290 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



I had supposed that my only chance of escape lay in keep- 

 ing one direction, for, that circling commenced, each turn 

 made lessened the chances. But now that I came to reason 

 somewhat coolly about my position, it became apparent to me, 

 that in this time I had, in pursuing this straight line, passed 

 over more than treble the possible distance to the plantation 

 of my friend, and that, of course, I must therefore either have 

 taken the wrong direction or have passed it without observing. 

 Then commenced that fatal series of doubts, fears, surmises, 

 trials, in this and that direction, which is usually the indica- 

 tion of syncope in this disease of getting lost. Each failure 

 only bewilders you the more each turn makes " confusion 

 worse confounded." But, nevertheless, some change had be- 

 come necessary. I might be every moment going away from 

 the reach of help getting deeper and deeper into the track- 

 less waste ! But which way shall I turn ? I now remembered, 

 for the first time, that I had failed to trust any thing to my 

 horse in choosing my direction. 



If I had done so in the first place, the chances were that 

 the extraordinary instinct possessed by many of these animals, 

 would have carried me right ! I have, in frequent instances, 

 found this instinct infallible, especially when the animal was 

 closely crossed upon the Arab blood. That noble race, which 

 bore the earliest children of Ham in the chase across the 

 shifting deserts, inherits all the strange instincts, with regard 

 to courses and distances, which the wild and perilous uses of 

 their hunter-lords developed in them, through the centuries 

 which have developed as well our civilization. They are, 

 therefore, best suited, until the camel comes, to traverse with 

 security the " unhoused wilderness" of the great south-west. 

 That wonderful animal has not yet been introduced upon 

 these plains, although much has been done by myself and 

 others to awaken public attention to its importance. Such 

 an advent will entirely revolutionize the commerce and travel 



