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Show 64 WESTERN WILDS. Three days more we fasted, and came, completely exhausted, upon an old Indian camp, where we found some green buffalo hides, which the wolves had abandoned. These we scraped and boiled till we had a pasty mixture resembling glue thickened with scraps of leather, upon which we made a hearty meal. Again we fasted two days, and at last, faint from starvation, descended into the valley of Las Animas. " The green growth here and there greatly restored our horses, and, despite the warning of the more experienced, some of the men ventured to eat the cactus bulb, insisting that its rank properties might be erad-icated by roasting it in hot sand and ashes, in the same manner as the California Indians neutralize the virus of various roots. The first who partook felt no immediate effects, and praised it highly, upon which we all ate greedily, drinking freely at the same time of the slightly miner-alized water of the Las Animas. But two hours' time showed that the inherent properties of the cactus were but slightly neutralized, if at all. Strange tremblings shook our frames, succeeded by dizziness and a de-sire to vomit. These were followed soon by agonizing pains, in which the sufferers rolled upon the ground in fearful contortions, and uttering heart- rending cries. It was a night of unmitigated misery. All recov-ered, but so weak that only three of the party were able to move about. It was simply impossible to proceed, or even hunt for game. Accord-ingly lots were cast between the horses, and the one thus condemned was slaughtered for food. On this we made a most delicious meal, al-ternately resting and eating at frequent intervals all day. Late at night we were so far restored that we feasted with glad hearts, and again the camp resounded with jokes, songs, and laughter. All were clamorous to advance at once on the Mexican settlements. Daily I saw more and more that mountaineers are much like children unduly confident when all goes well, and correspondingly gloomy under the pressure of distress. The equal mind, preserved in arduous toils and fortune's sunshine, product of a higher mental cultivation, is not often theirs; they are elated by good omens, and cast down by auguries of ill ; their plans are often disturbed by the suggestion of night- mare dreams, and gloomy apprehensions seize them from the unseasonable flights of birds or other strange outgivings of animal instinct. " With restored strength, and some few days' supply of food, we trav-eled up stream, and were soon in the grand canon of the Rio de las An-imas, as it is called by the Catholic Spaniards. This strange river, with such extremes of delightful valley, barren waste, or gloomy and forbidding caflon, has received corresponding names from all races. The Indians call it the Wild River, the French christened it Piquer |