Let Him Have On A Long
Rifle, A Buckskin Frock With Long Fringes, And A Head Of Long Hair.
These latter appendages will be caught every moment and twitched away
in small portions by the twigs, which will also whip him smartly
across the face, while the large branches above thump him on the
head.
His mule, if she be a true one, will alternately stop short
and dive violently forward, and his position upon her back will be
somewhat diversified and extraordinary. At one time he will clasp
her affectionately, to avoid the blow of a bough overhead; at
another, he will throw himself back and fling his knee forward
against the side of her neck, to keep it from being crushed between
the rough bark of a tree and the equally unyielding ribs of the
animal herself. Reynal was cursing incessantly during the whole way
down. Neither of us had the remotest idea where we were going; and
though I have seen rough riding, I shall always retain an evil
recollection of that five minutes' scramble.
At last we left our troubles behind us, emerging into the channel of
a brook that circled along the foot of the descent; and here, turning
joyfully to the left, we rode in luxury and ease over the white
pebbles and the rippling water, shaded from the glaring sun by an
overarching green transparency. These halcyon moments were of short
duration. The friendly brook, turning sharply to one side, went
brawling and foaming down the rocky hill into an abyss, which, as far
as we could discern, had no bottom; so once more we betook ourselves
to the detested woods. When next we came forth from their dancing
shadow and sunlight, we found ourselves standing in the broad glare
of day, on a high jutting point of the mountain. Before us stretched
a long, wide, desert valley, winding away far amid the mountains. No
civilized eye but mine had ever looked upon that virgin waste.
Reynal was gazing intently; he began to speak at last:
"Many a time, when I was with the Indians, I have been hunting for
gold all through the Black Hills. There's plenty of it here; you may
be certain of that. I have dreamed about it fifty times, and I never
dreamed yet but what it came true. Look over yonder at those black
rocks piled up against that other big rock. Don't it look as if
there might be something there? It won't do for a white man to be
rummagmg too much about these mountains; the Indians say they are
full of bad spirits; and I believe myself that it's no good luck to
be hunting about here after gold. Well, for all that, I would like
to have one of these fellows up here, from down below, to go about
with his witch-hazel rod, and I'll guarantee that it would not be
long before he would light on a gold mine. Never mind; we'll let the
gold alone for to-day. Look at those trees down below us in the
hollow; we'll go down there, and I reckon we'll get a black-tailed
deer."
But Reynal's predictions were not verified. We passed mountain after
mountain, and valley after valley; we explored deep ravines; yet
still to my companion's vexation and evident surprise, no game could
be found. So, in the absence of better, we resolved to go out on the
plains and look for an antelope. With this view we began to pass
down a narrow valley, the bottom of which was covered with the stiff
wild-sage bushes and marked with deep paths, made by the buffalo,
who, for some inexplicable reason, are accustomed to penetrate, in
their long grave processions, deep among the gorges of these sterile
mountains.
Reynal's eye was ranging incessantly among the rocks and along the
edges of the black precipices, in hopes of discovering the mountain
sheep peering down upon us in fancied security from that giddy
elevation. Nothing was visible for some time. 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.
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