Before evening we were safely over, having spent five or six hours in
passing this chasm. Once more we found ourselves upon the level of the
prairie, and after proceeding some hundred yards, on looking back, not a
sign of the immense fissure was visible. The waste we were then
travelling over was at least two hundred and fifty miles in width, and
the two chasms I have mentioned were the reservoirs, and at the same
time the channels of escape for the heavy rains which fall upon it
during the wet season.

This prairie is undoubtedly one of the largest in the world, and the
chasm is in perfect keeping with the size of the prairie. At sun-down
we came upon a water-hole, and encamped for the night. By this time we
were entirely out of provisions, and our sufferings commenced.

The next day we resumed our journey, now severely feeling the cravings
of hunger. During our journey we saw small herds of deer and antelopes,
doubtless enticed to the water-courses by the recent rains, and towards
night we descried a drove of mustangs upon a swell of the prairie half a
mile ahead of us. They were all extremely shy, and although we
discharged our rifles at them, not a shot was successful. In the
evening we encamped near a water-hole, overspreading an area of some
twenty acres, but very shallow. Large flocks of Spanish curlews, one of
the best-flavoured birds that fly, were hovering about, and lighting on
it on all sides. Had I been in possession of a double-barrelled gun,
with small shot, we could have had at least one good meal; but as I had
but a heavy rifle and my bow and arrows, we were obliged to go to sleep
supperless.

About two o'clock the next morning we saddled and resumed our travel,
journeying by the stars, still in a north-east direction. On leaving
the Wakoes, we thought that we could be not more than one hundred miles
from the Comanche encampment. We had now ridden much more than that
distance, and were still on the immense prairie. To relieve ourselves
from the horrible suspense we were in--to push forward, with the hope of
procuring some provisions--to get somewhere, in short, was now our
object, and we pressed onward, with the hope of finding relief.

Our horses had, as yet, suffered less than ourselves, for the grazing in
the prairie had been good but our now hurried march, and the difficult
crossing of the immense chasms, began to tell upon them. At sunrise we
halted near a small pond of water, to