ISO S PORTING ADVENTURES 



this most welcome shelter, we reached the flank of the Indians 

 and opened a fierce fire, which soon caused them to give way 

 in the most precipitous manner. Our lusty cheers on seeing 

 this were answered by the others, and a minute later by a 

 rattling- volley and a wild hurrah from the mountain side. 

 The latter seemed to have fairly demoralized our foes, for they 

 broke away from our front panic-stricken, and fled beyond 

 the range of our rifles in a few moments. "When we saw this 

 we returned to our horses, and mounting them in the twink- 

 ling of an eye, dashed to the left, and got several shots at 

 some braves who were trying to escape from the forest, and 

 these forced them back again, when they were received by 

 other volleys delivered by concealed foes. Every Indian who 

 was killed on foot was no sooner struck than he gave a wild 

 yell, jumped high into the air, then fell back dead. These 

 preliminaries to dying are, I believe, peculiar to the red race. 



This attack decided the fate of the day, for the Indians 

 fled in every direction, while we pursued them over hill and 

 dale, dropping one every now and then. We were in hopes 

 of reaching their camp before they could get it away, but in 

 this we were disappointed, and when we reached there nothing 

 was left of it but a few old tepees and some poles and peltries 

 which they could not carry off in the hurry of their flight, 

 The noise of the firing had evidently warned the squaws of 

 their danger, and while the warriors were fighting they took 

 time by the forelock, and escaped to safer quarters. 



When our party had assembled once more, we found that 

 the ten men who had been sent back to the valley returned 

 on hearing the continuous fusillade, and getting in rear of 

 the enemy, a feat easilv performed owing to the wooded 

 character of the hill, had opened such a destructive fire on 

 him from cover that he was compelled to ivtreat in a panic. 

 Our loss in this affair was two men killed and eight wounded, 

 while that of the Indians must have been four or five times 

 as much, as our rilles were far superior to theirs, and our 

 shooting was certainly far more accurate. 



As soon as we felt sure that our foe had fled for good, ;i 

 party was sent back to thr mining village with the dead and 



