The tired, sleeping man was aroused by the report of the gun, and rushed into the room where I was in great excitement, thinking, perhaps, that some enemy had appeared, and had just then commenced to bombard the fort; but when I explained to him that I had simply killed a wolf, he ran out towards it, and, arriving close to it, the wounded creature rose up on its hind feet and growled quite vigorously, which seemed to frighten Field as much as did the noise of the gun.  He dashed back to the fort, and, after having time to recover from his speechless condition, abused me most fearfully for having told him that I had killed a wolf.  I then went out and put a load of shot into the wolf’s head, and found that my first charge had passed through and broke both of its fore legs near the body.  Field was so thoroughly frightened that I could not induce him to approach the dead animal for some time, and I do believe that that wolf haunted him as long as I knew him, for he seemed never to forget it.  After dressing it by the light of the moon assisted by a torch, we retired.  On viewing the plump body next morning Field exclaimed, “That’s another God-send!” and notwithstanding his opinion that wolf could not be eaten, he found that wolf to be the best food we had eaten since we had assisted Walker and his tribe in eating the mountain sheep.

The French may eat their horses, but I do not want more horse flesh.  The old mule made fair but quite coarse beef.  While out on this little pleasure excursion we ate horse, mule, wolf, wild-cat, mountain sheep, rose seed buds, raw-hide, a squirrel, fatty matter from the sockets of the mule’s eyes and the marrow from his bones; but that ham of wild-cat was certainly the most detestable thing that I ever undertook to eat.  The marrow from the mule’s bones was a real luxury.

We now had a pretty good stock of food, such as it was, but not enough to carry us through the winter on full rations; therefore we determined to try to add to it by hunting.  One was to go out and hunt while the other would remain at home:  we now had undisputed possession of the fort and it was our home.  Field took the first day’s outing while I occupied my time in drying and smoking meat.  Late in the evening he returned, tired and worn out, having seen nothing worth shooting.

Next day came my turn to hunt.  I took a lunch, as he had done, consisting of jerked mule.  I did not tell him so, but I had determined to make an excursion up the river to a point where we had seen some fresh trails and deer tracks some days before.  When I was putting up my lunch my friend intimated that I was taking a very large amount for one lunch, but I told him that I might stay out late and that I did not intend to starve.  I went, stayed all day, all night, and part of the next day, and returned as he had done, tired and discouraged, not having seen anything worth bringing in.  In the evening of the first day out I found a trail which appeared to have been used daily by deer going to and from the river.