low  murmuring  conversations,  and  listening
for  some  new  alarm.  Nothing  further,  how-
ever, occurred ;  the  voices  gradually  died
away  ;  the  gossipers  nodded,  and  dozed,  and
sunk  to  rest;  and  by  degrees  silence  and  sleep
once  more  stole  over  the  camp.
205


CHAPTER  XXIII.
BEAVER    DAM. BUFFALO    AND    HORSE    TRACKS.
A    PAWNEE    TRAIL. WILD  HORSES. — THE   YOUNG

HUNTER    AND    THE    BEAR.
On  mustering  our  forces  in  the  morning
(October  23.),  old  Ryan  and  his  comrade
were  still  missing  ;  but  the  Captain  had  such
perfect  reliance  on  the  skill  and  resources  of
the  veteran  woodsman,  that  he  did  not  think
it  necessary  to  take  any  measures  with  re-
spect to  him.
Our  march  this  day  lay  through  the  same
kind  of  rough,  rolling  country,  chequered  by
brown,  dreary  forests  of  post  oak,  and  cut
up  by  deep,  dry  ravines.  The  distant  fires
were  evidently  increasing  on  the  prairies  ;  the
wind  had  been  at  north-west  for  several  days,
and  the  atmosphere  had  become  so  smoky,


206  TOUR    ON    THE    PRAIRIES.
as  in  the  height  of  Indian  summer,  that  it
was  difficult  to  distinguish  objects  at  any
distance.
In  the  course  of  the  morning  we  crossed
a  deep  stream,  Avith  a  complete  beaver-dam,
above  three  feet  high,  making  a  large  pond,
and  doubtless  containing  several  families  of
that  industrious  animal,  though  not  one
showed  his  nose  above  water.  The  Captain
would  not  permit  this  amphibious  common-
wealth to  be  disturbed.
We  now  were  continually  coming  upon
the  tracks  of  buffaloes  and  wild  horses  ;  those
of  the  former  tended  invariably  to  the  south,
as  we  could  perceive  by  the  direction  of  the
trampled  grass.  It  was  evident  we  were  on
tlie  great  highway  of  these  migratory  herds,
but  that  they  had  chiefly  passed  to  the  south-
ward.
