the horse from under him.  “Well done, merchant,” said the hunter, “you’ve stopped that fellow’s galop.”  As soon as the robber could disentangle himself from the fallen horse, he took to his heels and ran down a sloping ground as fast as he could.  The hunter drew his tomahawk from his belt, and gave chase after him.  As he was more of an equestrian than a pedestrian, the nimbleness of the hunter soon shortened the distance between them, and the last of the robbers fell.  Thus perished this dangerous gang of six, by the single hand of this brave hunter, and, as the “commercianto” informed me, he acted as coolly and deliberately as if he were shooting tame bullocks for the market.  The affair was rather advantageous to the hunter, for, on searching the saddle-bags and pockets of the robbers, he pulled forth some doubloons, and a few dollars, with other valuables they had, no doubt, a short time previously, taken from some traveler; the saddle-bags, arms, and accouterments of the four white men, were packed up, made fast on the saddles of the two horses, and the hunter mounted a third, the merchant mounted another, his horse being shot, and thus they left the scene of action, the bodies of the robbers to the wolves, who were howling about them, and entered San Francisco in triumph.

A STORM AMONG THE ICEBERGS.

To prevent the ships separating during the fog, it was necessary to keep fast to the heavy piece of ice which we had between them as a fender, and with a reduced amount of sail on them, we made some way through the pack:  as we advanced in this novel mode to the south-west, we found the ice became more open, and the westerly swell increasing as the wind veered to the northwest, at midnight, we found it impossible any longer to hold on by the floe piece.  All our hawsers breaking in succession, we made sail on the ships, and kept company, during the thick fog, by firing guns, and by means of the usual signals:  under the shelter of a berg of nearly a mile in diameter, we dodged about during the whole day, waiting for clear weather, that we might select the best lead through the dispersing pack; but at nine P.M. the wind suddenly freshened to a violent gale from the northward, compelling us to reduce our sails to a close-reefed main-topsail and storm-staysails:  the sea quickly rising to a fearful height, breaking over the loftiest bergs, we were unable any longer to hold our ground, but were driven into the heavy pack under our lee.  Soon after midnight, our ships were involved in an ocean of rolling fragments of ice, hard as floating rocks of granite, which were dashed against them by the waves with so much violence, that their masts quivered as if they would fall, at every successive blow; and the destruction of the ships seemed inevitable from the tremendous shocks they received.  By backing and filling the sails, we endeavored to avoid collision with the larger masses; but this was not