348 A HUNTING EXPEDITION. 



Pawnees gather, the Comanches, and other warlike and 

 still independent tribes, the nomades of the prairies and 

 the Rocky Mountains. 



The country I have described does not, in truth, belong 

 to any one of these tribes ; but, by a tacit arrangement 

 among themselves, they have claimed and taken possession 

 of its usufruct and shared its " game." Nevertheless, the 

 division is not so well defined or thoroughly respected 

 that one tribe never intrudes on the domain of another. 

 " Pale-face hunters " also descend there in numbers ; they 

 encamp, armed as for battle, and ready to repulse any 

 attack which may be adventured ; and frequently, in my 

 excursions across the prairies, I have met with bleached 

 skulls and skeletons at the bottom of obscure ravines, in- 

 dicative of the theatre of a desperate struggle, and warn- 

 ing me of the danger incurred by those who visit the 

 American desert. 



One morning, in the month of October 1845, eight of 

 us were journeying along the mountain-heights which 

 rise west of the Mississippi, two hundred miles from the 

 great waterfalls of St. Antoine. Five of us were on 

 horseback ; and the other three, Canadians by birth, inde- 

 fatigable pedestrians, formed the rear-guard, conducting 

 two cars in which were stored away the utensils and pro- 

 visions of all kinds required by civilized man when he 

 undertakes a distant journey. Three saddle-horses trotted 

 in the rear of the convoy, and under the axles of the 

 vehicles, attached by a chain, were two wolf-dogs of Scotch 

 breed, whose slender form and well-shaped head were 

 proofs to every true hunter's eye that in these animals 

 strength and instinct were aided by very great velocity. 



