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Show 302 THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON TRAIL. those trees down below us in the hollow ; we'll go down there and I reckon we'll get a black-tailed deer.' ' But Reynal's predictions were not verified. We passed mountain after mountain, and valley after valley; we explored deep ravines; yet still, to my companion's vexation and evi· dent surprise, no game could be found. So, in the absence of better, we resolved to go out on the plains and look for an ante. lope. With this view we began to pass down a narrow valley, the bottom of which was covered with the stiff wild-sage bushes and marked with deep paths, made by the buffalo, who, for some inexplicable reason, are accustomed to penetrate, in their long grave processions, deep among the gorges of these sterile mountains. Reynal's eye was ranging incessantly among the rocks and along the edges of the black precipices, in hopes of discovering the mountain-sheep peering clown upon us in fancied security from that giddy elevation. Nothing was visible for some time. At length we both detected something in motion near the foot of one of the mountains, and in a moment afterward a blacktailed deer, with his spreading antlers, stood gazing at us from the top of a rock, and then, slowly turning away, disappeared behind it. In an instant Revnal was out of his saddle, ·and ~ running toward the spot. I, being too weak to follow, sat holding his horse and waiting the result. I lost sight of him, then heard the report of his rifle deadened among the rocks, and finally saw him reappear, with a surly look, that plainly betrayed his ill success. Again we moved forward down the long valley, when soon after we came full upon what seemed a wide and very shallow ditch, incrusted at the bottom with white clay, dried and cracked in the sun. Under this fair A MOUNTAIN HUNT. 303 . R l's eye detected the signs of lurking mischief. outs1de, eyna . . . . He called me to stop, and then ahghtmg, plCked up a stone and threw 't · t the ditch To my utter amazement it fell 1 m o · . w1·t h a du 1 1 sp lash ' breaking at once through the thin crust, and spattering round the hole a yellowish creamy fluid, into which it sank and disappeared. A. stick, five or six feet long, lay on the ground, and with this we sounded the insidious abyss close to its edge. It was just possible to touch the bottom. Places like this are numerous among the Rocky Mountains. The buffalo, in his blind and heedless walk, often plunges into them unawares. Down he sinks; one snort of terror, one convulsive struggle, and the slime calmly flows above his shaggy head, the languid undulations of its sleek and placid surface alone betraying how the powerful monster writhes in his deaththroes below. We found after some trouble a point where we could pass the abyss, and now the valley began to open upon the plains which spread to the horizon before us. swells we discerned three or four black pronounced to be buffalo. On one of their distant specks, which Reynal 'Come ' said he ' we must get one of them. My squaw ' ' wants more sinews to finish her lodge with, and I want some glue myself.' He immediately put the yellow horse to such a gallop as he was capable of executing, while I set spurs to the mule, who soon far o~trun her plebeian rival. When we had galloped a mile or more, a large rabbit, by ill-luck, sprang up just under the feet of the mule, who bounded violently aside in full career. Weakened as I was, I was flung forcibly to the ground, and my rifle falling close to my head, went off with the shock. Its |
