The elk reached the end of the ridge, and sprang down its sloping declivity. The Pawnee horseman followed. In a moment after the elk was seen bounding up an opposite ridge, and leaping along its verge. His pursuer pressed on, about fifty yards in the rear. Here the chase was again in full sight, and continued so for a few moments. The elk was growing weaker and weaker. He came to the end of a ridge which was cragged and almost perpendicular. He paused for a moment on the brink; looked down the steep; cast a glance behind; then gathering his feet he made a desperate bound down the rugged bank, and in a moment’s time dashed up to the top of a succeeding ridge. Almost at the same time, the Pawnee was at the end of the hill; he looked for a moment down the steep—he half urged forward his foaming horse, then reining him in, turned away, and commenced his return towards the party. As he was leaving the summit of the eminence, he looked around for the animal which had escaped him, but he had disappeared in a clump of shrubbery. Seeing the pursuit was ended, the Pawnees folded their robes around them, the Otoes shouldered their guns, and the whole party resumed its journey. In company with _Hah-che-kah-sug-hah_ I soon after left the party and commenced a hunt over the prairie. We were overtaken by a young Otoe called “the Buffalo Chief.” He was armed with a rifle; and was a keen and generally a successful hunter. Several Pawnees also came loitering up, for they always hang in the wake of the hunters, in hopes of obtaining a portion of what is killed. We directed our course towards a lofty skirt of forest, fringed with brushwood. Here we thought that we might hunt successfully; but the night closed in, and still we were empty handed. So we were obliged to set out in search of the spot, which we supposed would be the site of our night encampment. The Indians moved forward with a swift, unwearied step. They seemed to glide along. Their blankets fluttered in the slight current produced by the rapidity of their motions, and I was obliged to hurry swiftly on, lest I should lose sight of them. An hour passed; they still pushed forward; they spoke not a word; not a sign of intelligence passed between them; they moved on rapidly through the dark, as if they guided their course by instinct. “Ugh!” ejaculated Hah-che-kah-sug-hah, stopping short, and looking earnestly at some object upon the black sod. “Ugh! ugh! ugh!” burst from the chests of several of the Pawnees, as they gathered round the suspicious object, and bent down, to examine it more closely. I came up to them, but could see nothing. The Indian pointed to the ground, and after much difficulty, I descried the faint impression of a moccassin upon the ashes of the burnt grass, though it would have escaped any, save the keen and ever-observing eye of an Indian.