

RECONNOITRING THE ENEMY. 143 



more decided and more skilfully meditated part than the 

 bird of prey. In the domestic economy of these interest- 

 ing phalansteries, he acts as a true sycophant, who 

 audaciously invades the asylum of the honest and credu- 

 lous marmot. Nevertheless, in his leisure hours he 

 crunches one of the offspring of his hosts, and we may 

 easily infer that he secretly permits himself some com- 

 pensations beyond and in addition to those accorded to 

 drudging parasites. 



A few weeks later, as we were returning to Saint 

 Louis, we discovered one evening, near the camp, an 

 immense burrow of prairie dogs, excavated in a valley 

 formed by two ridges of calcareous rocks, not far from a 

 spring flowing in the midst of these rocks, and feeding a 

 silvery brook, which watered the entire length of the 

 valley. The clatter of our horses' hoofs had terrified all 

 the inhabitants of the subterranean village; two enormous 

 owls alone, perched upon a hillock, remained to recon- 

 noitre the enemy who was invading their territory. Proud 

 and bold as fighting-cocks, they seemed to defy danger ; 

 their large open eyelids discovered eyes shining like phos- 

 phorus. Two long plumes, like horns, surmounted their 

 head, and gave them a very fantastical aspect. You 

 would readily have taken them to be the guardians of 

 a devastated graveyard. So they waited our coming, 

 until we had got them within rifle range; then suddenly, 

 and without our being able to explain how it was done, 

 they disappeared in the bowels of the earth, like Bertram 

 in the fifth act of Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable. One of 

 my hunting companions even went so far as to declare 

 that he saw a flame leap up from the spot where each 



