torous heart.

The prisoner ceased, and the priest said emphatically: "Your life must
be saved, my son. I must now leave you, but you shall hear from me ere
long."

We will only add that all the facts of the case being taken into
consideration, the sentence of Erlon Purcel was finally changed to
imprisonment for ten years. His good conduct caused that time to be
reduced to half the term. Once more free, he went to St. Louis, and
there joined a band of trappers bound for the far West. Let us hope that
in the eternal forest, far from the haunts of civilized men, he has
repented of the crime he committed, and found that peace and trust in
the future which is Life's most precious possession.

A BRUSH WITH THE BISON.

BY JOHN MILLS, ESQ.

Previously to the introduction of Birmingham and Sheffield manufactures
into the Indian market, the weapons used in war and hunting were of an
exceedingly primitive kind. Instead of rifles, scalping knives,
tomahawks, and two-edged lances of polished steel, the North American
brave possessed but a short bow made of bone with twisted sinews for
strings, and a quiver of flint-tipped arrows, with a stone hatchet,
comprised his whole stand-of-arms. As a matter of course, the more
destructive kinds of instruments introduced at once increased the
slaughter of the game, and, from the eagerness of the traders to
exchange their goods for skins, led the Indians to destroy those animals
by wholesale which formerly were killed only for food and clothing for
themselves. Even at certain seasons of the year, when the fur of the
buffalo is in the worst possible condition, it has been known for vast
herds to be exterminated merely for their tongues, which would be
bartered for a few gallons of villainous whisky. The numbers still
ranging over the prairies are, doubtless, very great, extending from the
western frontier to the western verge of the Rocky Mountains, and from
the 30th to the 55th degree of north latitude; but, as if the end was
fixed for the extermination of this the principal provision of the
Indian, with the Indian himself, they are rapidly becoming thinned, and
in a few years it is highly probable that a buffalo, in its native
state, will be as rare on the American continent as a bustard is in our
own island.

It is worthy of a passing reflection to glance at the particular
purposes for which the buffalo was assigned: to supply the three chief
temporal wants of the Indian, as