48 THE PLAINS. 



appalling. Everything appears changed and unnatural ; 

 the most ordinary events appear to possess unusual 

 significance ; the nerves become unstrung, and the man 

 soon loses control of himself entirely. I have been told 

 of two instances where lost men, when found and 

 approached by parties sent in search of them, made off 

 in the greatest terror, escaping by almost superhuman 

 efforts from their friends, to die of starvation in the 

 wilderness. 



When serving in Texas, a soldier of my company 

 became ' lost ' while returning to the post from a small 

 village two miles off. A party was sent out to search for 

 him, and on the second or third day came upon him 

 almost naked in a little thicket. As soon as he dis- 

 covered the party, he bounded off like a deer and was 

 pursued. After an exciting chase he climbed a tree, 

 from which he was taken by force, and with the greatest 

 difficulty struggling, striking, and biting like a wild 

 animal. He was brought back to the post perfectly wild 

 and crazy, confined, and watched and attended with the 

 greatest care for over a month before he recovered his 

 mind. He was an excellent man, more than usually 

 intelligent; but I doubt if he ever fully recovered the 

 shock. He recollected nothing but going a little distance 

 off the road for something and getting ' turned round ' 

 and realising that he was lost. 



Once in Texas, when quite a young man, I went 

 hunting with the acting post surgeon, an enthusiastic 

 sportsman, but a very nervous excitable man. After we 

 had been out a few hours a heavy fog settled down upon 

 us, completely shutting out the sun and all landmarks. 

 On examining our pockets we found we had left our 

 compasses at home. The doctor became very much 

 excited, and soon developed a symptom of the plains 

 insanity ' to keep moving.' We were in a triangle 

 formed by two large branches of a stream crossed by a 

 road, and I explained to him that we could not possibly 



