140 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 
you of it.” His throat filled with blood, Lis 
voice failed, the cold hand of death was on his 
brow, feebly and hurriedly he muttered, “Iam 
a dying man, farewell!” 
Alas! it, is painful to me, death in any 
shape; in this it was horrible, for there was no 
hope. The rattling of his throat announced the 
moment of his dissolution, and already did the 
body fall on my arms with a weight which was 
insupportable. I laid him on the ground. A 
mass of dark blood poured from his mouth, then 
came a frightful groan, the last breathing of that 
foul spirit, and all that now lay at my feet, in 
that wild desert, was a mangled mass of clay! 
The remainder of that night was passed in no 
enviable mood, but my feelings cannot be de 
scribed. At dawn I dug a hole with the paddle 
of my canoe, rolled the body into it, and covered 
it. On reaching the boat, I found several buz- 
zards feeding on the bodies, which I in vain 
attempted to drag to the shore. I therefore 
covered them with mud and reeds, and launch- 
ing my canoe, paddled from the cove, with a 
secret joy at my escape, shadowed with the 
glvom of a mingled dread and abhorrence 
