Part 14 (1/2)
_Brian._ They must be a good deal like prairie dogs, though one has his house on the land, and the other in the water.
_Hunter._ These wide prairies, on which roam bisons and horses and deer innumerable; and these shallow waters, where musk-rats abound, will probably, in succeeding years, a.s.sume another character. White men will possess them; civilized manners and customs will prevail, and Christianity spread from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains; for the kingdoms of the world, you know, are to become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.
_Austin._ You have told us a great deal indeed, to-day, about the prairies.
_Hunter._ I have already spoken of the prairie fires; I mean the burning gra.s.s set on fire by accident, or purposely, for the double advantage of obtaining a clearer path and an abundant crop of fresh gra.s.s; but I must relate an adventure of my own, of a kind not likely to be forgotten. So long as a prairie fire is confined to the high grounds, there is very little danger from it; for, in such situations, the gra.s.s being short, the fire never becomes large, though the line of flame is a long one. Birds and beasts retire before it in a very leisurely manner; but in plains where the gra.s.s is long, it is very different.
_Austin._ I should like to see one of those great, high, round bluffs on fire. There must be a fine bonfire then.
_Hunter._ There you are mistaken, for as I have already told you, the gra.s.s is short on the bluffs. To be sure, the sight of a bluff on fire, on a dark night, is very singular; for as you can only see the curved line of flame, the bluff being hidden by the darkness, so it seems as though the curved lines of flame were up in the air, or in the sky.
_Basil._ They must look very beautifully.
_Hunter._ They do: but when a fire takes place in a low bottom of long gra.s.s, sedge and tangled dry plants, more than six feet high; and when a rus.h.i.+ng wind urges on the fiery ruin, flas.h.i.+ng like the lightning and roaring like the thunder; the appearance is not beautiful, but terrible. I have heard the shrill war-whoop, and the clash of contending tomahawks in the fight, when no quarter has been given. I have witnessed the wild burst where Niagara, a river of waters, flings itself headlong down the Horseshoe Fall; and I have been exposed to the fury of the hurricane. But none of these are half so terrible as the flaming ocean of a long-gra.s.s prairie-fire.
_Austin._ Oh! it must be terrible.
_Hunter._ The trapper is bold, or he is not fit for his calling; the hunter is brave, or he could never wage war as he does with danger; and the Indian from his childhood is familiar with peril: yet the Indian, the hunter and the trapper tremble, as well they may, at a prairie-meadow fire. But I must relate my adventure.
_Basil._ I am almost afraid to hear it.
_Austin._ Poh! nonsense! It will never hurt you.
_Hunter._ A party of five of us, well mounted, and having with us our rifles and lances, were making the best of our way across one of the low prairie bottoms, where the thick coa.r.s.e gra.s.s and shrubs, even as we sat on our horses, were often as high as our heads; when we noticed, every now and then, a flight of prairie hens, or grouse, rapidly winging their way by us. Two of our party were of the Blackfoot tribe; their names were Ponokah (elk) and Moeese (wigwam.) These Indians had struck into a buffalo trail, and we had proceeded for a couple of hours as fast as the matted gra.s.s and wild pea-vines would allow, when suddenly the wind that was blowing furiously from the east became northerly, and in a moment, Moeese, snuffing the air, uttered the words, ”Pah kapa,” (bad;) and Ponokah, glancing his eyes northward, added, ”Eehcooa pah kaps,” (very bad.)
_Austin._ I guess what was the matter.
_Brian._ And so do I.
_Hunter._ In another instant a rush was heard, and Ponokah, who was a little ahead, cried out, ”Eneuh!” (buffalo!) when three bisons came das.h.i.+ng furiously along another trail towards us. No sooner did they set eyes on us, than they abruptly turned southward. By this time, we all understood that, to the north, the prairie was on fire; for the air smelt strong. Deer, and bisons, and other animals, sprang forward in different directions from the prairie, and a smoke, not very distant, like a cloud, was visible.
_Austin._ I hope you set off at full gallop.
_Hunter._ We were quite disposed to urge our horses onward; but the trail took a turn towards the burning prairie, and we were obliged to force our way into another, in doing which my horse got his feet entangled, and he fell, pitching me over his head some yards before him. I was not hurt by the fall, for the thick herbage protected me; but the worst of it was, that my rifle, which had been carelessly slung, fell from my shoulder among the long gra.s.s, and being somewhat confused by my fall, I could not find it.
_Brian._ You ought not to have stopped a moment.
_Hunter._ Perhaps not; but, to a hunter, a rifle is no trifling loss, and I could not make up my mind to lose mine. Time was precious, for the smoke rapidly increased; and both Ponokah and Moeese, who knew more about burning prairies than I did, and were therefore more alive to our danger, became very impatient. By the time my rifle was found, and we were ready to proceed, the fire had gained upon us in a crescent form, so that before and behind we were hemmed in. The only point clear of the smoke was to the south; but no trail ran that way, and we feared that, in forcing a road, another accident might occur like that which had befallen us.
_Austin._ I cannot think what you could do in such a situation.
_Hunter._ Our disaster had come upon us so unexpectedly, and the high wind had so hurried on the flaming storm, that there seemed to be no time for a moment's thought. Driven by necessity, we plunged into the thick gra.s.s to the south; but our progress was not equal to that of the fire, which was now fast approaching, blackening the air with smoke, and roaring every moment louder and louder. Our destruction seemed almost certain; when Ponokah, judging, I suppose, by the comparative thinness of the smoke eastward, that we were not far from the boundary of the prairie bottom, dashed boldly along a trail in that direction, in the face of the fire, crying out to us to follow.
With the daring of men in extremity, we put our horses to their speed, broke through the smoke, fire, gra.s.s, and flame, and found ourselves almost instantly on a patch of ground over which the fire had pa.s.sed; but, as the gra.s.s had evidently been scanty, we were free from danger.
From a neighbouring bluff, which the smoke had before hidden from our view, we saw the progress of the flame--a spectacle that filled me with amazement. The danger we had escaped seemed increased by the sight of the fearful conflagration, and I know not whether terror, amazement, or thankfulness most occupied my mind.
_Austin._ That was, indeed, a narrow escape.
_Hunter._ As we stood on the bluff, dismounted, to gaze on the flying flames--which appeared in the distance like a huge fiery snake of some miles in length, writhing in torture--my wonder increased. The spectacle was fearful and sublime, and the conflagration nearest to us resembled the breakers of the deep that dash on a rocky sh.o.r.e, only formed of fire, roaring and destroying, preceded by thick clouds of smoke. Before then, I had been accustomed to sights and scenes of peril, and had witnessed the burning of short gra.s.s to some extent; but this was the first time I had been in such fearful danger--the first time I felt the awfulness of such a situation--the first time that I had really seen the prairie on fire!