Uncle Dick and Lisa's Old Time Animal Tales

 

Virginia City Enterprise.

     A miner in the Black Hills, writing to a friend in this city, tells of a horrible reminder of the fearful snow storms of last winter, and of the perils of those who were caught out and lost their way on the plains. He says that recently, while he and two others were crossing the country, they came upon the skeleton of a horse, within which was the skeleton of a man, with the grinning skull looking at them from between the ribs of the animal, like a prisoner peering through the bars of his cell. The two skeletons told the whole story. The man had killed his horse, cut him open and crawled inside of him, thinking to thus escape perishing of cold, but the flesh of the animal froze solid, and the man was as much of a prisoner as if he had been shut in by walls of iron. The wolves and carrion birds had stripped the greater part of the flesh from both skeletons. The miner concludes his description by saying: “It was a sight I shall never forget. I can see it now whenever I close my eyes.”