In order to frighten the wolves, the teamsters would occasionally shoot them.  One of the members of the expedition was obliged to take a fresh rifle from a wagon.  In taking the gun out, the hammer of the lock caught against some projecting object, which caused it to be partially set.  Having become freed, however, before it was fully set, it came down and fired the gun.  The contents of the barrel were sent through the man’s arm.  No member of the expedition was conversant with surgical knowledge.  Here was an occasion to shake the nerves of any feeling man; and, beneath the rough exterior of the western ranger, there runs as deep a stream of true humanity as can be found anywhere on the American continent.  Every suggestion was offered and every effort was put forth which heart feeling chained to anxiety and the terrible necessity, could offer.  Every remedy which promised a good result was duly weighed; and, if pronounced worthy of trial, it was adopted.  The sufferer had kind, though rough nurses; but, the absence of scientific skill, under such emergency, proved a sad want for the unfortunate man.  Notwithstanding their united efforts, Broader’s arm grew alarmingly worse.  It soon became manifest to all that he must part with his arm, or lose his life; perhaps both.  At this critical period, a consultation was held, in which the suffering patient joined.  Due deliberation was extended to all the symptoms.  The giving of advice in such a council by men who could only give judgment from an imaginary stand-point, must strike the heart of true sympathy as having been painful in no ordinary degree.  After every possible argument had been offered in favor of saving the arm, the final decision of the council was that it must come off.  The next difficulty which presented itself was quite as formidable as the expression of a correct judgment.  Who should perform the office of surgeon, was the knotty question?  Again the consultations became exciting and intensely painful.  The members of the council, however, took it upon themselves to designate the persons, and chose Carson with two others.  These immediately set at work to execute their sad but necessary task.  The arrangements were all hastily, but carefully made, and the cutting begun.  The instruments used were a razor, an old saw; and, to arrest the hemorrhage, the king bolt taken from one of the wagons was heated and applied to serve as an actual cautery.  The operation, rudely performed, with rude instruments, by unpractised hands, excited to action only by the spur of absolute necessity, proved, nevertheless, entirely successful.  Before the caravan arrived at Santa Fe the patient had so far recovered that he was able to take care of himself.