Field and I had only the one gun, and
neither of us knew anything about hunting. When we camped, one of the
boys brought over to our tent a quarter of the cat, which was more than
a fair share of the whole supply, as twenty-two of them had only the two
little rabbits and three quarters of the unfortunate cat. We boiled and
boiled and boiled that cat's hind leg, but never got it done. We waited
as long as we possibly could, gave up in despair and put a little flour
into the broth to thicken it, and drank it. It was not good, but much
better the meat of the cat. That cat and the rabbits were all the
twenty-four of us had to eat, after fasting two days, until late in the
evening of the next day.

My people were religious, and when I was young the family was wont to
observe fast days, but never did we have any such long fasts as these
were. In the afternoon of the next day the old chief left the caravan
and went on ahead of the train toward a chain of mountains, first giving
some directions to the band, and taking one son with him. When we
arrived in a small canon in the edge of the mountains we found them with
a fine mountain sheep which they had killed and brought down to the dim,
little-used trail where we camped; and after we had set up our little
tent as usual, a short distance away from our friends, one of the young
men brought to us about one fourth of the sheep, while the twenty-two
Indians had the rest.

You know that a good-sized mountain sheep would make a fair supper for
twenty-four people, even though they had been starving three or four
days; but this was a small one, and I think Field and I ate about half
of the quarter. The twenty-two Indians soon devoured the three-fourths
and all of the soft viscera, including the stomach and intestines, after
which some of the boys came to our tent while we were stuffing our, what
had been for several days empty, stomachs. We offered them part of our
bounteous supply of mutton, having much more than we could eat; but no,
they would not touch it until we were filled full, when they accepted
what was left, and soon stowed it away. All were now pretty well filled
up once more.

The next day was spent without food, traveling over rough mountains.
Within a pass, late in the afternoon, we crossed the fresh trail of some
other band of roving red-skins, and Walker suspected who they were, and
went into camp early. The Indians had killed nothing that day, but I had
killed a sm