72 IN THE BIG HORN MOUNTAINS. 



noise that I could hear distinctly where I stood, down the 

 hillside, and disappeared in the thick brush. I slipped 

 another cartridge into my rifle and started after him. I first 

 went to the right of the slough, but encountered a jungle 

 that was well nigh impassable, and returning, circled around 

 it to the left. This was a long, tedious, and difficult route, 

 but by hard work I at last got through one of the thickets, 

 waded the river, and then after another siege of crawling, 

 climbing and cutting my way, during which every minute 

 seemed an hour lest my game should escape, I at last reached 

 the place where old Joe stood when the battle opened. His 

 pathway through the brush, where he rolled down the hill, 

 was strewn with blood. I followed it, hoping to find him 

 dead at the foot of the hill, but unfortunately there was a 

 wide fissure in the rock near the foot, about thirty feet deep, 

 into which he had fallen. I could plainly see the lifeless 

 form of the great monster lying there among the rocks at the 

 bottom of the cavern, but the walls were perpendicular, with 

 scarcely any projections, so that it was impossible to reach 

 him, and I was compelled to return to camp empty handed. 

 We compared notes around a bright camp fire for an 

 hour, and then turned in. About midnight it clouded up, 

 and a quiet, but steady, heavy fall of rain set in. Huffman 

 and I awoke and surveyed the situation, but we had a large, 

 heavy piece of canvas spread over us, and after discussing the 

 probabilities for a few minutes, concluded we were safe, and 

 went to sleep again. Later in the night we were again 

 awakened by the water running under us, and our blankets 

 were saturated, but it was too dark and damp to get up then, 

 so we laid like a warrior taking his rest, and weathered the 

 storm till daylight, when we all got up, wrung the water out 

 of our blankets, or as much of it as possible, and packed up. 

 The heavens continued to weep, and we had wet groceries 



