MAJOR NEIGHBOURS. 131 
tribes, gave him a fund of information and insight into their 
habits, wants, and. the best means of treating with them— 
invaluable to him in his official capacity, and —— interest- 
.ing to the ethnologist and tourist. 
The Major had been a state prisoner twenty-two months in 
the Castle of Perote, during the Texas revolution, and was a 
fine specimen of a frontier man in the prime of life. His co- 
operation effected the best results for the expedition. 
The Captain having left directions that we should move on 
slowly in the direction of the Little Witchita, and there wait 
his return with the exploring party, we moved the train, at 
eight, a. m., ten miles, to good water, on a branch of the Big 
Witchita. 
Our course had been northerly, passing over a most sterile 
waste, with the rocks of igneous formation, many of the bluffs 
stratified with soapstone and abounding in fossil. 
One of the Indians shot a spotted jackass rabbit, a very 
curious specimen, spotted similarly to those kept by the fan- 
ciers, evidently not of pure breed, but a cross between the 
common wild rabbit and this species.* 
he day was intensely hot, thermometer one hundred and 
two degrees in the shade; but arrived at camp, we found a 
* I have been met with an objection in describing this specimen, as to its 
origin, but I can find no evidence that species of the same genus will not pro- 
pagate in contact with other species of the same genus. On the contrary, the 
Rela 8 Pea wemneree * the same a gee St. haaaitesasincusdeeiade 
covy producing an excellent cross for the table; “as instances are known of 
een the dog and the wolf. 
