NATURE'S REALM. 13 
coyed the sailors to their doom was no more 
deceitful than this island-dotted lake, which 
the deluded wanderer, with staggering foot- 
steps, is vainly striving to approach. The grove- 
encircled lake with its wave-kissed ledges and 
its delicious tree-shadowed islands, is the mock- 
ing mirage—that elusive phantom which floats 
spectre-like over the desert plains as does the 
shadow of a drifting cloud. 
Long before the evening shadows have length- 
ened across the thankless plains the tempting 
vision of water, islands and rocky ledges, like a 
will-o’-the-wisp of the swamps, has faded 
silently trom view, leaving the unhappy victim 
to sink exhausted and dying upon the desert, a 
feast for the wolves and vultures. 
The farewell kisses of the setting sun were 
suffusing the brows of the purple hills with 
deep vermilion blushes, and the ravens were 
returning to their haunts of repose among the 
sheltering ledges, when I abandoned my relic- 
hunting for the day and set out on my return 
trip to camp. 
After proceeding for a mile or so along the 
dry bed of a torrent the trail suddenly diverged 
to the right and entered a cafion, the steep, 
perpendicular walls of which the long-contin- 
ued erosion of the elements had transformed 
into a strange resemblance to the ruins of an 
ancient city. Indeed, so perfect was the archi- 
tectural resemblance of what appeared to be 
a stately cathedral, that, had the solemn chant 
of the Ze dewm floated from the ruined doorway, 
or the soft, exalted sound of a bell from the 
crumbling tower been wafted to my ears, the 
illusion would have been complete. 
Whilst hastening along through the fast fad- 
ing twilight my ears were occasionally saluted 
with the dismal and satanic howl of a solitary 
wolf, just emerged from its lair in some gloomy 
cafion, and hailing the approaching advent of 
the congenial darkness with yells of melan- 
choly rapture. These lonely domains are in- 
fested with many species of wild beasts, which 
begin their prowlings at nightfall, and it was 
when I espied a dark object cross the trail a 
short distance beyond me and disappear in the 
dusky gloom, that I began to reflect upon the 
danger of being thus alone at night in the Bad 
Lands ; for, with the exception of my hunting 
knife, which I carried in my belt, my weapons 
consisted of nothing but a light fowling piece 
belonging to my guide, and in a possible en; 
counter with a bear or mountain lion my 
attempts at defense could only have resulted in 
disaster. However, I soon arrived safely at 
camp, and, replenishing the yet smouldering 
fire with an armful of sage shrubs, I prepared 
my supper of coffee, biscuits and a portion of 
grouse left over from my noonday meal. 
At the conclusion of my lonely repast, while 
arranging the cooking utensils on a low, flat 
rock, over which Felix, previous to his depar- 
ture, had spread a blanket ana disposed thereon 
such articles belonging to our camp parapher- 
nalia not required on his journey, I perceived 
that he had also left behind his violin—an in- 
strument, by the way, which he touched so 
abominably that, in order to avoid distraction, 
I had thus far bribed him liberally to retrain 
from vexing my ears with any of his discord- 
ant melodies. 
Being somewhat fatigued after my day’s 
tramp, I placed a fresh supply of sticks on my 
fire, and, having arranged my couch of buffalo 
robes and blankets, I turned in for the night. 
The moon was appearing above the horizon, 
and its lambent glare invested the wild pano- 
rama of surrounding hills with an imposing 
and supernatural glory, and, to further enhance 
the sense of loneliness and isolation which all 
day long had haunted me like an incubus, one 
of those sudden breezes peculiar to the country 
had now risen anc was sweeping disconsolately 
through the caverned ledges, grieving and la- 
menting like a banshee. 
From the hour when I retired until far into 
the night my slumbers were uneasy and fitful. 
I was somehow oppressed with an unaccount- 
able apprehension that I was not alone in my 
solitary camp in the Bad Lands—that some- 
where amid the hovering shadows there lurked 
a presence, but whether human or fiend I was 
unable to comprehend. Years of experience 
by lonely camp-fires in the wilderness had ren- 
dered my hearing faculties so acute that even 
the stealthy tread of a moccasined Indian would 
scarcely have escaped detection. 
However, in my waking moments the brood- 
ing wilderness’ hush was broken only by the 
