Itocky Mountains* 213 



this wild and savage concert, by barking fiercely in return, 

 no longer rouse us from our sleep by noticing it. 



14th. A slight dew had fallen. The wind was S.S.E. nearly 

 calm, ;md our morning's journey was arduous, in consequence 

 of the great heat of the atmosphere. Our dogs, these two 

 or three days past, had evidently followed us with difficulty. 

 Csesar, a fine mastiff and the larger of the two, this morning 

 trotted heavily forward and threw himself down directly 

 before the first horse in the line: the rider turned his horse 

 aside, to avoid doing Injury to the dog, but had he noticed 

 the urgency of this eloquent appeal of the animal for a halt, 

 it would not have passed unregarded. The dog, finding this 

 attempt to draw attention to his sufferings unavailing, threw 

 himself successively before two or three other horses, but 

 still failed to excite the attention he solicited, until a soldier 

 in the rear observed that his respiration was excessively la- 

 borious, and his tongue to a great length depended from his 

 widely extended mouth. He therefore took the dog upon his 

 horse before him, intending to bathe him, in the river,| which, 

 however, being at the distance of a half mile, the poor ex- 

 hausted animal expired in his arms, before he reached it. To 

 travellers, in such a country, any domesticated animal, howev- 

 er abject, becomes an acceptable companion, and our dogs, be- 

 sides their real usefulness as guards at night, drew our atten- 

 tion in various ways during the day, and became gradually so 

 endeared to us, that the loss of Caesar was felt as a real evil. 

 The afternoon continued sultry, the extreme heat being 97 

 degrees. Towards evening, a brisk northeast wind appear- 

 ed to proceed from a nimbus which was pouring rain in that 

 direction, and produced so instantaneous and great a change 

 in the atmospheric temperature, that we were obliged to but- 

 ton up to the chin; but it revived and refreshed us all. As 

 we were now approaching a well wooded creek, we hoped 

 soon to assuage our impatient thirst; but great was the 

 mortification, upon arriving at the naked bank, to see a dry 



