base of Turtle Mountain, Clarke and
I gave chase to some buffalo, and I killed one, which I proceeded to
cut up at once by removing the tongue and undercut of the fillet. The
meat I tied to the thongs of my saddle, placed there especially for
that purpose, and I rejoined the camp before nightfall. Clarke came
back shortly afterwards, having killed his buffalo in three or four
shots, and after a long chase. This had delayed him so much, that he
lacked time to cut up his animal; so he marked the spot as well as he
could by its bearings with Turtle Mountain, and he rode homewards to
the camp, intending to go on the following morning, and get the meat
for home consumption.

We cooked and ate our dinners, and rolling ourselves up in our buffalo
robes, we slept most soundly. The following morning, Clarke went out
and fetched his pony, which was picketed near the camp, saddled it,
took his rifle and hunting-knife, and then off he started to look for
the dead buffalo of the previous evening, cut it up, and bring home
some of the meat.

I remained in camp; and as my wardrobe was rather dilapidated from
constant hunting, and the limited number of clothes I had with me, I
proceeded to mend my trousers, which were worn through just where it
might naturally be expected they would first give way. This I could
only do by shortening the legs of the garment. However, the end
justified the means in this case.

These repairs, with other necessary work about our rifles and guns,
occupied the morning very pleasantly; and about midday I went up the
hill behind our camp, where a small bluff, or headland, projected from
it over the vast grassy plain. I took my telescope with me, as every
traveller in those wild regions should always do, when spying out
either the fatness of the land or the possible surrounding dangers.
Far and wide my eye fell over the gentle undulations of the prairie,
but no deer or buffalo could I see.

No; instead of quietly feeding game, I discovered my friend Clarke,
some three or four miles from camp, galloping at the top of his
horse's speed towards us, and five Indians in hot pursuit of him.

Knowing his danger, I of course ran down the bluff as hard as I could
to the camp, and holloaed to the men to make haste and come to the
rescue. I then ran for my pony, which was picketed at a short distance
from our tent; but he was difficult to catch, or had drawn his peg out
of the ground. At any rate, I could not get ho