s habits it resembles the goat, frequenting the rudest precipices;
cropping the herbage from their edges; and like the chamois, bounding
lightly and securely among dizzy heights, where the hunter dares not
venture. It is difficult, therefore, to get within shot of it. Ben Jones
the hunter, however, in one of the passes of the Black Hills, succeeded
in bringing down a bighorn from the verge of a precipice, the flesh of
which was pronounced by the gormands of the camp to have the flavor of
excellent mutton.

Baffled in his attempts to traverse this mountain chain, Mr. Hunt
skirted along it to the southwest, keeping it on the right; and still in
hopes of finding an opening. At an early hour one day, he encamped in
a narrow valley on the banks of a beautifully clear but rushy pool;
surrounded by thickets bearing abundance of wild cherries, currants, and
yellow and purple gooseberries.

While the afternoon's meal was in preparation, Mr. Hunt and Mr. M'Kenzie
ascended to the summit of the nearest hill, from whence, aided by the
purity and transparency of the evening atmosphere, they commanded a
vast prospect on all sides. Below them extended a plain, dotted with
innumerable herds of buffalo. Some were lying among the herbage, others
roaming in their unbounded pastures, while many were engaged in fierce
contests like those already described, their low bellowings reaching the
ear like the hoarse murmurs of the surf on a distant shore.

Far off in the west they descried a range of lofty mountains printing
the clear horizon, some of them evidently capped with snow. These they
supposed to be the Bighorn Mountains, so called from the animal of that
name, with which they abound. They are a spur of the great Rocky chain.
The hill from whence Mr. Hunt had this prospect was, according to
his computation, about two hundred and fifty miles from the Arickara
village.

On returning to the camp, Mr. Hunt found some uneasiness prevailing
among the Canadian voyageurs. In straying among the thickets they had
beheld tracks of grizzly bears in every direction, doubtless attracted
thither by the fruit. To their dismay, they now found that they had
encamped in one of the favorite resorts of this dreaded animal. The
idea marred all the comfort of the encampment. As night closed, the
surrounding thickets were peopled with terrors; insomuch that, according
to Mr. Hunt, they could not help starting at every little breeze that
stirred the bushes.