HOMES DEVOUBED BY WOLVES. 143 



winds had ceased their ragings, and a clement atmosphere aeemed pouring 

 upon U8 the balm of sympatliy for miseries so recently endured. 



But tlieir direful effects were not thus easily eradicated. The feet of on« 

 poor fellow were so badly frozen, it was three months before he entirely 

 recovered ; while another lost a portion of one of liis ears. A» for myself 

 a severe cold settled in my teeth, producing an intensely painful ach« 

 and swoollen face, that continued for eight or ten days. 



It seems almost miraculous that we should have escaped so easily, and 

 often, even after so long an interval, I shudder at the recollection of this 

 anguishing scene. 



Two days subsequently we reached our destination, and found all things 

 wnWf much in statu quo. 



CHAPTER XII. 



Aaekher drunken spree.— Horses devoured by wolves. — An upset. — A blowinf up.— 

 Daring feat of wolves.— A girl offered for liquor.— Winter on the Platte.~>Boat 

 building.— Hunting expedition. — Journey up the Platte.— Island camp. — Narrow 

 •■cape. — Snow storm —Warm Spring. — Pasa of the Platte into the prairie*. — A 

 ▼alley.— Bitter Cottonwood.— Indian forta. — Wild fruit. — Root-digging. — Cherry 

 tea and its uses. — (reulogy of the country. — Soils, grasses, herbs, plants, and parity 

 of atmosphere.— Horae-shoe creek. — A panther. — Prairie dogs and their pecnitar- 

 itiM. 



OuB intended evacuation of the post waa posponed till the weeic follow- 

 ing, and, meanwhile, the few customers, that still hung on, were careM to 

 Improve the passing opportunity of steeping their senses in hquor. 



Another genera] drunken frolic was the consequence, ending as asoal in 

 a fight and still further attempts upon the hfe of our trader. 



wx)n after this, our catalogue of disasters was increased by the death 

 of two horses, which fell a prey to wolves. 



The case was an aggravated one, and provoking in the extreme. Both 

 of them were " bulfalo horses," and the fleetest and most valuable in oar 

 possession, — in fact, they were tlie only ones of which we ventured to boast 

 We had others of little worth, so poor and feeble they could oppose none 

 fMistance to magpies,* and much less to tlie rapacity of wolves. 



But, no. These blood-tliirsty depredators, desirous of a feast of fat 

 thines, were determined to have it, reckless of cost, — and, the encrimsoi]^ 

 tracks, coursing the snowy plain in every direction where passed the awift 



* The magpie of the mountains is the torment of all soie-boeked horaea, pardenbriy 

 during the winter season. Despite oppceition it will feed upon tLait ifciiilwi taA, 

 «Ahi to tiM very booofc 



