ee NOTES TAKEN. 
_ shade was exhilarating and refreshing, our party all in fine | 
spirits and full of enthusiasm for the new scenes we were to 
pass through. 
After an hour or two’s march, one of our party saw a 
blanket tied to a mesquite tree, and fluttering in the distance. 
Such signals are always to be approached with caution on 
the plains, as they are almost invariably a decoy of some 
lurking savage, who thus, by exciting curiosity, lures his 
victim within range of the deadly rifle or arrow. 
Approaching it cautiously, our guide, John Conner, gave. 
us the agreeable intelligence, that John Jacobs, who had 
been sent in advance to seek for water and camping ground, 
_ had shot a fat buck and took this means of calling our atten- 
tion to it; and a noble Specimen he was, very fat, with a full 
head of horns just in the velyet,* so that instead of a Caman- 
che, we had caught a gem for the larder. He was soon 
skinned and ready for transportation to camp. 
We marched on, with the rays of a glorious sunset pro- 
longing the eyening until a late hour shining upon us, and 
* Racirc Gira } t 1 +h Theh Pie t ‘ y 
ch 
unbranching. 
They shed them every year, and each os head of horns has an addi- 
tional branch, 
Whilst the horns are growing to full size, they are covered with a soft velvety 
skin. This is what is meant by horns in the velvet. 
The horns now begin to itch and make the animal restless, who to relieve 
himself rubs them in the bushes and against the trees until the velvet disap- 
pears, and the solid bone is — underneath. At the time of Ebest: | off 
the velvet, the bucks h 
oe ges eee nee Peep 
coyered vely shreds fi the h 
