At length we both
detected something in motion near the foot of one of the mountains,
and in a moment afterward a black-tailed deer, with his spreading
antlers, stood gazing at us from the top of a rock, and then, slowly
turning away, disappeared behind it.
In an instant Reynal was out of
his saddle, and running toward the spot. I, being too weak to
follow, sat holding his horse and waiting the result. I lost sight
of him, then heard the report of his rifle, deadened among the rocks,
and finally saw him reappear, with a surly look that plainly betrayed
his ill success. Again we moved forward down the long valley, when
soon after we came full upon what seemed a wide and very shallow
ditch, incrusted at the bottom with white clay, dried and cracked in
the sun. Under this fair outside, Reynal's eye detected the signs of
lurking mischief. He called me to stop, and then alighting, picked
up a stone and threw it into the ditch. To my utter amazement it
fell with a dull splash, breaking at once through the thin crust, and
spattering round the hole a yellowish creamy fluid, into which it
sank and disappeared. A stick, five or six feet long lay on the
ground, and with this we sounded the insidious abyss close to its
edge. It was just possible to touch the bottom. Places like this
are numerous among the Rocky Mountains. The buffalo, in his blind
and heedless walk, often plunges into them unawares. Down he sinks;
one snort of terror, one convulsive struggle, and the slime calmly
flows above his shaggy head, the languid undulations of its sleek and
placid surface alone betraying how the powerful monster writhes in
his death-throes below.
We found after some trouble a point where we could pass the abyss,
and now the valley began to open upon the plains which spread to the
horizon before us. On one of their distant swells we discerned three
or four black specks, which Reynal pronounced to be buffalo.
"Come," said he, "we must get one of them. My squaw wants more
sinews to finish her lodge with, and I want some glue myself."
He immediately put the yellow horse at such a gallop as he was
capable of executing, while I set spurs to the mule, who soon far
outran her plebeian rival. When we had galloped a mile or more, a
large rabbit, by ill luck, sprang up just under the feet of the mule,
who bounded violently aside in full career. Weakened as I was, I was
flung forcibly to the ground, and my rifle, falling close to my head,
went off with a shock. Its sharp spiteful report rang for some
moments in my ear. Being slightly stunned, I lay for an instant
motionless, and Reynal, supposing me to be shot, rode up and began to
curse the mule. Soon recovering myself, I rose, picked up the rifle
and anxiously examined it.
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