FLY TIME. 51 
myself, swam our horses and mules across, and started for 
Fort Washita (twenty-five miles distant), leading our spare 
horses, to procure for them good forage and attendance for a 
few days, previous to ete upon our long journey across 
the plains. 
Did the reader ever undertake to lead a etaclaks horse, 
across an open country, in fly-time, with the thermometer at 
ninety-eight in the shade. If he did, he can fully sympathize 
with us, if he did not, he cannot feel a tithe of the excru- 
ciating torture of the operation. i : 
The green flies—our quondam torturers—again made their 
appearancé, and this time—it seemed to me—more famished 
than ever, Our led horses, rendered half frantic, would dart 
first on one side of us, then on the other, sometimes come 
charging up to rub themselves against the ridden horse, who, 
rendered steadier by the rein, was of friendly assistance for 
this purpose—then again, rolling upon the ground and 
jerking back, or pulling forward, until our arms were nearly 
dislocated, such is a faint picture of our situation, under 
circumstances. 2 2 
* Arrived on the banks’of the Blue. (he streams all have 
appropriate names in this country, as for instance, the Boggy, 
‘whose peculiarities I have described; the Brushy, whose. 
banks are tangled almost impassably, with briars and bram- 
bles, and.the Blue, whose waters are a deep blue, from 
running over a bed of soft blue limestone and clay). My 
