The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-01-23

of the day, and as l was getting tired of
my stale buffalo tongue l thought would
walk around little and towards evening
stream. l made but slow progress. Every
thing-the botany, the conchology, the &C.
ology,-everything was new to me. The
wide-scattered specimens of natural history
had never been disturbed or moved from
the spot where the finger of Nature had
dropped them. l had visited many unfre-
quented places, but never before had l
found one at which l felt SO clearly that
was the first that ever left shos-print on
the white, clean sands of that clear dashing
river. Properly circumstanced, l could
have spent month most delightfully."- there.
l will not attempt description of the
records Of the ages that lay SO plainly
printed on the rocks and stratified cliffs
and beds of fossiliferous oysters and casts
of conchs.
As l returned to my camp, near sunset,
l discovered six or seven deer, quarter of
mile distant on the prairie, that were
coming towards the timber, and they, con
tinuing their course, would strike some
distance below where l was. hurried
along through the timber and low under
growth to the proper point and waited for
them. When they came near enough
hailed them with, where are you going
this evening ?" They halted, and, remem-
bering that my gun had not been fired in a
week, l took very steady aim. She, how
ever, went quick, and there was broken
neck twenty seven PAGES from me. l made
haste to my camp with as much of the
meat as l needed; got there in time to have
my fire and cook my meal before dark.
had become too timid to run the risk of
illuminating the leaves on the tree-tops
after dark; it could be seen at great dis
lance on that level plain over which had
passed. l roasted what was left of my
venison in the embers of my little fire, ate
it at daylight, and went by the beautifully
written records that had visited the previ-
Gus day. l had my journal with me now,
and l made many notes from the stone
book. But feeling at last that had tarIied
in that region as long as was prudent, l
set out directly east, travelled over beauti-
full prairie full of grouse, jack rabbits,
wolves and salamander. Portions of the
prairie were quite sandy, and in these sand
beds the little rows Of sand piles were
thickly dotted over the entire sandy dis
trict. Half a. mile away in front of me,
and lying on his belly right athwart the
course of my line was large sooty colored
wolf. His nose was near the ground, and
he seemed to be intently gaziag at some
thing. He did not turn his head nor move
limb. 1 rode on, on to within twenty
five PAGES of where he lay, and he paying
no attention to me. l concluded l would
wake him up and see what he was doing.
So dropping the bride on Ned's withers,
and at the same time gently pressing the
reins with the tips Of my fingers, he stop
ped, raised his head and holding his breath,
gave me chance to make a steady aim.
The ball passed through his body behind
the shoulders, and he bounded up with a
great dog cry and ran with all his might
directly towards me, and before l could
think what to do with my empty gun he
tumbled in ten feet of me dead. l went
to the place where he had been SO steadily
and patiently watching, and found little
pile of fresh sand that had been thrown up
by salamander, which explains the cause
of the VOLTS attitude. He was waiting
for the salamander to come up with his
load of sand when he would nab him. l
had many times seen these little sand hills
torn up, but had not until to-day discovered
how it had happened
My first days were spent in the pine
forests of Georgia, where this sand flirting
rodent was very abundant, and there, in
my childhood, learned to call them sala
mander. They do not, however, belong to
the batrachians. The pouched animal here
alluded to is the Texas, or smallest species
of the two gophers. The full grown Texas
gopher will weigh half pound. The
gopher found in Tuxpan, Mexico, when
grown and fat, will weigh about two
pounds. The dogs eat them greedily, and
the Mexican native Indians told me they
were delicious food for humanity. They
are both injurious rodents belonging to
diplostoma.
l did not travel over twenty miles this
day till came to another one of the pretty
creeks with the transparent water. The
quietly grazing antelopes and the big brown
wolves, who would run off hundred or
two yards, and then sit down like dog
and watch my movements, assured me that
they had not been disturbed lately; conse
quently concluded to loiter away little
| time on that pretty creek. Finding, by
the size of the creek and deep cut banks,
course, of which the creeks were tributary,
for convenient travelling, determined to
ascend the beautiful stream I was now on
until l found ground better suited to old
Ned's abilities. The good old fellow was
willing and would have travelled, obeying
my signs for him to go faster or slower,
until he fell dead without a single word of
complaint. But wanted to preserve his
strength, and | didn't leave the rate Of
travel, Or when to stop or start, to his
judgment. In that far away. unpeopled
desert, l viewed him as very precious,
useful companion. We went inside the
timber, and near the bank of the stream,
seven or eight miles, where the fluctuations
became more abrupt, the hllsides were
clothed with scraggy brushwood, and the
bed of the creek was paved with lodges of
coarse, gray, limy sandstone. This was a
delightful place. l stripped the horse and
he went Immediately to the water, lay
down in it, rolled little, and drank some
of the water as he lay. This put me in
mind of bath, and, throwing off my
clothes, spent perhaps an hour in rubbing
and securing my dirty hide: after which
slept an hour, waking about O'Clock and
recollccting there was nothing to eat in
camp hurried off to find something.
had not proceeded half a mile before