LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 81 



powerful man, but, notwithstanding the deadly wound the 

 Indian had received, he had his equal in strength to con- 

 tend against. The naked form of the Indian twisted and 

 writhed in his grasp as he sought to avoid the trapper's 

 uplifted knife. Many of the latter's companions advanced 

 to administer the coup -de -grace to the savage, but the 

 trapper cried to them to keep off : " If he couldn't whip 

 the Injun," he said " he'd go under." 



At length he succeeded in throwing him, and, plunging 

 his knife no less than seven times into his body, he tore 

 off his scalp, and went in pursuit of the flying savages. 

 In the course of an hour or two all the party returned, 

 and, sitting by the fires, resumed their suppers, which had 

 been interrupted in the manner just described. Walker, 

 the captain of the band, sat down by the fire where he had 

 been engaged in the struggle with the Indian chief, whose 

 body was lying within a few paces of it. He was in the 

 act of fighting the battle over again to one of his compan- 

 ions, and was saying that the Indian had as much life in 

 him as a buffalo bull, when, to the horror of all present, 

 the savage, who had received wounds sufficient for twenty 

 deaths, suddenly rose to a sitting posture, the fire shedding 

 a glowing light upon the horrid spectacle. The face was 

 a mass of clotted blood, which flowed from the lacerated 

 scalp, whilst gouts of blood streamed from eight gaping 

 wounds in the naked breast. 



Slowly this frightful figure rose to a sitting posture, and, 

 bending slowly forward to the fire, the mouth was seen 

 to open wide, and a hollow gurgling owg-h-h broke 

 from it. 



"H !" exclaimed the trapper and jumping up, he 

 placed a pistol to the ghastly head, the eyes of which 

 sternly fixed themselves on his, and, pulling the trigger, 

 blew the poor wretch's skull to atoms. 



The Gila passes through a barren sandy country, with 

 but little game, and sparsely inhabited by several differ- 

 ent tribes of the great nation of the Apache. Unlike the 

 rivers of this western region, this stream is, in most parts 

 of its course, particularly towards its upper waters, entirely 

 F 



