over ridges of hills covered with a ragged meagre forest of scrub oaks and broken by deep gullies. Among the oaks I observed many of the most diminutive size, some not above a foot high, yet bearing abundance of small acorns. The whole of the Cross Timbers, in fact, abound with mast. There is a pine oak which produces an acorn pleasant to the taste, and ripening early in the season.

About ten o'clock in the morning we came to where this line of rugged hills swept down into a valley through which flowed the north fork of the Red River. A beautiful meadow

about half a mile wide, enamelled with yellow autumnal flowers, stretched for two or three miles along the foot of the hills, bordered on the opposite side by the river, whose banks were fringed with cotton-wood trees, the bright foliage of which refreshed and delighted the eye, after being wearied by the contemplation of monotonous wastes of brown forest.

The meadow was finely diversified by groves and clumps of trees, so happily disposed, that they seemed as if set out by the hand of art. As we cast our eyes over this fresh and delightful valley, we beheld a troop of wild horses quietly grazing on a green lawn about a mile distant to our right, while to our left, at nearly the same distance, were several buffaloes, some feeding, others reposing and ruminating among the high rich herbage, under the shade of a clump of cottonwood trees. The whole had the appearance of a broad beautiful tract of pasture land, on the highly ornamented estate of some gentle-

man farmer, with his cattle grazing about the lawns and meadows.

A council of war was now held, and it was determined to profit by the present favourable opportunity, and try our hand at the grand hunting manoeuvre, which is called ringing the wild horse. This requires a large party of horsemen well mounted. They extend themselves in each direction singly, at certain distances apart, and gradually form a ring of two or three miles in circumference, so as to surround the game. This has to be done with extreme care ; for the wild horse is the most readily alarmed inhabitant of the prairie, and can scent a hunter at a great distance, if to windward.

The ring being formed, two or three hunters ride towards the horses, who start off in an opposite direction. Wlierever they approach the bounds of the ring, however, a huntsman presents himself and turns them from their course. In this way they are checked and driven back at every point, and kept galloping round and round this magic

circle, until, being completely tired down, it is easy for the hunters to ride up beside them and throw the lariat over their heads. The prime horses of most speed, courage, and bottom, however, are apt to break through and escape ; so that, in general, it is the second-rate horses that are taken.

Preparations were now made for a hunt of this kind. The pack-horses were taken into the woods, and firmly tied to trees, lest, in a rush of the wild horses, they should break away with them. Twenty-five men were then sent under the command of a lieutenant to steal along the edge of the valley within the strip of woods that skirted the hills. They were to station themselves about fifty yards apart, within the edge of the woods, and not to advance or show themselves until the horses dashed in that direction. Twentyfive men were sent across the valley to steal in like manner along the river bank that bordered the opposite side, and to station themselves among the trees. A third party, of about the same number, was to form a