290 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 
T had supposed that my only chance of escape lay in keep- 
ing one direction, for, that circling commenced, each turn 
made lessened the chances. But now that I came to reason 
somewhat coolly about my position, it became apparent to me, 
that in this time I had, in pursuing this straight line, passed 
over more than treble the possible distance to the plantation 
of my friend, and that, of course, I must therefore either have 
taken the wrong direction or have passed it without observing. 
Then commenced that fatal series of doubts, fears, surmises, 
trials, in this and that direction, which is usually the indica- 
tion of syncope in this disease of getting lost. Each failure 
only bewilders you the more—each turn makes “ confusion 
worse confounded.” But, nevertheless, some change had be- 
come necessary. I might be every moment going away from 
the reach of help—getting deeper and deeper into the track- 
less waste! But which way shall I turn? I now remembered, 
for the first time, that I had failed to trust any thing to my 
horse in choosing my direction. 
If I had done so in the first place, the chances were that 
the extraordinary instinct possessed by many of these animals, 
would have carried me right! I have, in frequent instances, 
found this instinct infallible, especially when the animal was 
closely crossed upon the Arab blood. That noble race, which 
bore the earliest children of Ham in the chase across the 
shifting deserts, inherits all the strange instincts, with regard 
to courses and distances, which the wild and perilous uses of 
their: hunter-lords developed in them, through the centuries 
which have developed as well our civilization. They are, 
therefore, best suited, until the camel comes, to traverse. with 
security the “unhoused wilderness” of the great south-west. 
That wonderful animal has not yet been introduced upon 
these plains, although much has been done by myself and 
others to awaken public attention to its importance. Such 
an advent will entirely revolutionize the commerce and travel 
