ve, and can be
easily attracted within rifle-range by agitating, from behind a tree, a
white or red handkerchief.

We were also often visited, during the night, by rattlesnakes, who liked
amazingly the heat and softness of our blankets. They were unwelcome
customers, to be sure; but yet there were some others of which we were
still more in dread: among them I may class, as the ugliest and most
deadly, the prairie tarantula, a large spider, bigger than a good-sized
chicken egg, hairy, like a bear, with small blood-shot eyes and little
sharp teeth.

One evening, we encamped near a little spring, two miles from the
Brasos. Finding no wood to burn near to us, Fitzgerald started to fetch
some. As I have said, his was a small wild horse; he was imprudent
enough to tie to its tail a young tree, which he had cut down. The pony,
of course, got angry, and galloped furiously towards the camp,
surrounded by a cloud of dust. At this sight, the other horses began to
show signs of terror; but we were fortunate enough to secure them all
before it was too late, or we should have lost them for ever.

It is astonishing to witness in the prairies how powerfully fear will
act, not only upon the buffaloes and mustangs, but also upon tame horses
and cattle. Oxen will run farther than horses, and some of them have
been known, when under the influence of the estampede, or sudden fright,
to run forty miles without ever stopping, and when at last they halted,
it was merely because exhausted nature would not allow them to go
further. The Texan expedition, on its way to Santa Fe, once lost ninety
four horses by an estampede. I must say that nothing can exceed the
grandeur of the sight, when a numerous body of cattle are under its
influence. Old nags, broken by age and fatigue, who have been deserted
on account of their weakness, appear as wild and fresh as young colts.
As soon as they are seized with that inexplicable dread which forces
them to fly, they appear to regain in a moment all the powers of their
youth; with head and tail erect, and eyes glaring with fear, they rush
madly on in a straight line; the earth trembles under their feet;
nothing can stop them--trees, abysses, lakes, rivers, or mountains--they
go over all, until nature can support it no more, and the earth is
strewed with their bodies.

Even the otherwise imperturbable horse of our savant would sometimes
have an estampede after his own fashion; lazy and self-willed,
preferri