Page:The Prairie Flower; Or, Adventures In the Far West.djvu/106

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our lone camp, in the dead hours of night, with no little animation.

"What say you, Frank?" cried Huntly the next morning, rousing me from a sweet dream of home. "Westward or south ward?"

"Why," I replied, "there is danger in either choice so choose for yourself."

"Well, I am for exploring this region left blank on the map."

"Then we will go, live or die," I rejoined; " for I long myself to behold what has never as yet been seen by one of my race."

The matter thus decided, we mounted our horses, and keeping to the south of the Utah Lake, crossed a small stream, and about noon came to a halt on the brow of a high hill, forming a portion of the Wahsatch range. Below us, facing the west, we beheld a barren tract of land, with here and there a few green spots, and an oc casional stream sparkling in the bright sunlight, which led us to the inference that there might be oases, at intervals of a day's ride, across the whole Great Basin, to the foot of the Sierra Nevada or Snowy Range, which divides it from the pleasant valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin.

It was a delightful day, and everything before us, even the most sterile spots, looked enchanting in the soft mellow light. Descending the mountain with not a little difficulty, we set forward across the plain, shaping our course to the nearest point likely to afford us a good encampment. But the distance was much farther than we had anticipated, when viewing it from the mountain; and although we urged our beasts onward as much as they could bear, night closed around us long ere we reached it. Reach it we did at last; and heartily fatigued with our day's work, we hoppled our horses, and without kindling a fire, or eating a morsel of food, rolled ourselves in our robes of buffalo, and fell asleep.

The sun of the succeeding morning, shining brightly in our faces, awoke us; and springing to our feet, w\j gazed around with mingled sensations of awe and delight. Doubtless we felt, in a small degree, the emotions excited in the breast of the ad venturer, when for the first time he finds himself on ground which he fancies has Miter yet been trod nor seen by a stranger.

We had entered a country now, which th most daring had feared or failed to explore, and we felt a noble pride in tne thought that we should be the first to lay before the world its mysteries.

The point where we had encamped, was green and fertile, abounding with what is termed buffalo grass, with trees unlike any I had before seen, and with wild flowers innumerable. Like an island from the ocean, it rose above the desert around it, covering an area of a mile in circumfer ence, and was watered by several bright springs of delightful beverage.

Turning our gaze to the eastward, we beheld the snowy peaks of the Wahsatch Mountains, which we had left behind us, looming up in grandeur; while, to the westward, nothing was visible but an un broken, barren, pathless desert. Here was certainly a prospect anything but charming yet not for a moment did we waver in our determination to press onward.

It will be remembered, that on leaving the village of the Mysterious Nation, Prai rie Flower had taken care to furnish us a good supply of jerk; and this, by killing more or less game on our route, we had been enabled to retain in our possession, to be eaten only in cases of extreme ne cessity; consequently we did not fear suf fering for food, so much as for water; and even the latter we were sanguine of find ing, ere anything serious should occur. The only matter that troubled us sorely, was the fear our noble animals would not be as fortunate as we, and that starvation might compel them to leave their bones in the wilderness, and thereby oblige us to pursue our journey on foot an event, as the reader will perceive, far more probable than agreeable.

As we had eaten nothing the previous night, we now felt our appetites much sharpened thereby, and looking around in the hope of discovering game, my eye chanced upon a rabbit. The next moment the sharp crack of my rifle broke upon the solitude, and the little fellow lay deau in his tracks.

Hastily dressing him and kindling a tire, we were already in the act of toasting the meat, when whiz-z-z came a dozen arrows through the nir, some of them actually penetrating our garments without wounding