WILD SPORTS IN THE FAR WEST. 



i 



no longer any life in the thing ; we found the same 

 Indians, hunted with them a few days, shot a few deer, 

 some turkeys, and a young bear, returning on the 12th, 

 Conwell with two deer-skins and some haunches, I with 

 a turkey. 



By this time my arm was quite healed. Neverthe- 

 less, I had made up my mind to leave the mountains 

 and go southwards, partly from a returning fit of my 

 old love of change, partly because I longed for news 

 from home, not having received any letters for several 

 months, and partly also because game had become .so 

 scarce through the number of hunters, that there was 

 hardly enough to subsist on. We heard that a party 

 of twelve men had been along the Richland and killed 

 or driven away every thing, and that during the last 

 three days not a turkey was to be seen. The news of 

 game from other quarters was no better ; in short 

 there was nothing for it but off! off! When I was 

 once more surrounded by my old friend's amiable fam- 

 ily, and passed another evening amongst them, my reso- 

 lution was indeed shaken; however, during the night 

 I gave it mature consideration, and in the morning J 

 told them that I should that day take my departure. 

 Attempts were immediately made to dissuade me from 

 it, and old Conwell asked in downright earnest if I 

 could not stay with them always, and take the school. 

 The present schoolmaster was ignorant and a drunkard, 

 and they would have been glad to be rid of him. For 

 a moment, indeed, but only for a moment, my fancy 

 depicted the delights of a home amongst the mountains, 

 then the image of my old village schoolmaster Hashed 



