I had shot it near the heart, and in a few minutes it was quite dead. Tiger was greatly delighted with the splendid skin, which he stripped off the brute with extraordinary skill, and left the huge claws on it. At about ten o'clock we were ready to start, and rode through a narrow gorge toward the hill ahead of us, which soon brought us to a wide plateau, on which we and our horses were greatly troubled by the sun, as the breeze was very slight. For several days we proceeded without any great difficulty through the mountains, which constantly surprised us both on the heights and in the valleys with the most beautiful landscapes, the wildest rocks, cascades, uprooted trees piled on each other; and then again the pleasantest and most peaceful valleys, in which we every moment expected to see the smoking chimneys of a settlement or a slowly turning mill-wheel. The mountains now grew much more impracticable, their sides steeper and the valleys narrower; our paths frequently led us from our course, wound round the precipices, and at times trended due south; so that during a day's ride we only advanced a few miles to the north. We reached a small river, which wound through the rocks from the north-east, and which Tiger told us was the Rio Colorado, which flowed in a great curve through these mountains and Texas to the Gulf of Mexico. We had great difficulty in passing its steep banks, and spent half a day ere we found a spot where we could ride through it. On its banks we found enormous cypresses and live oaks, and a generally rich vegetation for these regions, and above all, musquito grass, which was of incalculable advantage for our cattle. We had hardly scaled the heights on the opposite side and were riding through a narrow path between two not very steep slopes, when we heard the barking of a hunting dog rapidly advancing towards us. I leaped from my horse and at the same moment there appeared on the left-hand precipice a flying antelope and at some distance behind it a black and white spotted dog, which only barked faintly at intervals. The buck was very fast and took enormous leaps over the loose boulders, and when it passed within a hundred yards of us a shower of bullets was sent after it. It turned a somersault and rolled down the precipice to our feet, when we cut it up and divided the game among our mules. The dog, however, halted on the rock with hanging tail, and looked at us for a while thoughtfully, then turned and slowly made back tracks. Tiger said it was an Indian's dog, but not thoroughbred, as the latter never bark (I do not know whether they cannot, but I never heard them bark). As we rode along we looked for the dog's master, but did not catch sight of him.