HARD FATE. 145 



empty craft over the shoals, and again load it, perhaps, to re-act the same 

 scene in a brief interval. 



Sometimes we were obliged to travel (for such navigation as this was 

 tenfold worse than travelling) four of five miles to make one mile headway. 

 By crossing and re-crossing a river varying in width from one to two miles — 

 first advancing, then retreating ; now taking to the right, then to the left ; 

 now transverse, and then oblique, we wasted our time, strength, and pa- 

 tience, in labor to little or no purpuse. No one, unless practically experi- 

 enced, can have a correct idea of the beauties of such a voyage. 



Towards night, attracted by the appearance of a couple of bulls among 

 the sand-hills, we brought to upon the left shore, and succeeded in kiUing 

 one of them, 



•A high wind the day following kept us encamped and aflTorded another 

 opportunity for hunting. 



Improving the occasion to explore the country northward, and obtain, if 

 possible, some correct conception of its general character, a jaunt of four 

 or five miles, over the bottom of rich alluvial soil skirting the river, ushered 

 me into a high rolling prairie, partaking of the mixed nature of the garden 

 and desert. 



The hills, in many places, were piles of sand or sun-baked clay, with 

 scarcely a shrub or spire of grass to hide their nude deformity, while the 

 space between them sported a rich soil and luxuriant vegetation, and was 

 clothed in the verdure and loveliness of spring, and adorned with blushing 

 wild-flowers in full bloom. 



Further on were yet higher summits, surmounted by pines and cedars, 

 raising their heads in stately grandeur far above the sweet valleys at their 

 feet. 



Taken together, the scenery was not only romantic and picturesque, but 

 bewitching in its beauty and repulsive in its deformity. 



The prevailing rock was a dark, ferruginous sandstone, and argillaceous 

 limestone, interspersed with conglomerates of various kinds. 



Proceeding to a distance of about fifteen miles from the river, in hopes 

 of finding game, I encountered nothing save a solitary band of wild horses, 

 that fled across the sand-hills with the fleetness of the wind on my appear- 

 ance, after which I returned to the boat much fatigued from the excursion. 



Our other hunters had also ipturned ; but neither of them with better 

 success than myself. 



The subsequent morning we again renewed our voyage. Soon after, an 

 old bull presenting himself upon the river bank, we landed, and one of the 

 crew approached him from the water-edge. 



The old fellow, unconscious of the danger which threatened, permitted 

 the hunter to advance till within three or four yards of him. The sharp crack 

 of a rifle-shot first awoke him to a sense of his situation, when, reeling, he 

 plunged headlong from the steep bank into the river. Our marksman, in 

 an effort to dodge ^he falling beast, tumbled backwards into swimming wa- 

 ter — lost his gun, and came very near being drowned. 



The bull made halt at a sand-bar, near by, and received nineteen shots in 

 his carcase before he could be dispatched. 

 10 



