was still in life, though he had fainted from fear and from weakness occasioned by the loss of blood.  He gradually recovered, and, under the stimulating influence of a cup of brandy, was able to proceed home with his comrades.  It was many weeks, however, before he was fit for service, and he will retain till his dying day the dental marks received from the leopard, by way of token what it would like to have done with him had there been none but themselves two on the desert wide.

The soldiers returned, some time after, and skinned the animal, carrying home its spotted covering for a trophy; and now, here it is, with the marks of the musket-balls upon it, remembrances of the strange story we have now recounted.

LIFE IN CALIFORNIA.

Every man, both honest and dishonest, in California, has his own horse—­as a very good-looking, active one can be purchased, tamed to carry the saddle and rider, from the Indians, for four or five dollars; so that every one, I may add, of both sexes, ride in California.  No one walks far but the hunter, and he is carried in canoe a long way up the river before he strikes into the forest after the animals he is in pursuit of.  This last class of men are the most wild, daring, yet friendly and honest, of the lower class of the white population of California.  Well:  as the robber as well as the honest man are equally mounted, sometimes a very interesting steeple chase ensues,—­ground rough, not being previously chosen, occasionally leaping over pools of water, large stones, and fallen trees.  The Indians who use the lasso, generally keep the lead, to strive to throw the noose over either the man or horse they are pursuing.  It is made of thongs of bullock-hide twisted into a small rope about thirty or forty feet long, with a noose formed by a running knot at the end of it.  One end of the lasso is fastened to the back of the saddle:  the entire length of it is kept in a coil on the right hand, and after two or three swings of it over their heads, they will throw it with such accuracy that the smallest object will come within the noose.  Thus, then, if an equestrian traveler does not keep a good look-out as he is passing by a bush or thicket, one of these lassoes may be thrown out; the noose, falling over his head, will be jerked tight round his body, and, in the twinkling of an eye, he will be dragged off his horse, and away into the bush, to be stripped of everything he has.  By all the accounts I have heard, and from what I have seen, the robbers of California are the most active in the world:  the end of the dangerous lasso being firmly fastened to the saddle, enables the rider, as soon as his victim, either man or animal, is noosed, to wheel round his horse, and dash off like an Arab, dragging whatever he has fast after him.  There is one method of averting the fall of the lasso noose over the body of a man, either on foot or horseback.  If he holds, as he always ought, either sword or gun in his right hand, when he sees the lasso coming, let him instantly raise either and his arm in a horizontal position, and if the noose does fall true, it cannot run farther down, being stopped by sword, gun, or extended arm; then fling it off quick, or it may be jerked tight round the neck.  I have known this subterfuge save many a man from robbers and perhaps murderers.