cognized it as the back of a letter in which my tobacco had been wrapped,
and which I had thrown away at my halting-place of the preceding night. I
looked around, and recognized the island and the very tree under which I
had slept or endeavoured to sleep. The horrible truth instantly flashed
across me--the horse tracks I had been following were my own: since the
preceding morning I had been riding in _a circle_!

I stood for a few seconds thunderstruck by this discovery, and then sank
upon the ground in utter despair. At that moment I should have been
thankful to any one who would have knocked me on the head as I lay. All I
wished for was to die as speedily as possible.

I remained I know not how long lying in a desponding, half insensible,
state upon the grass. Several hours must have elapsed; for when I got up,
the sun was low in the western heavens. My head was so weak and wandering,
that I could not well explain to myself how it was that I had been thus
riding after my own shadow. Yet the thing was clear enough. Without
landmarks, and in the monotonous scenery of the prairie, I might have gone
on for ever following my horses track, and going back when I thought I was
going forwards, had it not been for the discovery of the tobacco paper. I
was, as I subsequently learned, in the Jacinto prairie, one of the most
beautiful in Texas, full sixty miles long and broad, but in which the most
experienced hunters never risked themselves without a compass. It was
little wonder then that I, a mere boy of two and twenty, just escaped from
college, should have gone astray in it.

I now gave myself up for lost, and with the bridle twisted round my hand,
and holding on as well as I could by the saddle and mane, I let my horse
choose his own road. It would perhaps have been better if I had done this
sooner. The beast's instinct would probably have led him to some
plantation. When he found himself left to his own guidance he threw up his
head, snuffed the air three or four times, and then turning round, set off
in a contrary direction to that he was before going, and at such a brisk
pace that it was as much as I could do to keep upon him. Every jolt caused
me so much pain that I was more than once tempted to let myself fall off
his back.

At last night came, and thanks to the lasso, which kept my horse in awe, I
managed to dismount and secure him. The whole night through I suffered
from racking pains in head, limbs, and body. I fel