THE LAST SIGHT OF EARTH. 221 



My eyes had sunk to the prairie level, and rested 

 upon the still bleeding victims of my cruelty. My 

 heart smote me at the sight. Raising my eyes to 

 heaven, I gazed upward with earnestness known 

 only to the hearts of men in positions of peril like 

 mine. As I continued to look up, an object attracted 

 my attention. Against the sky I distinguished the 

 outline of a large bird. I knew it to be the obscene 

 bird of the plains, the buzzard- vulture. Whence had 

 it come ? Who knows ? Far beyond the reach of 

 human eye, it had seen or scented the slaughtered 

 antelopes, and on broad, silent wing was now de- 

 scending to the feast of death. Presently another, 

 and another, and many others, mottled the blue 

 field of the heavens, curving and wheeling silently 

 earthward. Then the foremost swooped down upon 

 the bank, and, after gazing round for a moment, 

 napped off toward its prey. In a few seconds the 

 prairie was black with filthy birds, who clambered 

 over the dead antelopes, and beat their wings 

 against each other, while they tore out the eyes of 

 the quarry with their foetid beaks. . . 



" I was soon relieved from the sight. My eyes 

 had sunk below the level of the bank. I had 

 looked my last on the fair green earth ! I could 

 now see only the clayey wall that contained the 

 river and the water, that ran, unheeding, past me. 

 Once more I fixed my gaze upon the sky, and, with 



