368 "WILD SPORTS IN THE FAR WEST. 



heard, and "wliat I had experienced myself, he con- 

 firmed it, assuring me that he had tried it with the 

 dog which was then lying at his feet. He said : " I 

 was stretched before the fire one evening, and could 

 not sleep. The dog was lying by me fatigued with 

 his day's work, for we had been out the whole day ; 

 he had been for some time snoring lightly, and now 

 began to scramble with his feet, and to whine and 

 bark in a low tone ; a sure sisrn that he was dreaminsf. 

 I had heard from my father, when I was a child, that 

 any one might have the same dream as a dog, if they 

 can catch it in a handkerchief; so I spread my neck- 

 cloth over the dog's head, and waited in patience till 

 he woke. At length when he left off barking, and 

 raised his head to shake off the unaccustomed covering, 

 I took the cloth, folded it up, and laying it under my 

 head, I was soon asleep ; I dreamed that I was run- 

 ning after a rabbit, with most inexplicable rage, fol- 

 lowing it through the thickest thorn bushes, and as at 

 last it escaped into a hole, I thrust my head into it, 

 and barked, and tried to scrape away the earth to get 

 it out. I have tried it several times since, and always 

 with the same effect." Without being superstitious, 

 I determined to take the next opportunity of repeating 

 the experiment. 



My hunting-shirt being finished, I took a kind leave 

 of the old hunter and his family, and returned to Slow- 

 trap's, with whom I remained only a few days, not- 

 Avithstanding his pressing invitation to pass the summer 

 there, and then proceeded to Kelfer's. From hence I 

 revisited the salt licks, repaired the scaffold, collected 

 kindlers, and passed twelve nights successively under 



