erd is left on the brink of the
precipice. It is then impossible for the foremost to retreat, or even to
stop; they are pressed on by the hindmost rank, which, seeing no danger
but from the hunters, goad on those before them, till the whole are
precipitated over the cliff, and the shore is strewed with their dead
bodies.

Sometimes, in this perilous seduction, the Indian himself is either
trodden underfoot by the rapid movements of the buffaloes, or, missing
his footing in the cliff, is urged down the precipice by the falling
herd. The Indians then select as much meat as they wish, and the rest is
abandoned to the wolves, and creates a most dreadful stench. The wolves
which had been feasting on these carcasses were very fat, and so gentle
that one of them was killed with a spontoon.

[They were now on the foot-hills of the mountains, in the
country of the Minnetarees. Their journey met with obstructions
from precipitous cliffs.]

These hills and river cliffs exhibit a most extraordinary and romantic
appearance. They rise in most places nearly perpendicular from the river
to the height of between two and three hundred feet, and are formed of
very white sandstone, so soft as to yield readily to the action of
water, but in the upper part of which lie embedded two or three thin
horizontal strata of white freestone unaffected by the rain; and on the
top is a dark rich loam, which forms a gradually ascending plain, from a
mile to a mile and a half in extent, when the hills again rise abruptly
to the height of about three hundred feet more. In trickling down the
cliffs the water has worn the soft sandstone into a thousand grotesque
figures, among which, with a little fancy, may be discerned elegant
ranges of freestone buildings, with columns variously sculptured, and
supporting long and elegant galleries, while the parapets are adorned
with statuary. On a nearer approach they represent every form of elegant
ruins, columns, some with pedestals and capitals entire, others
mutilated and prostrate, and some rising pyramidally over each other
till they terminate in a sharp point. These are varied by niches,
alcoves, and the customary appearances of desolated magnificence. The
delusion is increased by the number of martins which have built their
globular nest in the niches, and hover over these columns as in our
country they are accustomed to frequent large stone structures.

As we advance there seems no end to th