278 WILD SPORTS IX THE FAR WEST. 



gave a side glance or two at them, and then passed on 

 without further notice, until one crossed the road, and 

 he came on the fresh trail, which he followed on the 

 instant ; but when he got close to the white bird, he 

 kept first looking at the one, and then smelling at the 

 other, as much as to say, " They don't agree," while the 

 turkey walked off with long strides, turning his head 

 from side to side to examine the stranger who was so 

 close at his heels, and whose intentions he rather seemed 

 to doubt. I called off the dog, and we stepped out at 

 a good pace up a narrow ravine by the banks of a 

 mountain stream. Narrow as the ravine was, we found 

 houses in places where no one, at least no reasonable 

 being, could ever have supposed they would have been 

 erected, there being so little arable land near. One 

 place particularly amused me a turnip field, about 

 sixty paces square, from one corner of which I saw 

 smoke rising. As there was no trace of a building or 

 of a human being to be seen, I was anxious to discover 

 where the smoke came from, and on reaching the corner 

 of the field, I found myself looking straight down a 

 chimney. The house was built in a little hollow in the 

 rock, probably to avoid encroaching on any part of the 

 useful ground. But what could induce people to settle 

 in such a hole, when so much good land was to be had 

 in Arkansas, was more than I could divine. 



We now turned to the left, and crossed the first 

 spur towards the summit of the hills that divide the 

 Mulberry from the Arkansas. The ascent was rather 

 steep, but we surmounted it without mishap, and were 

 rewarded with a beautiful view over the country we 

 had passed. While I wa.> seated on a high piece of 



