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Show 212 THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON TRAIL. Apennines on an evening in spring. Rapidly the clouds were broken and scattered, like routed legions of evil spirits. The plain lay basking in sunbeams around us; a rainbow arched the desert from north to south, and far in fi·ont a line of woods seemed inviting us to refreshment and repose. When we 1~eached them, they were glistening with prismatic dew-drops, and enlivened by the songs and flutterings of a hundred birds. Strange winged insects, benumbed by the rain, were clinging to the leaves and the bark of the trees. Raymond kindled .a fire with great difficulty. The animals turned eagerly to feed on the soft rich grass, while I, wrapping myself in my blanket, lay down and gazed on the evening landscape. The mountains, whose stern features had lowered upon us with so gloomy and awful a frown, now seemed lighted up with a serene, benignant smile, and the green waving undulations of the plain were gladdened with the rich sunshine. Wet, ill, and wearied as I was, my spirit grew lighter at the view, and I drew from it an augury of good for my future prospects. When morning came, Raymond awoke, coughing violently, though I had apparently received no injury. We mounted, crossed the little stream, pushed through the trees, and began our journey over the plain beyond. And now, as we rode slowly along, we looked anxiously on every hand for traces of the Indians, not doubting that the village had passed somewhere in that vicinity; but the scanty shrivelled grass was not more than three or four inches high, and the ground was of such unyielding hardness that a host might have marched over it and left scarcely a trace of its passage. Up hill and down hill, and clambering through ravines, we continued our jour- .. :HUNTING INDIANS. 213 ney. As we were skirting the foot of a hill, I saw Raymond, who was some rods in advance, suddenly jerking the reins of his mule. Sliding from his· seat, and running in a crouching posture up a hollow, he disappeared ; and then in an instant I heard the sharp quick crack ·of his rifle. A wounded antelope came running on three legs over the hill. I lashed Pauline and made after him. My fleet little mare soon brought me by his side, and after leaping and bounding for a few moments in vain, he stood still, as if despairing of escape. I-Iis glistening eyes turned up toward my face with so piteous a look, that it was with feelings of infinite compunction that I shot him through the head with a pistol. Raymond skinned · and cut him up, and we hung the fore-quarters to our saddles, much rejoiced that our exhausted stock of provisions was renewed in such good time. Gaining the top of a hill, we could see along the cloudy verge of the prairie before us lines of trees and shadowy groves, that marked the course of Laramie Creek. Some time before noon we reached its banks, and began anxiously to search them for footprints of the Indians. We follow ed the stream for several miles, now on the shore and now wading in the water, scrutinizing every sand-bar and every muddy bank. So long was the search, that we began to fear that we had left the trail undiscovered behind us. At length I heard Raymond shouting, and saw him jump from his mule to examine some object under the shelving bank. I rode up to his side. It was the clear and palpable impression of an Indian moccason. Encouraged by this, we continued our search, and at last some appearances on a soft surface of earth not far from the shore attracted my eye ; and going to examine them, I found half a |