But what most astonished us was the kind of animals
we saw in the enclosures. One would have thought at first sight that
they were the animals usually seen around an English or American
farm-house,--that is to say, horses, cattle, sheep, goats, hogs, and
poultry. You may fancy, then, our surprise, when, on looking narrowly
at them, we could not make out a single animal exactly resembling any
one of the above, with the exception of horses; and even these were
unlike the common kind, for they were smaller, and spotted all over like
hounds! We knew that they were _mustangs_--the wild horses of the
Desert.

We glanced at the animals we had taken for black cattle. What were they
but buffaloes! Buffaloes penned up in fields, and not heeding the human
beings that passed shouting among them! More than all, we now saw that
two animals yoked to the plough were of the same species,--a pair of
huge buffalo bulls; and they were working with all the quietness and
regularity of oxen!

Another kind of large animals drew our attention, still taller than the
buffaloes. We saw several of them standing quietly in the water of the
lake, in which their huge bodies and branching horns were shadowed as in
a mirror. These we knew to be elk--the great American elk. We saw
several kinds of deer, and antelopes with their short pronged horns, and
animals that resembled these last in size--but with immense curving
horns like those of the ram--and other animals like goats or sheep. We
saw some without tails, having the appearance of pigs, and others
resembling foxes and dogs. We could see fowls of different kinds moving
about the doors, and among others we distinguished the tall, upright
form of the wild turkey. The whole picture looked like the collection
of some zoological garden or menagerie.

Two men were seen,--one a tall, white man, with a somewhat florid
complexion. The other was a short and very thick-set negro. The latter
was by the plough. There were two younger men, or lads nearly grown. A
woman sat by the door engaged in some occupation, and near her were two
little girls, no doubt her daughters.

But the sight which was strangest of all, both to my companion and
myself, was what appeared in front of the house, and around the little
porch where the woman was sitting. It was a fearful sight to look upon.
First there were two large black bears, perfectly loose, and playing
with each other! Then there were several small