150 In the United States vi 



in a country far north of that in which we hunted 

 last year, which has rarely been visited. I think 

 that the Indians saw the hunting ; at any rate, a few 

 miles off the oddest puffs of black smoke began to 

 rise in the air, one after another, in a line of, perhaps, 

 two miles in length. They were evidently caused 

 by lighting lumps of grass and then suddenly 

 putting them out again. The next day we moved 

 up the stream some twenty miles, and just as I had 

 killed a buck, I saw opposite to me, and two miles 

 off, the same number of puffs of smoke arise as 

 before, showing that the brutes had been watching 

 me steadily and had gone up abreast of our party ! 

 However, I fancy that they thought that we were 

 too strong for them, and we got in yesterday with 

 our scalps on. This is the last bit of Indian danger 

 we are likely to have ; and I for one am not sorry, 

 for there is a certain feeling of anxiety about the top 

 of one's head when one walks about with one's life 

 in one's hand. Tell the learned one that rattle- 

 snakes have been quite plentiful this year ; in fact, 

 we have been obliged to be very careful in our deer- 

 stalking on foot. They " whizz " quite sharply, but 

 more slowly, not up and down, but in lateral coils, 

 turning the head first one way and then another, not 

 raised more than an inch or two above the ground, 

 watching for an opportunity to strike. But they are 

 slow, stupid brutes and do not strike at any distance. 

 When on horseback, one can put them down with 

 the butt of the rifle and pull the rattle off the tail 



