the hissing and cracking of the fire; we contemplated with
awe the flames, which were roaring along the edge of the precipice--now
rising, now lowering, just as if they would leap over the space and
annihilate all life in these western solitudes.

We were preserved; our fall had been broken by the animals, who had
taken a leap a second before us, and by the thousands of bodies which
were heaped up as a hecatomb, and received us as a cushion below. With
difficulty we extricated ourselves and horses, and descending the mass
of carcasses, we at last succeeded in reaching a few acres of clear
ground. It was elevated a few feet above the water of the torrent, which
ran through the ravine, and offered to our broken-down horses a
magnificent pasture of sweet blue grass. But the poor things were too
terrified and exhausted, and they stretched themselves down upon the
ground, a painful spectacle of utter helplessness.

We perceived that the crowds of flying animals had succeeded in finding,
some way further down an ascent to the opposite prairie; and as the
earth and rocks still trembled, we knew that the "estampede" had not
ceased, and that the millions of fugitives had resumed their mad career.
Indeed there was still danger, for the wind was high, and carried before
it large sheets of flames to the opposite side, where the dried grass
and bushes soon became ignited, and the destructive element thus passed
the chasm and continued its pursuit.

We congratulated ourselves upon having thus found security, and returned
thanks to heaven for our wonderful escape; and as we were now safe from
immediate danger, we lighted a fire and feasted upon a young
buffalo-calf, every bone of which we found had been broken into
splinters[25].

[Footnote 25: I have said, at a venture, that we descended more than a
hundred feet into the chasm before we fairly landed on the bodies of the
animals. The chasm itself could not have been less than two hundred and
fifty to three hundred feet deep at the part that we plunged down. This
will give the reader some idea of the vast quantity of bodies of
animals, chiefly buffaloes, which were there piled up. I consider that
this pile must have been formed wholly from the foremost of the mass,
and that when formed, it broke the fall of the others, who followed
them, as it did our own: indeed, the summit of the heap was pounded into
a sort of jelly.]

CHAPTER XXIX.

Two days did we remain in our she