we had the
gratification of knowing that our breakfast was now provided for. These
creatures, that all along our journey had received nothing from us but
anathemas, were now likely to come in for a share of our blessings, and
we could not help feeling a species of gratitude towards them, although
at the same time we thus killed and ate them.

The supper of roast wolf produced an agreeable change in our feelings,
and we even listened with interest to our guides, who, appropriate to
the occasion, related some curious incidents of the many narrow escapes
they had had from starvation.

One in particular fixed our attention, as it afforded an illustration of
trapper life under peculiar circumstances.

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.

HARE HUNTING AND CRICKET DRIVING.

The two trappers, in company with two others of the same calling, were
on a trapping expedition to one of the tributaries of the Great Bear
River, west of the Rocky Mountains, when they were attacked by a band of
hostile Utahs, and robbed not only of the produce of their hunt, but
their horses and pack-mules were taken from them, and even their arms
and ammunition. The Indians could have taken their lives as well, but
from the interference of one of the chiefs, who knew old Ike, they were
allowed to go free, although in the midst of the desert region where
they were, that was no great favour. They were as likely as not to
perish from hunger before they could reach any settlement--as at that
time there was none nearer than Fort Hall upon the Snake River, a
distance of full three hundred miles. Our four trappers, however, were
not the men to yield themselves up to despair, even in the midst of a
desert; and they at once set about making the most of their
circumstances.

There were deer upon the stream where they had been trapping, and bear
also, as well as other game, but what did that signify now that they had
no arms? Of course the deer or antelopes sprang out of the shrubbery or
scoured across the plain only to tantalise them.

Near where they had been left by the Indians was a "sage prairie," that
is, a plain covered with a growth of the _artemisia_ plant--the leaves
and berries of which--bitter as they are--form the food of a species of
hare, known among the trappers as the "sage rabbit." This creature is
as swift as most of its tribe, but although our trappers had neither dog
nor gun, they found a way of capturing the sage rabbits. Not by snaring