^e CANADIAN NIGHTS 



and we had to make another detour in order to get 

 closer up ; and finally, having reached a place 

 from whence we expected to be within easy range, 

 we dismounted, gave our horses in charge to two 

 soldiers who had accompanied us, and prepared to 

 make a start on foot. It was not pleasant ground 

 for crawling, covered as it was in patches with 

 dwarf cacti, horrible little vegetable nuisances 

 about the size of a cricket ball, covered with spikes 

 that penetrate through moccasins into the soles of 

 your feet, and fill your hands and knees till they 

 look like pincushions. They go in easily enough, 

 but being barbed at the end, they won't come out 

 again. They are a great trouble to dogs. I had a 

 collie with me that became so disgusted with these 

 cacti, that if he found himself among patches of 

 them, he would howl and yell with terror before he 

 was hurt at all. They are very detrimental also to 

 the human hunter, but of course it is better to be 

 as covered with prickles as is the fretful porcupine 

 than to miss a chance at a big stag ; and so, in spite 

 of cacti, we crawled on our hands and knees, and 

 after a while flat upon our waistcoats, till we got 

 to the crest of the hill, and there found ourselves 

 within two hundred yards of the game. We could 

 not tell how large the herd was, for not more than 



