The Arkansas advocate., 1835-03-20

man named Smith, who had been as q,
 Journeyer through the prairie, which shew.
 something of their strength. He had kill. ed buffalo at night, and on qoipe to the body m the morning, discovered a laree
 wolf with hls head and shoulders entirely burled In the stomach of the seorpse.' He resolved te % af behind shc wolf, and s.ai hun with his knife, but when withid abon, fifty yards ot him, he found that he ilad Jeff
 h!s knife at camp. Not to be backed out, he determined to jump on the wolf and break his back, CT choke him to death. He did Jump on him accordingly, but instead oi allowing his back to be broken, the animal began 10 5dck out himself, and smith took
 the track back again,' [as they say in the
 Hest,) with all haste. He declares that he heard, for the first fifty yards, the teeth of the wolf snap together behind him at every jump. He dlstanced him, however, but theneeforward gave up the idea of breaking the backs of wolves.
 After striking the Semaron, that saltest, mosr singular, and most aboninabIe of all the ylllalnous rivers of the prarie, we went crawling ap.it for forty miles, with our faded oxen, at the rate of about elght miles day, and about the first of November we reach ed the middle spring of he Senaron. Be- fore reaching this pomi. my horse ran of in q storm one night, and left ne to walk the rest of'my way to Santa Fe. had no par t,cular objection, for the Indian summer Was over, and 1t was altogether too cold to ride. Just before arriving at tho middle spring, we sent off five men to % unto Taos, and bring out provisions and oxen. This reduced our company to twenty men. l will try and give you some idea of life in the prairie, by just describing our stay of one night at this middle spring. I think shall hardly ever forget the place. The river, coming from the southwest, here made d bend and ran due east that Is, as nearly as can recoliect--running in the et5otp so formed, nearly to the feet of some binfls of rock which were piled up on the north side oi Us. with just breaks enough between them for the winc 10 whistle na4r-| riiy through their rough teeth. in front of| us, to the south, Ias we camped ia the eI- I,t,,,t Asal.-s-s -i q tae river, and beyond fl q dry pIaiiI, stretched ont in an eternity of barrenness. We reached the spring ln the middle ef light snow, accompanied as fl had been he ralded, by keen, biting north wind, fresh from the everlasting ice-pealIs that guard the springs of the Arkansas. We encamp- ed, and commenced gathering the dry or dure of the buffalo for flel-the only salva- ton of the journeyer n the prairie. We piled d quantity under the wagons, and with diff fcnlty having satiated our hunger, for one rolled myself n my blankets, and coled myself In the tent. As the hours oi night wore away, the snow fell thicker, and the cold grew more intense. 1t half past one, was called out to stand guard. l strapped my blanket round me, shouldered my gun, and was ready to stand as sentry til nine in the morning-for what purpose, the wise commanders of the expedition knew best. Indians never attack on such nights. I stood at the west end of the camp--in froat of the tent belonging to our mess. On the east end was another tent, and by 1t small fire, where the captain ot our guard, quaklng half with cold and half with fear of Indians, stood guard sistang.-- For about half an hour, paced back and forth on the rod and halt of line allotted me-in snow about q foot deep. The storm was over, and the wind every mo- ment grew more intensely cold. At length my feet forced me 10 the fire. l warmed them, and they were cold before l was at my stand again. l tried the fire again, but with DO better fortune, and then resolv- ed to build fire for myself. iplled some of our fuel together. and sat down to watch if ionite. It was then about three ln the
 morning-and in about an hour 1t gave me
 sufficient heat to keep toleraply warm by
 bending over it-which did, with sover-
 eign contempt for every tribe of heathen
 Indians between the Mississippi and the
 mountains. In the morning ny feet were
 so swollen ,ha, could with difficulty move
 --and the reader, and you also, may judge of the degree of cold, when teii you ssiia
 n horse froze to death within ten feet ot me
 Great God how those animals suffered i have seen oxen come and stand by the I fire. till it scorched the skin from them
 You could not drive them away--and IL
 wonder.
 From this place we crawled on to th'
 upper spring, forty miles farther aud her ] we Jeff the s5emaron. have never seel
 t since, and most devoutly hope never | see it again. The volcanic hills of the De
 maron, at this point, are curiossty. he
 consist of mass of rocky fragments
 which seem to have been thrown mt" tn
 air from the level prairie by some anelen
 explosion or eruption-and sucn, no douo is the fact-for they consist of huge, LII
 ioipted, shattered, burnt rocks, and of iafs
 Jc.,,aate of what seems like iava-an