Chamberss Edinburgh Journal, No. 422 | Page 7

abrupt
precipice, of some sixty or seventy feet in height above the plain. The
animals, on reaching the level of this spur, ran along it until they had
arrived at its end. Seeing the precipice, they suddenly stopped, as if to
reconnoitre it; and we had now a full view of them, as they stood
outlined against the sky, with their graceful limbs and great curved
horns, almost as large as their bodies. We thought, of course, they

could get no farther for the precipice, and I was calculating whether my
rifle, which I had laid hold of, would reach them at that distance. All at
once, to our astonishment, the foremost sprang out from the cliff, and
whirling through the air, lit upon his head on the hard plain below! We
could see that he came down upon his horns, and rebounding up again
to the height of several feet, he turned a second somersault, and then
dropped upon his legs, and stood still! Nothing daunted, the rest
followed, one after the other, in quick succession, like so many
street-tumblers; and, like them, after the feat had been performed, the
animals stood for a moment, as if waiting for applause!' These were the
argali, or wild sheep, popularly termed bighorns, and resembling an
immense yellow goat or deer furnished with a pair of ram's horns.
Such are the anecdotes which the reader will find thickly scattered
throughout this volume; but perhaps the most interesting are a series of
conflicts witnessed by the father and one of the sons, and in the course
of which they are themselves exposed to some danger. They had gone
out to gather from the live oaks a kind of moss, which they found to be
quite equal to curled hair for stuffing mattresses; and while perched
upon one of the trees, the drama opened by the violent scolding of a
pair of orioles, or Baltimore birds--so called from their colour, a
mixture of black and orange, being the same as that in the coat-of-arms
of Lord Baltimore. The cause of the disturbance appeared to be a
nondescript animal close to the edge of the thicket, with a variety of
little legs, tails, heads, ears, and eyes stuck over its body. 'All at once
the numerous heads seemed to separate from the main body, becoming
little bodies of themselves, with long tails upon them, and looking just
like a squad of white rats! The large body to which they had all been
attached we now saw was an old female opossum, and evidently the
mother of the whole troop. She was about the size of a cat, and covered
with woolly hair of a light gray colour.... The little 'possums were exact
pictures of their mother--all having the same sharp snouts and long
naked tails. We counted no less than thirteen of them, playing and
tumbling about among the leaves.' The old 'possum looked wistfully up
at the nest of the orioles, hanging like a distended stocking from the
topmost twigs of the tree. After a little consideration she uttered a sharp
note, which brought the little ones about her in a twinkling. 'Several of

them ran into the pouch which she had caused to open for them; two of
them took a turn of their little tails around the root of hers, and climbed
up on her rump, almost burying themselves in her long wool; while two
or three others fastened themselves about her neck and shoulders. It
was a most singular sight to see the little creatures holding on with
"tails, teeth, and toe-nails," while some peeped comically out of the
great breast-pocket.' Burdened in this way, she climbed the tree, and
then taking hold of the young 'possums, one by one, with her mouth,
she made them twist their tails round a branch, and hang with their
heads downwards. 'Five or six of the "kittens" were still upon the
ground. For these she returned, and taking them up as before, again
climbed the tree. She disposed of the second load precisely as she had
done the others, until the thirteen little possums hung head downwards
along the branch like a string of candles!'
The mother now climbed higher up; but the nest, with its tempting eggs,
hung beyond her reach; and although she suspended herself by the
tail--at last almost by its very tip--and swung like a pendulum,
clutching as she swung, it was all in vain. At length, with a bitter snarl,
she gave up the adventure as hopeless, detached the young ones from
their hold, flung them testily to the ground, and descending, took them
all into her pouch and upon her back, and trudged away. 'Frank and I
now deemed it proper to interfere, and cut off the retreat of the