It was late when we got back to camp, still our appetite had been excited again, and instead of going to sleep, we sat joking round the fire, each with some spitted bear-meat before him. The coffee-pot also went the round, and the steaming pipe accompanied us to our buffalo hides, on which we lay conversing for some time. Clifton insisted that he ought to be rewarded handsomely by Königstein for saving his life by the pistol-shot, while the latter tried to prove to him that he had aimed too low to hit the bear's heart, and hence, as a punishment, ought to have its paw stuck on his hat. The answers, however, gradually became rarer, and we soon were all fast asleep. Excellent health, and a consciousness of strength, of which the polished world is ignorant, are the blessed companions of such a natural life; and no awful nightmare, no frightful dreams, such as visit the silken beds of civilization, venture to approach the hard couch of our Western hunters.
I was awakened by the cold about an hour before daylight; sprang up, poked the fire, which was nearly burnt out, wrapped myself in my buffalo robe, and fell asleep again soundly, till my comrades shouted to me that the coffee was ready. The whole neighbourhood was covered with a thick white rime, and though the frost was not heavy, we felt it severely. Our large fire, however, soon dispelled the cold, and we lay very cozily round it eating our breakfast. We soon mounted, crossed the stream without difficulty, and followed a buffalo-path up the hills. Our journey during the last day had been fatiguing for the horses, and, in spite of the long distance we had ridden, we had advanced but little northwards, so we gladly followed an easterly course, which brought us nearer the great prairies. From here we also noticed that the highest mountain peaks were a little farther to the west, and consequently off our track.
The sky became overcast, and in the afternoon it began raining, so that we were obliged to put our buffalo robes over us, and at night pitched our small tents to protect us from the heavy, incessant rain. Tiger, though, refused to crawl into the tent, but collected a great heap of brushwood near the fire, laid his saddle-cloth on it, sat down a-top, with his knees drawn up to his chin, and pulled his buffalo-hide with the hairy side out over him, tucking it under him, so that he looked like a huge hairy ball. During the night we were frequently obliged to feed the fire to keep it burning, and in the morning we saw no sign that the clouds were about to break. We could hardly distinguish the nearest peaks, and round our camp rivulets had formed that conveyed the rain to the valley. We could not think of starting, as all our traps were wet through. Hence we grinned and bore it; killed time with eating and smoking, and looked at our cattle, which, with hanging head and tail, let the rain pour off them.
Thus the whole day and the next night passed, and it was not till ten the next morning that we saw a patch of blue sky. This lasting heavy rain proved to me clearly that we were already in a more northern region, as in our country the showers are much heavier for the time, but never last longer than a day. We lay up for this day too to let the ground dry a little, and a strong cold wind which had sprung up helped to effect this. Our cattle had good grass, we were amply supplied with firewood, and had abundance of the best game, so that we wanted for nothing. John and Mac went out shooting together, and killed some turkeys and a deer, which they brought into camp on Sam. Tiger went out alone, and returned in the evening with two deer legs and a beaver, having surprised the latter on land while nibbling off the branches of a fallen tree. Our supper-table was hence splendidly covered again, and we greatly enjoyed the beaver tail, which is one of the best dishes the West offers.
Our various skins, tents, blankets, &c., were now tolerably dry, and the next morning we left camp and travelled northwards, towards the sides of the mountains, and the spurs they shoot out, into the great prairies. The sky was still covered with a few clouds, between which the sun shone warmly and pleasantly. Two days later we altered our course again to the west, in order not to leave the mountains, which here enclosed large patches of grass-land. Crossing these low mountain spurs, we passed through many extensive valleys with excellent soil, firewood, especially oak, and abundant water, which assuredly ere long will be sought by civilization advancing from the East. In the West the mountains now rose higher, and raised their white peaks far above the clouds. They were probably a hundred miles from us, and the horizon was enclosed by mountain ranges like an amphitheatre. The mountains rose higher and higher above each other in the strangest forms and colours, terminating in peaks on which the heavens seemed to be supported. Tiger called them the Sacramento mountains, which run southward nearly to Santa Fé.
One evening we reached a stream, which came down from these mountains through a rather wide valley, which Tiger told us was an arm of the Canadian river that falls into the Arkansas, between which and the Kansas the territory of the Delawares is situated. When a boy, Tiger added, he had often been hunting up this river and in these mountains with his father, and in a few days we should reach another arm of this river, on which his father's brother was torn to death by a grizzly bear. On that river there was a very large iron stone, which had fallen from heaven, and with which the god of hunting killed a Weico, who was hunting here improperly. When we reached the river bank, we found its water very turbid, and so swollen that we could not ride through, owing to the furious current. Hence we unloaded, though it was still rather early, and found ourselves on a steep bank, where the stream could not hurt us, even if it rose higher. Tiger was of opinion that the water would have run off by the next day, and enable us to continue our journey, as these torrents rarely last longer than a day. John and Mac went down the river to hunt, and Tiger went up it, while we looked after the cattle and prepared the camp. The first two came back early with an antelope, while Tiger was not in camp when night had settled on the mountains. I had heard him fire twice, and we were beginning to fear that an accident had happened to him, when he came out of the gloom into the bright firelight with his light, scarcely-audible step, but without any game, which was a rarity. He had fired thrice at a black bear, followed it a long distance, but had been obliged to leave it owing to the darkness, especially as he had hit it awkwardly, and it was strong enough to run a long distance. The night passed undisturbed, morning displayed a bright cloudless sky, and promised us a beautiful day; but the river had not fallen so much as we expected, and we preferred awaiting its fall here to going higher up and seeking a shallower spot.
The sun had scarce risen over the low hills in the east when I took my rifle and went down the river with Trusty to try my luck in hunting. I soon reached a low thin skirt of bushes, which covered the valley, and through which many small rivulets wound to the river. I had not gone far into it, when I noticed a great number of turkeys running about among the leafless bushes. I ran up to them, frequently crossing the brook, till I at last got within shot of an old cock, and toppled him over. I hung the bird on a tree, close to the brook which I fancied was one of those that came down the valley no great distance from our camp, and had scarce gone a hundred yards beyond the brook when I saw some head of game, which were too large for our ordinary deer and too dark-coloured, and yet did not resemble elks.
I crept nearer and convinced myself they were giant deer, which are not uncommon in the Andes. I shot at a very large stag, which had already shed its antlers, and it rushed upon me, but soon turned away, and I gave it the second bullet. It went some hundred yards bleeding profusely, so that I expected every moment to see it fall, then stopped, and I employed the time to reload and get within eighty yards of it. I was on the point of firing, when it dashed away and got out of sight. I put Trusty on the trail, and followed him, crossing the brook several times up the valley toward our camp, as I fancied. At length I saw the stag standing under an old oak, and I succeeded in getting within shot. I fired, and saw the bullet go home; but for all that the deer ran up a hill on the left and disappeared. My eagerness in following the animal was more and more aroused; I reloaded and went with Trusty after the bleeding trail over the hill and down the other side, then through a thicket in the valley and over another hill to a stream, where I at last found the stag dead. It was a splendid giant deer, distinguished from our royal harts by its size, blackish-brown coat, and proportionately higher forelegs. I broke it up, gave Trusty his share, and it was not till I was ready to start that I thought of my road to camp.
