hunt he lost his hat, his saddlebags,
with linen and money, and his blankets: as he never took the trouble to
pick them up, they are probably yet in the prairie where they were
dropped.

The other stranger was an English savant, one of the queerest fellows in
the world. He wished also to take his share in the buffalo-hunt, but
his steed was a lazy and peaceable animal, a true nag for a fat abbot,
having a horror of any thing like trotting or galloping; and as he was
not to be persuaded out of his slow walk, he and his master remained at
a respectable distance from the scene of action. What an excellent
caricature might have been made of that good-humoured savant, as he sat
on his Rosinante, armed with an enormous double-barrelled gun, loaded
but not primed, some time, to no purpose, spurring the self-willed
animal, and then spying through an opera-glass at the majestic animals
which he could not approach.

We killed nine bulls and seven fat calves, and in the evening we
encamped near a little river, where we made an exquisite supper of
marrow and tongue, two good things, which can only be enjoyed in the
wild prairies. The next day, at sunset, we received a visit from an
immense herd of mustangs (wild horses). We saw them at first ascending
one of the swells of the prairie, and took them for hostile Indians; but
having satisfied their curiosity, the whole herd wheeled round with as
much regularity as a well-drilled squadron, and with their tails erect
and long manes floating to the wind, were soon out of sight.

Many strange stories have been related by trappers and hunters, of a
solitary white horse which has often been met with near the Cross
Timbers and the Red River. No one ever saw him trotting or galloping;
he only canters, but with such rapidity that no steed can follow him.
Immense sums of money have been offered to any who could catch him, and
many have attempted the task, but without success. The noble animal
still runs free in his native prairies, always alone and unapproachable.

We often met with the mountain goat, an animal which participates both
of the deer and the common goat, but whose flesh is far superior to
either. It is gracefully shaped--long-legged and very fleet. One of
them, whose fore-leg I had broken with a rifle ball, escaped from our
fleetest horse (Castro's), after a chase of nearly thirty minutes. The
mountain goat is found on the great platforms of the Rocky Mountains,
and a