r stirrups and look anxiously towards the horizon.
He sees, perhaps, a white column of smoke rising in the clear air. It
is so far-off that it seems it can but little concern them. The guides,
however, think differently, and after a moment's consultation point
eagerly in the direction of some broad river, whose waters flow towards
the Mississippi. "Onward! onward!" is the cry. They put spurs to their
horses' flanks, and gallop for their lives. Every instant the column of
smoke increases in width, till it extends directly across the horizon.
It grows denser and denser. Now above the tall grass flashes of bright
light can be seen. The traveller almost fancies he can hear the
crackling of the flames as they seize all combustible substances in
their course. Now they surround a grove of aspens, and the fierce fire
blazes up more brightly than ever towards the sky, over which hangs a
dark canopy of smoke. Suddenly a distant tramp of feet is heard. The
very ground trembles. A dark mass approaches--a phalanx of horns and
streaming manes. It is a herd of buffaloes, turned by the fire
purposely ignited by the Indians. The guides urge the travellers to
increase their speed; for if overtaken by the maddened animals, they
will be struck down and trampled to death. Happily they escape the
surging herd which comes sweeping onward--thousands of dark forms
pressed together, utterly regardless of the human beings who have so
narrowly escaped them. The travellers gallop on till their eyes are
gladdened by the sight of the flowing waters of a river. They rush down
the bank. Perchance the stream is too rapid or too deep to be forded.
At the water's edge they at length dismount, when the Indians, drawing
forth flint and steel, set fire to the grass on the bank. The smoke
well-nigh stifles them, but the flames pass on, clearing an open space;
and now, crouching down to the water's edge, they see the fearful
conflagration rapidly approaching. The fire they have created meets the
flames which have been raging far and wide across the region. And now
the wind carries the smoke in dense masses over their heads; but their
lives are saved--and at length they may venture to ride along the banks,
over the still smouldering embers, till a ford is reached, and they may
cross the river to where the grass still flourishes in rich luxuriance.

While, on one side of the stream, charred trees are seen rising out of
the blackened ground, on