METAPHYSICS OF BEAR HUNTING.: 875 
rage within me; and famine would tear and wrench at my 
vitals. Thirst, fiery thirst, would seethe, and boil, and shoot 
like electric flame along my veins. 
In this condition I had been moving along like one in a 
dreadful dream, for two days, and yet no alleviation. I still 
clung to my gun; but, merciful heavens! how heavy it had 
become. It felt like Goliath’s beam; sunk into my flesh, 
and seemed to be crushing the very bones. Yet I would 
not give it up. I could not bear the thought of being killed 
without the opportunity of revenge. It would have been a 
glorious happiness to have met the Comanches, and died 
defiant. Those fiend-whelps, the wolves, to have them 
snarling their white fangs over me, while I was yet alive, 
was too horrible. — 
I had almost lost the capability of further wrestling with 
inevitable fate, when I suddenly noticed on the prairie before 
me, that which appeared like a cluster of trees. I was strong 
again in an instant. My feet seemed to bu shod with some 
buoyant principle. ‘Water! water! water.” my parched 
lips. articulated at every step. As I approached, I could 
perceive there were other “motts’” scattered at wide intervals 
of miles in a line across the plain. This I knew indicated 
the presence of a stream; and oh, what a thrill of hope, for 
I was humbled now, it sent through my weakened frame. 
In an hour I reached the nearest “mott,”—a cluster of 
scrubby timber, covering about thirty square feet—and I 
almost screamed with eager delight, as I saw from the gully 
on which it stood, the gleam of water. I dropped my gun, 
tumbled down the bank, threw myself prostrate on the brink, 
and plunged my head up to the shoulders in the clear fluid. 
I gulped several huge rapid swallows on the instant; but 
when I paused for breath—horror of horrors !—Great God! 
it was as salt as brine! It all came up in an instant, and it 
was like tearing out my vitals. The blackness of darkness 
came around my brain. I was insensible. 
