180 NEIGHBORS WITH CLAWS AND HOOFS. 



us, without distinction, all the animals we encountered on 

 the route. The cattle being so unexpectedly roused from 

 their slumbers, naturally endeavored to fly from their 

 pursuers. Soon, however, meeting those from opposite 

 directions, they whirled in mad despair, vainly endeavor- 

 ing to break through the extended line of horsemen, who 

 were constantly galloping about the struggling mass with 

 shouts and thrusts from their steel-pointed garrochas. 



3. At the commencement it was a truly interesting 

 sight to watch the many groups of cattle, deer, wild boars, 

 dogs, foxes, and other wild quadrupeds, coming in from 

 all directions as if impelled by one common instinct ; but 

 no sooner did that living ring commence closing upon 

 them, than, scared by the confusion arid uproar of the 

 scene, their terror quickly grew to frenzy, and they ran 

 from side to side, bellowing, grunting, howling, as they 

 went. Solely intent upon the danger that menaced them, 

 the mother forgot her offspring, and listened no more to 

 their painful lamentations ; and even the fierce bull for- 

 getting for a moment that he is sovereign of those realms, 

 lost his natural spirit of brave defiance, and rushed blindly 

 off in the train of the frightened multitude. 



4. As if to increase the grandeur of the spectacle, a 

 crane, which had established itself on the borders of a 

 creek hard by, also caught the alarm, and at our approach 

 flew up in the air with a tremendous crashing of wing and 

 bill, leaving her young to care for themselves, and with 

 their discordant and piercing cries to swell the uproar of 

 the scene. It is impossible to convey an adequate idea of 

 this vast multitude of frightened cranes and herons of all 

 sorts which fluttered overhead at that moment ; so great 

 was their number that they spread over an extent of 

 several miles, and actually for a time cast a deep shadow 

 over the landscape. 



