I was an eye-witness, myself, of the manner in which the Siouxes broke into your encampment, and drove off the cattle; stripping the poor man you call Ishmael of his smallest hoofs, counting even the cloven feet." "Asinus excepted," muttered the Doctor, who by this time was discussing his portion of the hump, in utter forgetfulness of all its scientific attributes.

"Asinus domesticus Americanus excepted." "I am glad to hear that so many of them are saved, though I know not the value of the animals you name; which is nothing uncommon, seeing how long it is that I have been out of the settlements.

But can you tell me, friend, what the traveller carries under the white cloth, he guards with teeth as sharp as a wolf that quarrels for the carcass the hunter has left ?" "You've heard of it!" exclaimed the other, dropping the morsel he was conveying to his mouth in manifest surprise.
"Nay, I have heard nothing; but I have seen the cloth, and had like to have been bitten for no greater crime than wishing to know what it covered." "Bitten! then, after all, the animal must be carnivorous! It is too tranquil for the ursus horridus; if it were the canis latrans, the voice would betray it.

Nor would Nelly Wade be so familiar with any of the genus ferae.

Venerable hunter! the solitary animal confined in that wagon by day, and in the tent at night, has occasioned me more perplexity of mind than the whole catalogue of quadrupeds besides: and for this plain reason; I did not know how to class it." "You think it a ravenous beast ?" "I know it to be a quadruped: your own danger proves it to be carnivorous." During this broken explanation, Paul Hover had sat silent and thoughtful, regarding each speaker with deep attention.