rom Texas, then a part of the Mexican
territory. The face of the country was here very different from most of
that they had passed over. It was more hilly and upland; and the
vegetation had altogether changed. The great dark cypress had
disappeared, and pines were more abundant. The forests were lighter and
more open.

There was a freshet in the Sabine; but they swam across it, as they had
done other rivers, and halted to encamp upon its western bank. It was
still only a little after noon, but as they had wet their baggage in
crossing, they resolved to remain by the river for the rest of the day.
They made their camp in an open space in the midst of a grove of low
trees. There were many open spaces, for the trees stood wide apart, and
the grove looked very much like a deserted orchard. Here and there a
tall magnolia raised its cone-shaped summit high above the rest, and a
huge trunk of one of these, without leaves or branches, appeared at some
distance, standing like an old ruined tower.

The ground was covered with flowers of many kinds. There were blue
lupins and golden helianthi. There were malvas and purple monardas, and
flowers of the cotton-rose, five inches in diameter. There were
blossoms of vines, and creeping plants, that twined around the trees, or
stretched in festoons from one to another--the cane-vine with its white
clusters, and the raccoon grape, whose sweet odours perfumed the air;
but by far the most showy were the large blossoms of the bignonia, that
covered the festoons with their trumpet-shaped corollas, exhibiting
broad surfaces of bright scarlet.

In the midst of these flowers our hunters pitched camp, picketing their
animals, and putting up their tent as usual.

The sun was shining brightly, and they proceeded to spread their wet
robes and blankets.

"It strikes me," said Lucien, after they had completed their
arrangements for camping, "that we have halted on the site of an old
Indian town."

"Why do you think so?" asked Basil.

"Why, I notice these heaps of rubbish here that are covered with weeds
and briars. They are Indian graves, or piles of decayed logs where
houses once stood. I can tell from the trees, too. Look around! do you
see anything peculiar in these trees?"

"Nothing," replied Basil and Francois together. "Nothing, except that
they are mostly small and low."

"Do you not observe anything odd in their species?"

"No," said Basil. "I think I have seen them