produces, by first muzzling and fettering his delinquent dog, and then
leaving him as a stepping stone for the whole flock to use in its
transit over a wall, or through the opening of a sheep-fold; a process
which is said to produce in the culprit a species of surfeit, on the
subject of mutton, for ever after. By the time Paul and the trapper
saw fit to terminate the fresh bursts of merriment, which the
continued abstraction of their learned companion did not fail to
excite, he commenced breathing again, as if the suspended action of
his lungs had been renewed by the application of a pair of artificial
bellows, and was heard to make use of the ever afterwards proscribed
term, on that solitary occasion, to which we have just alluded.

"Boves Americani horridi!" exclaimed the Doctor, laying great stress
on the latter word; after which he continued mute, like one who
pondered on strange and unaccountable events.

"Ay, horrid eyes enough, I will willingly allow," returned the
trapper; "and altogether the creatur' has a frightful look, to one
unused to the sights and bustle of a natural life; but then the
courage of the beast is in no way equal to its countenance. Lord, man,
if you should once get fairly beset by a brood of grizzly bears, as
happened to Hector and I, at the great falls of the Miss--Ah, here
comes the tail of the herd, and yonder goes a pack of hungry wolves,
ready to pick up the sick, or such as get a disjointed neck by a
tumble. Ha! there are mounted men on their trail, or I'm no sinner!
here, lad; you may see them here-away, just where the dust is
scattering afore the wind. They are hovering around a wounded
buffaloe, making an end of the surly devil with their arrows!"

Middleton and Paul soon caught a glimpse of the dark group, that the