AN ORATOR AND HIS AUDIENCE. 141 



cuss with him the probable causes of the alarm ; to ex- 

 change, in a word, their mutual impressions and compare 

 observations on the vision which had passed before their 

 eyes. 



Other and more audacious marmots collected in small 

 groups in the middle of the streets, and their discussions, 

 I doubt not, turned upon the outrage committed by the 

 invasion of the republic, as well as upon the best means 

 of defence. Sometimes an orator sprang upon the sum- 

 mit of a hillock which commanded the whole assemblage, 

 and thence explained his views, his projects, and his 

 principles of strategy. Sometimes, seized with unwonted 

 fear, all the crowd dashed headlong into the various 

 orifices, and vanished quickly, to reappear at a consider- 

 able distance, and recommence the same manoeuvres. It 

 was very curious to observe the braggart ways of these 

 marmots ; they seemed as if they would defy the thunder, 

 and yet they fled at the least whisper of the breeze, at 

 the most imperceptible agitation of the atmosphere. 



After watching the spectacle for some time, I proposed 

 to my comrades the termination of a uselessly protracted 

 " seance." And we agreed that each should mark down 

 a marmot in an opposite direction, and that we should 

 fire simultaneously on my clucking my tongue against 

 my palate. 



This was done : a simultaneous discharge was effected, 

 and when the smoke cleared away, there remained not a 

 prairie dog before us, except the six which lay at the 

 mouth of their burrows. 



To is asserted that of these burrows the prairie dogs 

 are not the only inhabitants, and that they have for 



