IN THE OLD WEST 233 



struck him as something singular. Suddenly his 

 jaws ceased their work, he thought a moment, 

 took the morsel from his mouth, looked at it in- 

 tently, and dashed it into the fire. 



" Man-meat, by G — ! " he cried out ; and at the 

 words every jaw stopped work: the trappers 

 looked at the meat and each other. 



" I'm dog-gone if it ain't ! " cried old Walker, 

 looking at his piece, " and white meat at that, 

 wagh! " (and report said it was not the first time 

 he had tasted such viands;) and the conviction 

 seizing each mind, every mouthful was quickly 

 spat into the fire, and the ire of the deceived 

 whites was instantly turned upon the luckless pro- 

 viders of the feast. They saw the storm that was 

 brewing, and without more ado turned tail from 

 the camp, and scuttled up the bluffs, where, 

 turning round, they fired a volley of arrows 

 at the tricked mountaineers, and instantly disap^ 

 peared. 



However, the desert and its nomad pilferers 

 were at length passed; the sandy plains became 

 grass-covered prairies ; the monstrous cottonwood 

 on the creeks was replaced by oak and ash; the 

 surface of the country grew more undulating, and 

 less broken up into cafions and ravines ; elk and 

 deer leaped in the bottoms, and bands of antelope 

 dotted the plains, with occasional troops of wild 

 horses, too wary to allow the approach of man. 

 On the banks of a picturesque stream called the 



