256 THE AI) VENTURES OF 



The sun was beginning to sink, and hunger dictated to 

 us that we should hasten our steps. I therefore led my 

 companions towards the bivouac. We had but just start- 

 ed again, when five or six hares came giddily running al- 

 most between our legs. Lucien was skillful enough to 

 shoot one, and Sumichrast knocked down another. L'En- 

 cuerado loaded with the game, we proceeded to our hut. 



Being now reassured as to our bill-of-fare for dinner by 

 this unexpected windfall, I kept on walking towards the en- 

 trance of a glade, the soil of which, being quite burrowed, 

 betrayed the presence of the moles. Each of us lay down 

 under the shade of a tree. Chance led me under a robinia 

 or iron-wood tree, the trunk of which will defy the best- 

 tempered axe. In front of me stood a tepehuage, a kind 

 of mahogany- tree, with dark-colored foliage, which will be- 

 come, some day, the object of considerable trade between 

 Europe and Mexico ; the beauty of this red wood, veined 

 with black, renders it highly fitted for the manufacture of 

 furniture. 



Gringalet had followed the Indian. I advised Lucien to 

 keep silence, so as to observe the operations of the moles, 

 who would be certain to come out of their burrows as soon 

 as the sun set. In fact, first one, then two, and at last 

 twenty made their appearance; and in less than a quarter 

 of an hour I counted more than a hundred engaged in 

 throwing up the ground, playing about, and fighting, all the 

 time uttering shrill cries. Lucien was much amused as he 

 watched them squatting down on their hinder parts, mak- 

 ing grimaces, and gnawing the roots and bark. 



A single gunshot would have enabled us to double our 

 store of grease, but it would have been a waste of our pow- 

 der and shot. In fear of yielding to the temptation, I was 

 thinking of giving the signal for departure, when it be- 

 came evident that the animals whose games were enlivening 



