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Show 64 NATIONAL WAGON ROAD GUIDE. • ' to take, as though moved by no other impulse than ter-ror, and without even instinct as a guide. Horses, mules and o~en, are all liable to stampede and more during the first half of the journey, than after~ ward, and more likely by night, than by day. It is doubtless al,vays the result of a sudden fright, and often from the most trivial cause, and without waiting to see '\tv hat frightens them, away they go with the speed of the wind. It will be admitted by every observant traveler upon the plains, that emigrants feel a sensation never felt before, when first they leave the svJety and certainties of .-a civilized country, and strike out into a wild and to some extent, unsafe one. A feeling of anxiety and 'uncertainty, as to what may next be seen, or the next hour may bring with it, or the extent of danger to be incurred, seems to pervade all ; whilst the fear of it takes a Rtronger hold upon domestic ·animals than man, and without reason to guide them, act from mere impulse. And certainly, if animals ever did or can act a~ though the devil was in, or after them, it is whe: they are on a stampede. vVe have witnessed .more than one, and well remember that whether of horses or oxen, or more particularly if of bot~ together, that a striking feature of the scene, as ~he.a~1mals rapidly receded from view, was a stra~ge, Indistinct, phantom-like appearance of heads and horns ears, tails, legs, hoofs and iron shoes mixed and tha~ b arr1. ng t h e t errors I·D C·Ia ent to the possible los's of\ every NATIONAL WAGON ROAD GUIDE. 65 I anip1al you possess, no one can witness such a scene, without feeling an irresistible desire to laugh, particularly when knowing that the sole c~use of their fright, was the accid~ntal flight of a prairie hen, in the evening twilight, against one of the wagon covers. But to take you "clean off your feet," you want to see eight yoke of oxen, all hitched to one wagon, and wagon and all on a sta~pede together. We might have given a ~ritten description ; but cdncluded to illustrate it by . an engra v1ng. • -~ ::z., ~ -------~ ww. WAGON AND WHISKY BARREL ON A " BENDER." It is therefore, of the greatest importance that you look well to your animals and their fastenings, particularly at night when picketed out. The sudden appearance of a wolf, or even a lesser anin1al among them by |