best, but still they slipped down; and beginning to slide with their enormous weight, they rolled head over heels, and by a long series of bumps and pirouettes, at a height of 400 or 5oo feet, they came tumbling into the river within a few yards of the boat. The entire descent was accomplished in less than a minute. We supposed they were killed; but not the least in the world -to our great astonishment and admiration they rose to the surface and, snorting, blew the water from their nostrils. Their life was granted them -for the reason that our larder was well stocked. We saw them both reach shore, shake the water from their shaggy heads and necks, and each triumphantly hoisting his standard (his tail), they disappeared at full gallop.
In all the Bad Lands region, for a stretch of about a hundred miles, bands of bighorn are very numerous. The bighorn has a body like a deer, but his head resembles that of the goat, surmounted with an enormous pair of short, heavy horns. He haunts the inaccessible peaks and the wildest and least frequented valleys, climbing with ease and celerity almost perpendicular cliffs, jumping from rock to rock and grazing on the tender grass that he finds among them. The flesh, when the animal is fat, is more tender, succulent and delicious than that of any other animal. In its habits the bighorn resembles very much the chamois of Switzerland, and it is hunted in the same manner. They go in flocks, and when they have grazed they seek the most remote spot on the mountain and repose among the rocks.
This sterile region is the wonder of all travelers. Lovers of geology and nature will some day come to visit it to observe its strange marvels. In their way, I will venture to say that the Bad Lands are the most remarkable place in the vast territory of the United States. Although uninhabitable to man, the buffalo range it in large bands, the bighorn inhabits it, and it is the resort of the bear and the rattlesnake, the antelope, the common and the black-tailed deer. In my description of the Missouri I have tried to give you a little