as a wilderness of
hills and deep ravines, here and there chequered with fertile bottoms
clumped with pines and oaks. In fact, he grew quite confused, and, to
add to his perplexity, in fording a rapid torrent his horse stumbled,
and was carried off his legs by the strength of the stream, and had to
swim for it. At length they gained the further bank; but our friend
found that in his agitation he had dropped his rifle, which was
irrecoverably gone.

Finding that he had no knowledge of the country about him, he
determined to encamp for the night, and accordingly laid his head on
his saddle, wrapped himself up in his cloak, and went supperless to
sleep. When he awoke in the morning, he found that his horse, which he
had tethered to a neighbouring stunted tree, had strayed away, and
although he followed his trail for some time, he was eventually obliged
to give up the search. The remainder of this and the following day he
wandered about at random, amidst a wild and sterile country, furrowed
with tremendous chasms several hundred feet in depth, and the edge of
which it was necessary to skirt for miles ere a crossing-place could be
found. During this time poor McPhail fared very hardly. He saw numerous
herds of elk, but they bounded past unharmed: he had no rifle. He tried
in vain to find some edible roots, and was at length reduced to the
necessity of chewing grass and the pith of alder trees.

Throughout this period his sufferings were excessive; but as the time
passed and brought no relief, he experienced a sickness and nausea of
the most gnawing and horrible description. He became so weak that he
could hardly stand. At length at sunset, on the third day of his
wanderings, he laid himself down upon a spot of grass, and fell into a
kind of stupor, in the full belief that he would only wake in the
agonies of death. It was then that he was discovered by the two Indians
who brought him to the camp. They behaved with great humanity towards
him, allowing him, however, to eat, first of all, only a few morsels of
the dried meat which they had with them, that he might not harm himself
by over-eating, after such a lengthened fast. As his stomach by degrees
recovered its tone, they permitted him to take further nutriment; and
after encamping with them on that and the following night, he felt
sufficiently recovered to proceed on his journey to this camp. His kind
benefactors understood a few words of Spanish, and he was enabled to
e