e many fragments of the ribs and of the leg bones. All the vertebrae
discovered were in a continuous line, nearly joined together. The head,
to correspond to other parts of the animal, must have been twelve or
fourteen feet long, which would have given to the monster the almost
incredible length of eighty feet.

The prince Seravalle, while digging in the fall of the year 1834, for an
ammunition store on the western banks of the Buona Ventura, picked up a
beautiful curved ivory tusk, three feet long, which, had it not been for
its jet black colour, would have been amazingly alike to that of a large
elephant.

Some pieces of it (for unhappily it was sawn into several parts) are now
in the possession of the governor of Monterey and Mr Lagrange, a
Canadian trader, who visited the territory in 1840.

CHAPTER FIVE.

Every point having been arranged, I received my final instructions, and
letters for the Governor of Monterey, to which was added a heavy bag of
doubloons for my expenses. I bade farewell to the Prince and my father,
and with six well-armed Indians and the Padre Marini, I embarked in a
long canoe on the Buona Ventura river, and carried away by the current,
soon lost sight of our lonesome settlement.

We were to follow the stream to the southern lakes of the Buona Ventura,
where we were to leave our Indians, and join some half-bred
Wachinangoes, returning to Monterey, with the mustangs, or wild horses,
which they had captured in the prairies.

It was a beautiful trip, just at the commencement of the spring; both
shores of the river were lined with evergreens; the grass was luxuriant,
and immense herds of buffaloes and wild horses were to be seen grazing
in every direction. Sometimes a noble stallion, his long sweeping mane
and tail waving to the wind, would gallop down to the water's edge, and
watch us as if he would know our intentions. When satisfied, he would
walk slowly back, ever and anon turning round to look at us again, as if
not quite so convinced of our peaceful intentions.

On the third night, we encamped at the foot of an obelisk in the centre
of some noble ruins. It was a sacred spot with the Shoshones. Their
traditions told them of another race, who had formerly lived there, and
which had been driven by them to the south. It must have been ages
back, for the hand of time, so lenient in this climate, and the hand of
man, so little given to spoil, had severely visited this fated city.