izon before us was concealed by a high and rugged ridge of the
rolling prairie, towards which we proceeded but slowly, so completely
was the track made by the buffaloes choked by burnt bodies of all
descriptions of animals. At last we reached the summit of the swell, and
perceived that we were upon one of the head branches of the Trinity
River, forming a kind of oblong lake, a mile broad, but exceedingly
shallow; the bottom was of a hard white sandy formation, and as we
crossed this beautiful sheet of clear water, the bottom appeared to be
studded with grains of gold and crystals.

This brought round the characteristic elasticity of temper belonging to
the Americans, and caused the doctor to give way to his mental
speculations:--He would not go to Edinburgh; it was nonsense; here was a
fortune made. He would form a company in New York, capital one million
of dollars--the Gold, Emerald, Topaz, Sapphire, and Amethyst
Association, in ten thousand shares, one hundred dollars a-piece. In
five years he would be the richest man in the world; he would build ten
cities on the Mississippi, and would give powder and lead to the
Comanches for nothing, so that they could at once clear the world of
Texans and buffaloes. He had scarcely finished, when we reached the
other side of the lake; there we had to pass over a narrow ridge,
covered with green bushes, but now torn and trampled down; the herds had
passed over there, and the fire had been extinguished by the waters of
this "fairy lake," for so we had baptized it. Half an hour more brought
us clear out from the cover, and a most strange and unusual sight was
presented to our eyes.

On a rich and beautiful prairie, green and red, the wild clover and the
roses, and occasionally a plum-tree, varying the hues were lying
prostrate, as far as the eye could reach, hundreds of thousands of
animals of all species, some quietly licking their tired limbs, and
others extending their necks, without rising, to graze upon the soft
grass around them. The sight was beautiful above all description, and
recalled to mind the engravings of the creation affixed to the old
Bibles. Wolves and panthers were lying but a few paces from a small
flock of antelopes; buffaloes, bears, and horses were mixed together,
every one of them incapable of moving from the spot on which they had
dropped from exhaustion and fatigue.

We passed a large jaguar, glaring fiercely at a calf ten feet from him;
on seeing us, he