372 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



continue. What a fool I was to have lain there mumblins 

 like a toothless crone, who pleads with death for one hour 

 more of palsied life, when my veins are full of life. I am 

 strong, and there is enough to eat scattered over the earth 

 A child could hardly ask for more ! I soon collected enough 

 to make a meal. Oh, ye epicures, tell me not of your 

 crustaceous delicacies, out of the deep sea. Snails — snails 

 that grow upon the sands for me ; though they are rather 

 light food for a walk of three hundred miles, it must be 

 confessed. 



Being refreshed in my inner man, I looked at matters 

 very coolly. The plain must be crossed ; it lay between me 

 and life; and the sooner the attempt was made the better. 

 So I girded up my loins and started towards the sunrise. 

 All that I knew about the course was, that we came west, 

 and therefore east must be the direction back. 



There were no objects to assist me in keeping the right 

 line. I must walk with my shadow behind me in the morning, 

 and before me in the evening, looking steadily at the horizon, 

 my gaze fixed upon some slight feature, a wave or curve of 

 its contour just under the sun. All day long I walked with 

 my eyes fixed on something, which turned out to be nothing 

 that could be distinguished from the vast level plain around 

 when I reached it. Yet, I felt that I had kept the line, 

 and that was a great deal. I had always to stop before it 

 grew dark, to look for snails and water. For a day or 

 two the snails were abundant, and I came to water at least 

 once a day, but then they both began to grow scarce. The 

 gnawings and parchings of hunger and thirst commenced 

 at the same time. I could no longer keep my course steadily, 

 for my eyes must be employed all the while in looking for 

 food and water. A herd of Mustangs would go by now and 

 then, stop a moment to shake their silky manes, snort and 

 stare in startled wonder, and then sweep on before I could 

 approach within gun shot. The deer would rise lazily from 



