FOREST AND STREAM. 
sandals in place of shoe*. Properly officered, there are no 
belter troops in the world; they are always in light march- 
ing order. A forced march will, them n somethin* almost 
incredible, and would throw “Bl.endau s Ride in the 
* h Aftcr a few days* lounging around between Matamoraa 
and Brownsville, 'we commenced making preparations for 
a hunting trip on the American aide, and on Monday, every- 
thing being Hxcd. we atarted off at ten o clock in good 
htvle. Our party consisted of Don Benito, Don Ramon, 
Dr. C. and bis non, a bright, smart little chup of six years, 
and four servants. Our impedimenta was earned in a 
wagon drawn by four mi'les. Don Benito, little Fred, and 
myself were drawn by two horses. Don Ramon, Dr. 0 , and 
two servants on horseback. Just as wcMlarUd, Dr. L. was 
called off. and he left, promising to Join us at Barrancas. 
We carried two Purdy’s C. F. B. L., twelve gauge; one 
R.-11 pv'h ditto, one muzzle loader, one Remington, one 
Hl.nrn one Winchester rifle, and a full supply of revolvers 
and hunting knives; also three good dogs— one fine seder 
and two pointers. Leaving Brownsville, we struck across 
the Palo Alto prairie, then through the ehapparal till to- 
wards afternoon, when we got Into a wooded country. 1 he 
trees were all verv low and very crooked, consisting mostly 
of mesnnlle, black and r«d ebony. The roads are decided- 
ly primitive; the trees arc cut down, but the stumps are 
left to mark the spot ami to upset the careless driver. On 
the >on<l we met people going to market. Instead of wag 
ons. they use small donkeys. On them you will see fowls 
tied by the legs ami thrown across; some with a lug load 
of wood on each side; others with an immense load of 
grass, almost hiding the animal. A man will drive a num- 
ber of them. I was amazed to soothe great number und 
variety of hawks and eagles, 1 counted no less than four- 
teen kinds that day. Now and then n Jackass rabbit, a 
beautifully colored, long-eared animal, would atrejik jit down 
the road. 1 caught a glimpse of a phmnno, u bird about 
lb,- aizc of a ruffed grouse; it takes wing but very seldom, 
but runs very fast through the undergrowth. It is very de- 
structive to vermin, and when turned makes the best kind 
of a household pet. Our route was an exceedingly crooked 
one In Spanish countries a cross is always erected on 
the spot Where a murder was committed, and along tilt 
route we took 1 counted over twenty. I lie ground o 
nemo parts of the road was baked so hard by the sun that 
U “naked precisely like frozen mud. One gran liano 
(thickets of dwurf thorns) looked like a thicket on a frostv 
morning; the bushes being covered with n white bark. A 
little before sunset we reined up at the Barrancas, on the 
side of the road near a farm house. 
Dinner being lu order, we soon had a lire. One of the 
servants brought from the farm house a couple of small 
kids slung ucrosH ids saddle. The price here is twenty live 
cents each. Being Interested 111 the modus opera n ill, 1 
watched proceedings. First, one of the kids throat was 
cut. and H pan held under it to catch the blood. 1 he man 
holding the pnn added line salt to the blood und stii red t 
un After tho blood hud flowed out the kid was skinned, 
and the body cut up nml slewed; when nearly done cook- 
ing the blood was added to it. 1 he heads were roasted in 
the italics Boon our meal was ready, and I found llic Blow 
Jeally delicious. Lounging around till. eight I - *»., wo 
rolleS In our blankets, and, with a cigar in mouth, wu cm 
loved small talk till one by one we dropped asleep. 
3 Our sleep, however, was not very peaceful, lor now nml 
then aome of the belligerent bulls l mm the prairies would 
have a combat, ami once or twice wo had to throw lira- 
brands at them to keep them from charging directly on us. 
At mldnl {lit our (logs commenced to bay, und sou n we 
heard horses coming at a l'ull lope, and m u few minutes 
Dr e nml his guide rode up. NN e gave the Doctor some 
coffee and while chatting around the tiro had a heait) 
laugh til the Doctor, lie was telling in Spanish of passing 
a nmcho whore u grand dance was going oil, and one ol 
the party was playing on u— (here he gave by mistake the 
word smallpox insiead of a musical instrument.) As theie 
was such a roar of laughtet, and not understanding bpuii- 
isli 1 had to get Don Benito io translate it lor me. \N e 
loin turned in again, and slept till early morn At sunrise 
we took some coffee and started; and, by the 1 lU ” 1 
admire tho custom here of smiling tor a days rule with 
* ,jly u cup of coffee in one's commissary chest, ami wail- 
.ill i he halt at sunset lor breakfast, lunch, dinner, and 
ll don't agree with my bye-laws, to say nothing 
'•lltulion. At noon we crossed the lord on the 
,j 0 and at two I’. AI. teitched the rancho of 
’ * Ucre, while wailing lor the wagon to come 
lin fuu Ascii with shooting hawks, doves, part- 
ridges unn ik rabbits. When tho wagon came up we 
took a lunch, and then slnvlcd out to see if wo could get 
u deer or a turkey . 1 went out with Dr. L. and a vaquero, 
but we did not eomo across any game. At dark wu re- 
luraed to camp, and found that Don Benito lmd shot a 
lingo /a rife, twild boar.) After a hearty supper we aid on 
our blankets ami slept til! daw n, or milter, 1 should have 
said, till an hour bcloro day. ’1 ho coffee was soon leady, 
and your correspondent, not being a stickler for frontier 
etiquette, mowed away a brnco ol hardtacks. Having the 
horses saddled nml brought up, "c divided our parly and 
started. Don Benito, a vaquero, and myself taking one 
• . .. ,i Don Benito was mounted ou an American horse, the 
vumiero nud myself on mustangs Your correspondent s 
chances of learning to ride horseback lmd been very lim- 
ited the last exploit in that line having been a bareback 
ri, io from Richmond to Chaffin's Bluff in imH. My mod- 
esty naturully compelled ute to keep well in the rem. tor 
thJlirll quarter of a mile 1 Honk 1 would have given boo 
to have been mounted footbuck. In half an hour l bad 
become accustomed to my seat, and trotted faster uttci wu 
vest By daylight wo had passed through the ehappa.al 
aud struck out ou the prairie. The morning was very log- 
cv We rode till noon, aud then returned to camp wiin- 
out firing a shot. Don Ramon having remained in camp, 
had fixed up a good dinner for us. In the afternoon we 
took the dogs aud went after partridge, and had some rare 
►Oort. To me, like all new coiners, the lmwks proved a 
great temptatiou, and 1 knocked ovci several; they are so 
very abundant that one soon tires of shooting them. At 
nightfall wo returned to camp, and enjoyed our coffee, 
cigars, and, more thau all, the pleasant conversation 1 he 
next morning Dr. 0., Don Benito, and a vaquero started 
Utter turkeys. 1 had become disgusted the day before with 
the scarcity of large game, and so did uoi go; but about 
uuuruu 1 took my revolver aud a few cartridges and m rolled 
over to the edge ot tho woods to shoot some JieU rabbits. 
Alter going on lor nearly au hour, 1 thougnt 1 would vt- 
trac* my steps. 1 soon found that the camp was not as 
close as I thought, and after an hour’s walk I came to the 
conclusion that I had lost my bearings. So I sat down to 
smoke, and cogitate over the situation. I then started 
again, determined to find my way out This was easier 
said than done, especially for one not well skilled in wood- 
craft. and particularly in a country like this, where one sees 
trees almost identically the same; the giant cactus before 
vou looks exactly like the one you passed a few minutes 
since Hie little glade before you is the counterpart of the 
one Just crossed. It is of no use to follow any of the in- 
numerable cattle paths, for they were made by stock that 
ranged for miles and miles away. I looked at my watch, 
and found that I hud already been three hours from camp, 
l and felt pretty sure that Don Benito would soon return 
j and make inquiries about me; so I sat down and studied 
more carefully the sun. Soon thinking I bad solved my 
I difficulty, I made another start, aud before long heard three 
! shots ahead of me and more in the rear. 1 concluded 
and, as it proved afterwards, I was correct— that the shots 
I in front did not come from o ir party, unless, indeed, it 
was that Dr. C. hail altered his intended course, so 1 turned 
to the rear In the direction of the other shots, and soon 
heard several more. I then fired rny revolver three times 
! in quick succession, and almost before the noise of the last 
report had died out I heard two shots from a shot gun 
w hich I knew must be in answer to mine. I then walked 
rapidly, and un occasional firing being kept up I kept .my 
course very straight, and after a sharp walk for half an 
hour I Struck a trail that 1 knew I lmd crowed Hie day be- 
fore. Hearing some one cutting wood, I went to the spot 
and found a Mexican plying the axe. Mustering up the 
best Spanish I could, I asked him if I was on the right 
trail to Don ModestaV, he replied "Si, sc nor, und then 
rattled off a lot of Spanish, not a word of which l under- 
stood I spoke to him. saying "Non intenaa h*p.tgnol. 
He laughed heartily, und pointed out my path— the one on 
which I stood. , . ... 
In a few minutes I entered camp, and was greeted wiin 
a shout of laughter. I found that Don Benito lmd re- 
turned and becoming alarmed at my long absence lmd 
started off four or five vaqueros on horseback to bunt me 
up and had tho rest firing at a target with the rifles, winch 
accounted for the firing I had heard. I suggested Dint they 
lmd better pot me in leading strings next time. 1 paid my 
respect to some of Don Ramou’s excellent milk punch, and 
wailed very patiently for dinner, which was on tins day io 
be something extra. It was much of a novelty to me, und 
would no doubt be to many of your readers \Y c were to 
have a pensackic. A fat young heifer Is selected and se- 
curely tied, then thrown down on the side, the throat cut, 
the bloml caught in a pan, salt stirred up in it; the hide is 
then removed from one side, aud the flesh is taken off in 
long strips and hung up. After one side is stripped, the 
body is turned over and treated the same way. I he atom 
adi is then taken out and thoroughly cleansed, and the 
choice pieces or meat and the blood put in; Hie stomach is 
then securely tied and covered with some coarse bagging 
ami then put in u large bole in the ground; over this is pul 
some of the large lobes of the cactus, and the hole filled 
up with earth, and then a rousing file of mcsquitc wood is 
made over it, aud it is left to cook for four or live hours. 
When done it is taken up, the stomach opened, and the 
contents served up inn huge pan. This, with some hot 
tortillas (u thin rake made of line corn meal), makes a royal 
set out. We must not, however, forget the morlo, a sauce 
compounded of sliced onions, fiery red peppers, and vine 
gar. One never forgets the first taste; you feel like you 
had swallowed a red hot stove, and that your eyes were the 
natural outlet for some boiling spring. Just us wo set to, 
Mr. 15. rode over from his rancho and joined us, and in- 
sisted on our breaking up camp and going over to his 
rancho, where game was more abundant. After diuncr we 
amused ourselves at target shooting. 
(To be concluded next week.) 
ACROSS NEWFOUNDLAND. 
INTEUI0U KXFL0HATI0NS — FLORA, FAUNA, AND GEOI.OOI 
CAL F011MATI0N. 
[Confm««? from February 4th. ] 
CHAPTER VII. 
O CTOBER 27th.— Tho Western territory is entirely 
primitive. No rocks appear but granitic. The only 
soil is peat, which vary in quality according to situation. In 
the valleys some patches are very similar to the savanna peat 
in the eastward, but as the peat ascends, becomes shallower 
and lighter until it terminates at the summit of the moun- 
tains in a mere matting; lichens occupy every station, on 
the peat, among the other plants, ami on the bare rock. 
The Arbutus ami lichens occupy the highest resting places 
for vegetation on tho mountain tops. The trees, all vege- 
tating upon peat, are often forced in this region to 
assume new features. The lurch in particular will grow 
in spile of the nipping blasts, nml where jt is not permitted 
to rise erect on the mountain top, as it does on the lower 
stations, it creeps along the ground to leeward, where 
neither the birch nor spruce cun exist. It is thus some- 
time* only a few inches in height, and many feet in length. 
The spruce fir thickets are often only a few feet in height, 
the trees hooked and entangled together in suck a manner 
as to render it practicable to walk upou, but impossible to 
walk through them. In ah extensive Hat, barren truck, 
that lay on our left, there are a number of small, conical 
.shaped granite lulls, clad with sombre spruce, which re- 
semble islands in an ocean of meagre vegetatiou. Yet 
there are here the remains of extensive forests, destroyed 
l»v tire, where now there is not a tree within many miles. 
Neither reptile nor serpent of any kind had yet fallen un- 
der our notice, nor had the Indians ever seen or heard of 
any noxious animal being iu the island. It may therefore 
be concluded that there are none of this class, common on 
the neighboring islands and continent, here. 
Were the agriculturists of the coast to come here, they 
would see herds of reindeer, fat ou natural produce of the 
country, sufficient for the supply of provision to the fisher- 
ies, and the same animal fit, with a little training, to draw- 
sledges at the rate of twenty miles an hour. Nature has 
liberally stocked Newfoundland with herds, finer thau which 
Norw ay aud Lapland cannot boast. Some of the reindeer 
ltov attain the size of six or seven hundred pounds weight, 
aud even upwards. These natural herds are the best 
fcdautcd for this climate and pasture; and it is evident on 
witnessing their numbers, that all that is required to render 
the interior, now in waste, at once a well-stocked grazing 
country could be done through the means of employing 
qualified heals men, who would make themselves familiar 
with and accompany these herds from pasture to pasture, 
as is done in Norway and Lapland with the reindeer there, 
audio Spain with the sheep. TV ben taken young these 
deer become very domestic and tractable Were Hie intel- 
ligent resident inlmbituntsof the coast, who have an interest 
in advancing the country internally, to adopt a plan for ef- 
fecting this object, under their own vigilance, benefits and 
comforts now unthouirht of could be realized. Norwegians 
or Lapland Finns could be easily introduced luto the in- 
terior, if the Indians were unwilling or unfit. 
We met many thousands of the deer, all hastening to the 
eastward on their periodical migration. They had been dis- 
persed since the Spring, on the mountains and barren 
tracts, in the West and northwest division of the interior 
to bring forth und rear their young amidst the profusion ot 
lichens and mountain herbage, and where they were, com- 
paratively with the low lands, free from the persecution ot 
flies. When the first frosts, as now in October, nip vegeta- 
tion. the deer immediately turn towards the South and Lost, 
and the first fall of snow quickens their puce in those direc- 
tions, as we now met them, towards the low grounds 
where browse is to be got and the snow not so deep over 
the lichens. In travelling herd follow herd in rapid suc- 
cession over the whole surface of the country, all bending 
their course the same way in parallel lines. 1 he herds 
consist of from twenty to two hundred each, connected by 
stragglers or piquets, the animals following each other in 
single files, a few yards or feet apart, us their paths show; 
were they to be in close bodies, they could not. graze 
freely. They continue to travel south-eastward until Feb- 
ruary or March, by which the returning sun hits power to 
soften the snow and permit of their scraping it off to ob- 
tain lichens underneath. They then turn round towards 
the West, and in April are again on the rocky barrens and 
mountains where their favorite mossy food abounds the 
most, and wherein June they bring forth their young. In 
October the frosty warning to travel returns. They gener- 
ally follow the same routes year after year, but these some- 
times varv, owing to irregularities in the seasons und inter- 
ruptions by the Indians. Such are, in a general view, the 
courses and causes of the migrations of the deer, and those 
seem to be Hie chief design of animated nature in this por- 
tion of the earth. Lakes and mountains intervening, cause 
the lines of the migration paths to deviate from the par- 
allel; and at the necks of land that separate large lakes, 
ut the extremity of lakes, and at the straits and running 
waters which unite lakes, the deer unavoidably concen- 
trate in travelling. At those passes the Indians encamp m 
parties, aud stay for considerable intervals of time, because 
they can there procure the deer with comparatively little 
trouble. . . 
After the first great fall of snow, although the acclivities 
had been for a few days laid hare by the mild weather, the 
summits of the mountains remained covered, and the snow 
lay in banks in the valleys. Light snow showers after- 
wards occasionally fell, spreading the veil, aud thickening 
the while mantle of Winter iu every direction. We suf- 
fered much at night from the .inclemency of the weather. 
The trees were here generally so stunted and scanty that 
we could hardly collect enough of brushwood aud roots to 
keep a very small lire alive, and then we were unavoidable 
exposed. At one time, for three nights in succession, we 
could not find a dry spot of ground to lie upon. In such 
situations the waul of sleep attended the want of tlicller; 
and it was a contest between frost and fire which should 
have the supremacy over our bodies. Although wc could 
shoot deer at intervals every day, no supply of food was 
adequate to support the system under the exhaustion and 
load of painful fatigue which we had to undergo. For my 
part 1 could measure my strength— that it would not obey 
the will aud drag along the frame beyond two weeks more. 
Still it was cheering to hope that* space of time would 
carry us to the west coast. Ever since we left the last party 
of Indians, my Indian disputed with me about the course 
we should pursue, he obstinately insisting upon going to 
the southward. Perhaps he had a secret desire not to puss 
loo near the Red Indian country, or he many have heard 
thul some of liis tribe were eueumped in the direction lie 
was inclined to go. As a separation might have led to ser- 
ious consequences, I submited from necessity. 
October 28th . — The small lakes were sufficiently frozen 
over for us to walk upon them. As we advanced west- 
ward the aspect of the country became more dreary, and 
the primitive features more boldly marked. Pointed 
mountains of course red grnuilc, standing apart, lay in ail 
directions northerly and southerly of each oilier. Most of 
them are partially shrouded with firs, bald, and capped 
with snow. As we lteured the south end of an extensive 
lake iu order to get round it, we observed a low islet near the 
middle entirely covered with u large species of gull. Those 
birds seemed os if they had congregated to take flight be- 
fore the lake was frozen over. 1 named this lake iu honor 
of a friend at the liar in Edinburgh, “Wilson’s Lake.” At 
wi a i i U.IIU at tut; tmi in n inuu 9 utuu, .u 
the extreme south end we hud to lord a rapid river of con- 
siderable size, running to the southward, which, from its 
position, we inferred was “Little River,” and which dis- 
charges at the south coust. 
October 2Uf/i. — Drawing near to a mountain-ridge, higher 
thau any we had yet crossed, and which from appearance 
we supposed might be the last between us and the sea coast, 
we had great satisfaction in discovering smoke rising 
from a wood on the Opposite side of a lake near the foot of 
it. We indulged in the hope that some timber party from 
the settlements at St. George's Bay was encamped here. 
Our toils were in fancy ended. On reaching the Juke, the 
party encamped seemed to distrust us, not venturing to 
show themselves openly ou the shore. After a time, how- 
ever, they were convinced by our appearance, gestures, and 
the report ol our guns, that we were not Red Indians nor 
enemies. A canoe was then launched and came across to 
us. 'The canoe was of the kind already described, of 
wickerwork, covered with skins, and puddled by two 
pretty Indian girls. I unceremoniously saluted them in 
the Indian manner, and we accompanied them to their 
camp. They were of a parly of Mickmack Indians, en- 
camped at wiis lake because deer and firewood were plenti- 
ful. One man only belonged to this encampment, aud lie 
was out huuuug when we arrived None ol the party un- 
derstood a word of English; my Indian, however, explained. 
They told us, to our no little mortification, that we were 
yet sixty miles from St. George’s Harbor, or about five 
days walk if the weather should happen to be favorable, 
and that it lay in a northwest direction. The lust informa- 
tion proved Unit my Indian had of .late pertinaciously instead 
