. The hunter and the trapper in North America ; or, Romantic adventures in field and forest. From the French of Bénédict Révoil . sethat we were two days* journey from any habitation, andwe thought, not unreasonably, that numerous years wouldglide away before human feet trod the savage wilderness;that centuries perhaps would pass before civilizationadvanced to so remote a goal. The Indians had returned to our encampment that theymight gorge themselves anew with venison; we foundthem still eating—yet they had eat so much that, out ofvery weariness, they could scarcely open their jaws. Soon they
. The hunter and the trapper in North America ; or, Romantic adventures in field and forest. From the French of Bénédict Révoil . sethat we were two days* journey from any habitation, andwe thought, not unreasonably, that numerous years wouldglide away before human feet trod the savage wilderness;that centuries perhaps would pass before civilizationadvanced to so remote a goal. The Indians had returned to our encampment that theymight gorge themselves anew with venison; we foundthem still eating—yet they had eat so much that, out ofvery weariness, they could scarcely open their jaws. Soon they fell into a complete lethargy, like that of theboa-constrictor after he has swallowed his prey; then,after smoking a pipe, they all dropped into a deep slumber,with mouths half open, apparently dead, but snorting likeso many steam-engines ! Old Jack did not imitate his comrades until he had 250 SLUMBER AND SMOKE. made many fruitless attempts to get hold of the brandybottle. But fortunately he had to do with persons asastute as himself; we resisted all his supplications, andeventually he condescended to leave us at TRANSPORTED INTO THE LAND OF DREAMS. The wind rose during the night, and as it beat downupon us the smoke of the green trees, we soon experienceda smarting of the eyes which by the morning becameintolerable. We suffered from this inconvenience mvichmore than we had suffered from the cold two nights Indians did not complain of the smoke. It is truethat the orgy in which they had taken part had trans-ported them into the land of dreams, and rendered theminsensible to the miseries of this commonplace world. As soon as day reappeared. Jack and his comradespressed us to continue the chase; but Maclean andmyself had experienced that the trouble exceeded the A HERD OF CARIBOOS. 251 pleasure; so, with a common accord, we decided on re-turning. We busied ourselves in putting our baggage in order,adding to it the elk meat, the two haunches, and the twos
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