LIFE IN THE FAB WEST. 57 



pair of tongues so admirably baked, so soft, so sweet, and of 

 such exquisite flavour, that a veil is considerately drawn 

 over the eifects their discussion produced in the mind of 

 our greenhorn La Bont6, and the raptures they excited in 

 the bosom of that, as yet, most ignorant mountaineer. 

 Still, as he ate he wondered, and wondering admired, that 

 nature, in giving him such profound gastronomic powers, 

 and such transcendent capabilities of digestion, had yet 

 bountifully provided an edible so peculiarly adapted to his 

 ostrich-like appetite, that after consuming nearly his own 

 weight in rich and fat buffalo-meat, he felt as easy and as 

 little incommoded as if he had lightly supped on straw- 

 berries and cream. 



Sweet was the digestive pipe after such a feast ; soft 

 was the sleep and deep, which sealed the eyes of the con- 

 tented trappers that night. It felt like the old thing, they 

 said, to be once more amongst the "meat;" and, as they 

 were drawing near the dangerous portion of the trail, they 

 felt at home ; although they now could never be confident, 

 when they lay down at night upon their buffalo-robes, of 

 awaking again in this life, knowing, as they did, full well, 

 that savage men lurked near, thirsting for their blood. 



However, no enemies showed themselves as yet, and they 

 proceeded quietly up the river, vast herds of buffaloes 

 darkening the plains around them, affording them more 

 than abundance of the choicest meat ; but, to their credit 

 be it spoken, no more was killed than was absolutely 

 required unlike the cruel slaughter made by most of the 

 white travellers across the plains, who wantonly destroy 

 these noble . animals, not even for the excitement of sport, 

 but in cold-blooded and insane butchery. La Bonte had 

 practice enough to perfect him in the art, and, before the 

 buffalo range was passed, he was ranked as a first-rate 

 hunter. One evening he had left the camp for meat, and 

 was approaching a band of cows for that purpose, crawling 

 towards them along the bed of a dry hollow in the prairie, 

 when he observed them suddenly jump towards him, and 

 immediately afterwards a score of mounted Indians ap- 

 peared, whom, by their dress, he at once knew to be Paw- 



