Part 6 (2/2)
”The rest of us turned quickly round--for we had been sitting with our backs to the mountain--and looked in the direction indicated by Cudjo
There were high cliffs fronting us; and along the face of these, five large reddish objects were ht they were birds upon the wing After watching them a moment, however, I saw that they were quadrupeds; but so nie, that it was impossible to see their limbs They appeared to be anioats--but we could see that, in place of antlers, each of the horns As they leaped doard, from one platform of the cliffs to another, we fancied that they whirled about in the air, as though they were 'turning somersaults,' and seemed at times to come down heads foremost!
”There was a spur of the cliff that sloped down to within less than a hundred yards of the place where we sat It ended in an abrupt precipice of soht above the plain The ani it until they had arrived at its end Seeing the precipice they suddenly stopped, as if to reconnoitre it; and we had now a full view of theraceful lie as their bodies We thought, of course, they could get no farther for the precipice, and I was calculating whether my rifle--which I had laid hold of--would reach them at that distance All at once, to our astonish through the air, lit upon his head on the hard plain below!” We could see that he caht of several feet, turned a second sos, and stood still! Nothing daunted the rest followed, one after the other in quick succession, like so many street-tumblers, and like them--after the feat had been perfor for applause!
”The spot where they had dropped was not more than fifty paces from our camp; but I was so astonished at the treot the rifle I held in my hands The ani us--which they now did for the first tis, who rushed forward at the ers to a sense of their dangerous proxi suddenly, they bounded back for the mountain
I fired after them at random; but we all supposed without effect, as the whole five kept on to the foot of the s
Presently they cos; but we noticed that one of the in the rear, and seemed to leap upith difficulty Upon this one our eyes becaht in this The rest soon disappeared out of sight; but that which lagged behind, on leaping for a high ledge, came short in the attempt, and rolled backward down the face of thebetween the ether up the steep; and soon returned, bringing the anis had put an end to hiood load for Cudjo, and proved upon closer acquaintance to be as large as a fallow-deer Froe wrinkled horns, and other ali_, or wild sheep, known ahorn,' and sometih in its general appearance it looked oat, or deer with a pair of rams' horns stuck upon his head We kneever, it was not bad to eat,--especially to people in our circumstances; and as soon as we had finished our breakfast, Cudjo and I whetted our knives, and having reside the res for their pains had a breakfast to their satisfaction; and the rest of us, seeing soto the tree, with a cool streaan to fancy ere quite delivered froether to deliberate on our future proceedings
Between the argali and the antelope, we had provision enough to last us for a week at least; but when that was done, what likelihood was there of our procuring a further supply of either? Not ht be a few horns'
about the place, there could not befor theht not find it so easy to kill any more of them,--for those we had already shot seemed to have fallen in our way by chance, or--as we uiding of a Providential hand But we kneas not right or wise to rely altogether on this,--that is, we kneas our duty, while trusting in its guidance, at the same time to make every effort which lay in our oer to save ourselves When our present supply should be exhausted, where was the next to come froalis, and antelopes,--even supposing they were as plenty as the rocks But the chances were ten to one we should get no more of them Our ox in a ould have improved in condition He would sustain us for a tis--and then--we should starve to a certainty
”Any of these necessities was sufficiently fearful to contemplate
Should we kill our ox, ould be unable to take the wagon along, and how could the horse carry us all out of the Desert? If we then killed the horse, we should be still worse off, and utterly helpless on foot
No man can cross the Great Desert on foot--not even the hunters--and how could we do it? To remain where ould be ietation on the different runlets that filtered away fro along these, but not enough of grass to support any stock of ga able to capture it It was evident, then, to us all, that we should have to get away from that place as speedily as possible
”The next point to be determined hether the Desert extended away to the south, as we already knew that it did to the north To ascertain this, I resolved to go around thethe rest at the camp until my return
”Our horse was by this ti saddled him and shouldered my rifle, Iby the eastern side I crossed several rivulets rese the one on which we had encamped; and noticed that all these turned off toward the eastward,their way to a main stream In this direction, too, I saw a few stunted trees, with here and there an appearance of greenness on the surface of the plain On the way I saw an antelope, and another ani fro tail like a cow I knew not at the time what sort of an animal it was, as I had never met with any description of it in books of natural history
”After riding about five ot fairly round to the east side of the mountain, and could view the country away to the south As far asbut an open plain--if possible more sterile in its character than that which stretched northward The only direction in which there were any signs of fertility was to the east, and that was but in patches of scanty vegetation
”It was a cheerless prospect We should now certainly have a desert to cross before we could get to any inhabited country To strike eastwardly again, for the American frontier--circumstanced as ithout provisions and orn-out cattle--would be ht hundred miles Besides, I knew there wereon that route, so that, even should the country prove fertile, we could never hope to get through it
To go northward or southould be equally impossible, as there was no civilised settlement for a thousand miles in either direction Our only hope, then, would be, to atte the Desert ardly to the Mexican settlements on the Del Norte,--a distance of nearly two hundred miles! To do this, we should need first to rest our ill-matched teah for the route, and hoere these to be obtained? Again, thought I, we must trust to Providence, who has already sohand to us
”I observed that the mountain on the southern face descended with an easier slope toward the plain, than upon the north where it is bold and precipitous Froreater quantity of snow must be ht I, there will be a greater amount of fertility on that side; and I continued to ride on, until I carove of s and cotton-trees, which line the stream above the valley here I soon reached thee near its borders--much more than where we had encamped I tied my horse to a tree, and cliet a view of the country south and west I had not got to a great height when I caught sight of the singular chasm that seemed to open up in the plain I was attracted with this peculiarity, and deterain to where I had left ht for it In a short time I stood upon the brink of the precipice, and looked down into this s valley
”I cannot describe my sensations at that moment Only they, whose eyes have been bent for days on the sterile wilderness, can feel the full effect produced by a scene of fertility such as there presented itself
It was late in the autuated livery of that season--looked like some richly-coloured picture The roves beloafted upward upon the perfumed and aromatic air; and the whole scene appeared more like a fabled Elysium than a reality of Nature I could hardly satisfyupon soe_
”I stood fordown into the lovely valley I could observe no signs of human habitation No smoke rose over the trees, and no noises issued forth, except the voices of Nature, uttered in the songs of birds and the huh man had never desecrated this isolated paradise by his presence and passions
”I say I stood forI could have re sun admonished me to hasten away I was nearly twentynor fresh Deter with ed to us, I turned ht--nearas I had left it, except that Mary was in great anxiety about what had delayedBut my return, and the discovery which I communicated, soon restored her spirits; and we laid out our plans for changing our camp to the valley, deter”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
THE GREAT ELK
”We were stirring by sunrise next on and started away from our camp, which we had nahorn Creek' ever afterwards We arrived at the upper end of the valley about an hour before sunset Here we passed the night Next day I set forth to find soet down into the bottoe of the bluff, but to my surprise I found that on both sides ran a steep precipice; and I began to fear that the te paradise was inaccessible, and had only been created to tantalise us
At length I reached the lower end, where, as you have noticed, the precipice isof the upper plain Here I caradually down, upon which I saw the footmarks of animals of various kinds This was exactly what I wanted