WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 8i 



gone. Like a flash the scene changed. The 

 wapiti disappeared as if by magic. There was 

 not a living creature of any kind to be seen, and 

 the oppressive silence was unbroken by the faintest 

 sound. I looked all around the horizon ; not a 

 sign of life ; everything seemed dull, dead, quiet, 

 unutterably sad and melancholy. The change 

 was very strange, the revulsion of feeling very 

 violent and not agreeable. I experienced a most 

 extraordinary feeling of loneliness, and so having 

 stopped a few minutes to let my horse get his 

 wind, and to recover my faculties a little, I got 

 on my exhausted steed, cleaned the sand out of 

 my rifle, slowly rode up to the top of the highest 

 sand-hill in the neighbourhood, and there sat 

 down again to look about me. I dare say the 

 reader will ask, " Why did not you take your back 

 track, and so find your way ? " I should have 

 tried that of course in time, but it is not an easy 

 matter to follow one's footmarks when the whole 

 country is ploughed up and tracked over with the 

 feet of flying animals, and I had in all probability 

 been describing curves, crossing my trail many 

 times ; so I sat me down on the top of my sand- 

 hill and waited. 



After what seemed to me an intolerable time, 



