on a young buffalo-calf,
every bone of which we found had been broken into splinters. [See note
2.]

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Note 1. River bottom is a space, sometimes of many many miles in width,
on the side of the river, running parallel with it. It is always very
valuable and productive land, but unhealthy, and dangerous to cross,
from its boggy nature.

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Note 2. I have said, at a venture, that we descended more than a
hundred feet into the chasm before we fairly landed on the bodies of the
animals. The chasm itself could not have been less than two hundred and
fifty to three hundred feet deep at the part that we plunged down. This
will give the reader some idea of the vast quantity of bodies of
animals, chiefly buffaloes, which were there piled up. I consider that
this pile must have been formed wholly from the foremost of the mass,
and that when formed, it broke the fall of the others, who followed
them, as it did our own; indeed, the summit of the heap was pounded into
a sort of jelly.

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.

Two days did we remain in our shelter, to regain our strength and to
rest our horses. Thus deeply buried in the bosom of the earth, we were
safe from the devastating elements. On the second day we heard
tremendous claps of thunder; we knew that a storm was raging which would
quench the fire, but we cared little about what was going on above.

We had plenty to eat and to drink, our steeds were recovering fast, and,
in spite of the horrors we had just undergone, we were not a little
amused by the lamentations of the parson, who, recollecting the
destruction of his shirts, forgot his professional duty, and swore
against Texas and the Texians, against the prairies, the buffaloes, and
the fire: the last event had produced so deep an impression upon his
mind, that he preferred shivering all night by the banks of the torrent
to sleeping near our comfortable fire; and as to eating of the delicate
food before him, it was out of the question; he would suck it, but not
masticate nor swallow it; his stomach and his teeth refused to
accomplish their functions upon the abhorred meat; and he solemnly
declared that never again would he taste beef--cow or calf--tame or
wild--even if he were starving.

One of the lawyers, too, was loud in his complaints, for although born
in the State