About noon
Here we encamped , kindled a fire in the thicket , cooked our wolf-mutton , ate it , and went to sleep . The band came up in the morning , having travelled all night . Their provisions were spent as well as ours , and instead of resting our wearied animals , we pushed on through a pass in the sierra in hopes of finding game on the other side . About noon we debouched through the mountain pass into a country of openings -- small prairies , bounded by jungly forests , and interspersed with timber islands . These prairies were covered with tall grass , and buffalo signs appeared as we rode into them . We saw their `` roads , '' `` chips , '' and `` wallows . '' We saw , moreover , the _ bois de vache _ of the wild cattle .