hese we obtained our fires; but
what were fires when we had no meat to cook upon them!

"We were now in the third day without food! Without food, though not
absolutely without eating--the men had bolted their gun-covers and the
cat-skin flaps of their bullet-pouches, and were now seen--the last
shift but one--stripping the _parfleche_ from the soles of their
moccasins!

"The women, wrapped in their _tilmas_, nestled closely in the embrace of
father, brother, husband, and lover; for all these affections were
present. The last string of _tasajo_, hitherto economised for their
sake, had been parcelled out to them in the morning. That was gone, and
whence was their next morsel to come? At long intervals, `_Ay da mi!
Dios de mi alma_!' were heard only in low murmurs, as some colder blast
swept down the canon. In the faces of those beautiful creatures might
be read that uncomplaining patience--that high endurance--so
characteristic of the Hispano-Mexican women.

"Even the stern men around them bore up with less fortitude. Rude oaths
were muttered from time to time, and teeth ground together, with that
strange wild look that heralds insanity. Once or twice I fancied that I
observed a look of still stranger, still wilder expression, when the
black ring forms around the eye--when the muscles twitch and quiver
along gaunt, famished jaws--when men gaze guilty-like at each other. O
God! it was fearful! The half-robber discipline, voluntary at the best,
had vanished under the levelling-rod of a common suffering, and I
trembled to think--

"`It clars a leetle, out tharawa!'

"It was the voice of the trapper, Garey, who had risen and stood
pointing toward the East.

"In an instant we were all upon our feet, looking in the direction,
indicated. Sure enough, there was a break in the lead-coloured sky--a
yellowish streak, that widened out as we continued gazing--the flakes
fell lighter and thinner, and in two hours more it had ceased snowing
altogether.

"Half-a-dozen of us, shouldering our rifles, struck down the valley. We
would make one more attempt to trample a road through the drift. It was
a vain one. The snow was over our heads, and after struggling for two
hours, we had not gained above two hundred yards. Here we caught a
glimpse of what lay before us. As far as the eye could reach, it rested
upon the same deep impassable masses. Despair and hunger paralysed our
exertions, and, dropping off one by one, we