Tn « & Be Toes 7 : =e 7 Mw 7 = : 7 7 i iF - > - 7 a ¢ “4 > : E ’ a _ SP = TT , + & = : 6¢ aS LOS FALO AT HOME. --—_ ay He oH : =: : Li \ : g é ; | i < : = = re AAO LAND: AN AUTHENTIC NARRATIVE OF THE Adventures and Misadventures of a Late Scientific and Sporting Party UPON THE GREAT PLAINS OF THE WEST. WITH FULL DESCRIPTIONS OF THE COUNTRY TRAVERSED, THE INDIAN AS HE IS, THE HABITS OF THE BUFFALO, WOLF, AND WILD HORSE, ETC., ETC. ALSO AN APPENDIX, CONSTITUTING THE WORK A Manual for Sportsmen and Hand-book for Emigrants Seeking Homes. \PY AW eo A ce Be BS OF TOPEKA, KANSAS, ~ Profusely Ellustrated FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY HENRY WORRALL, AND ACTUAL PHOTOGRAPHS. CINCINNATI anno CHICAGO: E.HANNAFORD & COMPANY. 1872. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by E. HANNAFORD & CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C, STEREOTYPED AT THE FRANKLIN TYPE FOUNDRY CINCINNATI, TO © he Primedal Mon, | c The Original Westerner, and First Buffalo Hunter, Chis Tork ts Dedicated, Wit Prorounp ReGarp, BY THE AUTHOR. : i * on _ Pit eat ee i ra Ny x ) a - UP aa ait ae ae , ay pa + Lf 7 a ne a nT bal cs ro Thr ae ) vi ot , Be SPI ae ia | oe j fal aT > T, y in| re a i rf 4 F ' ey ' : ae ; ay fi = a1) are i va if at | - “ } “ wis a aw 2) or de He Ps Me 1 2 ee 7 7 . ee , “ 7 a is : » ; laf re re Tee me | on Pi : 2 iS ed yee Dea, ‘ Ar ; a oF. ay i af " 7) aa wy Pe Ay 7 a nee, igh - 5 ue " - jee i a } 4 Lik he Ne is yr) Ree ty a ee » nt ae et a foe pari _ es m7) eo) We, » fh ol D> Wee Ga!) oe i oe ee a ae ee ee: te ; ; al «ae f< 4 1 . ee ee | er 2 a a Bi a ie i a toni \, at fli a nitterw th . - 7 >: iG hoe ; ’ a ; a i nis pte: pre et a neal devel a a ; i*: a 7 f \ a when prey a | » os a t fw. t is Rt! : 7 ¢ Sow wig ay aye f yd 2 > > ae Ne | : : Spo ty io aaeadl 7 of - Vo i Wi ide ah ra (oe a i Peas it oh ‘ hb hee Lita: aT. 7 > : 7 : - 2 fe Oa ia : i] . Preah ; wt elunnty & ‘f eh iw haar Mae — r ra y 7 ti ae sles 2 is “ re Pine ings bf oe vik oh Nit arn i . _ ; - rws ' Pied ms) ee ol : 4.4 .) pee ep Open acces O ’ Wee WS uae ne pl te; cr 4 bs Ph nal 14 visperes me a Ah + ei iy tan 4 7 my . ee gts ae broth m ty iin — : Ith wis bawile ane: 7 , 7 ; , "a . a ich Sor st val ls 8k aha “2 ~9 4) a : : 7 _ ie s eT Hi 1 ai biuil 7] ‘b DF aw! ve 2. | jae i fn rh Bia 4 .. s | x ar oe dha _ Be - * ee ‘4 j 7 n 7 “ - f Ls q . in y 7 e hy qi iy ela g ee - a sa; shee ee idad M i! peal :” : Ul ; RY a 1s ia —_ . a ai Wt, ; 2 Ue , wd : ; 7 - : a Ww lense ” ts, § ati ne fi et r ten a a ve ms; “aa Ae a i _ ; - a) Ay Pts aa ‘aa Fi 7 ‘va . She > Ma. iw alii on otha thy i - ay it ae if ? ! : A 7 ; A a0' ~ : o% | dl aie ee eet he: siren) 9 om iti ul int 11n mrnigcio toe a 7 4 ee: . _ ~ o : vo . : io : “a 0 Ts Le -g — Sater (gel tokerogy lla noe ied oe ee > : ‘ : -_ a) : : a ‘ 7 _ We hanes ; Pee, i oe a Jy LS | Bi Modi. ks hte We a: a 7 rite ath ce 4 fo wes a ayes. Ck ae vy . » ‘ i .~ aa ey MT ey a Mo PAS. ? ‘apuet meet ait f nile nei . boa” niki a i fee iL it : een ah iad, lt od, talog ‘he he * 7; an ts ata ; aa : - t ‘ ia 7 hails cat Pay: a it ore ala. ae r ah 7 >i) it ont a % 7) 5 on i‘ P a "a ms ‘dl a Pp. an - : dis ore thi ae * . ot a ‘ * Att oe CE ie — aint M baw dane a Mi gate a : 5 _ ae bd _ a ? ine a nny SH a a 7 ae. 1) ai . aq ‘ - Pte a : : : 9 4 ; » SO ae © se a Bs > ay blew mi aeala B ry Stated bie re ae ie Pt 2 ony | os te A pias m2 By. Py a ' sas shy yh a Ti eon 7 tv chicane ;: bi J i j a > _ Ds te : r ,?. an : we . we » tee ea i aracks in ee abn Shs Ts sy 7 me yee ised ‘bag al re +i int “| e j he -_ i a ad mt i$ 7 : Yee (ee ) * 2 iy : ‘ : : ry f _ alee . ae i. ie Pate a 1) a rat) = " ay en 7 7 _ in ane ae : oS, 7 oS eo a oF ) ae : : a} mi Gq v ae i : 2b ? : A cee Seon Ae a ee a oe 7 f 7 . ad eet en = ae i fie - x : ; f y i ee : f i i ii nae . orn : § E nay i — ‘ste A) Se an Peet is ot iy Dian ae ne bh wu ‘ or eT vet Fy P= . BUFFALO LAND. BY OUR TAMMANY SACHEM. HERE’S a wonderful land far out in the West, Well worthy a visit, my friend ;, There, Puritans thought, as the sun went to rest, Creation itself had an end. ’T is a wild, weird spot on the continents face, A wound which is ghastly and red, Where the savages write the deeds of their race In blood that they constantly shed. The graves of the dead the fair prairies deface, And stamp it the kingdom of dread. The emigrant trail is a skeleton path; You measure its miles by the bones; There savages struck, in their merciless wrath, And now, after sunset, the moans, When tempests are out, fill the shuddering air, And ghosts flit the wagons beside, And point to the skulls lying grinning and bare, And beg of the teamsters a ride ; Sometimes ’tis a father with snow on his hair, Again, ’tis a youth and his bride. What visions of horror each valley could tell, If Providence gave it a tongue! How often its Eden was changed to a hell, In which a whole train had been flung ; (vii) Vill BUFFALO LAND. How death cry and battle-shout frightened the birds, And prayers were as thick as the leaves, And no one to catch the poor dying one’s words But Death, as he gathered his sheaves: You see the bones bleaching among the wild herds, In shrouds that the field spider weaves. That era is passing—another one comes, The era of steam and the plow, With clangor of commerce and factory hums, Where only the wigwam is now. Like mist of the morning before the bright sun, The cloud from the land disappears ; The Spirit of Murder his circle has run And fled from the march of the years ; The click of machine drowns the click of the gun, And day hides the night time of tears. PREHEFACH. THE purpose of this work is to make the reader better acquainted with that wild land which he has known from childhood, as the home of the Indian and the buffalo. The Rocky Mountain chain, dis- torted and rugged, has been aptly called the colossal vertebree of our continent’s broad back, and from thence, as a line, the plains, weird and wonderful, stretch eastward through Colorado, and embrace the entire western half of Kansas. Fortune, not long since, threw in my way an in- vitation, which I gladly accepted, to join a semi- scientific party, since somewhat known to fame through various articles in the newspaper press, in a sojourn of several months on the great plains. At a meeting held with due solemnity on the eve of starting, the Professor (to whom the reader will be introduced in the proper connection) was chosen leader of the expedition, while to my lot fell the (ix) x PREFACE. office of editor of the future record, or rather Grand Seribe of what we were pleased to call our “ Log Book.” The latter now lies before me, in all its glory of shabby covers and dirty pages. Its soiled face is as honorable as that of the laborer who comes from his task in a well harvested field. Out of the sheaves gathered during our journey, I shall try and take such portions as may best supply the mental cravings of the countless thousands who hunger for the life and the lore of the far West. I have given the mistakes as well as triumphs of our expedition, and the members of the party will readily recognize their familiar camp names. The disguise will probably be pleasant, as few like to see their failures on public parade, preferring rather to leave these in barracks, and let their successes only appear at review. The plains have a face, a people, and a brute creation, peculiarly their own, and to these our party devoted earnest study. The expedition pre- sented a rare opportunity of becoming acquainted with the game of the country; and, in writing the present volume, my aim has been to make it so far a text-book for amateur hunters that they may become at once conversant with the habits of the game, and the best manner of killing it. The time is not far distant, when the plains and the Rocky PREFACE. Xi Mountains will be sought by thousands annually, as a favorite field for sport and recreation. Another and still larger class, it is hoped, will find much of interest and value in the following pages. rom every state in the Union, people are constantly passing westward. We found emigrant wagons on spots from which the Indians had just removed their wigwams. Multitudes more are now on the way, with the earnest purpose of founding homes and, if possible, of finding fortunes. In order to aid this class, as well as the sportsman, I have gathered in an appendix such additional infor- mation as may be useful to both. The scientific details of our trip will probably be published in proper form and time, by the savans interested. In regard to these, my object has been simply to chronicle such matters as made an im- pression upon my own mind, being content with what cream might be gathered by an amateur’s skimming, while the more bulky milk should be saved in capacious scientific buckets. Professor Cope, the well known naturalist, of the Academy of Sciences, Philadelphia, received for ex- amination and classification the most valuable fossils we obtained, and to him I am indebted for a large amount of most interesting and valuable xil PREFACE. scientific matter, which will be found embodied in chapters twenty-third and twenty-fourth. The illustrations of men and brutes in this work are studies from life. Whenever it was possible, we had photographs taken. The plains, it must be said, are a tract with which Romance has had much more to do than History. Red men, brave and chivalrous, and un- natural buffalo, with the habits of lions, exist only in imagination. In these pages, my earnest en- deavor, when dealing with actualities, has been to “hold the mirror up to Nature,” and to describe men, manners, and things as they are in real life upon the frontiers, and beyond, to-day. Topeka, Kansas, May, 1872. ODD Hdd. CHAPTER I. THE OBJLOT OF OUR EXPEDITION—A GLIMPSE OF ALASKA THROUGH CAP- TAIN WALRUS’ GLASS—WE ARE TEMPTED BY OUR RECENT PURCHASE— ALASKAN GAME OF “OLD SLEDGE’’—THE EARLY STRUGGLES OF KAN- SAS—THE SMOKY HILL TRAIL—INDIAN HIGH ART—THE “BORDER- RUFFIAN,” PAST AND PRESENT—TOPEKA—HOW IT RECEIVED ITS NAME—WAUKARUSA AND ITS LEGEND, . . . . CHAPTER II. A CHAPTER OF INTRODUCTIONS—PROFESSOR PALEOZOIC—TAMMANY SACHEM —DOCTOR PYTHAGORAS—GENUINE MUGGS—COLON AND SEMI-COLON— SHAMUS DOBEEN—TENACIOUS GRIPE—BUGS AND PHILOSOPHY—HOW GRIPE BECAME A REPUBLICAN, . . . . . CHAPTER III. THE TOPEKA AUCTIONEER—MUGGS GETS A BARGAIN—CYNOCEPHALUS— INDIAN SUMMER IN KANSAS—HUNTING PRAIRIE CHICKENS—OUR FIRST DAY’S SPORT, - : . - : 4 : - CHAPTER IV. CHICKEN-SHOOTING CONTINUED—A SCIENTIFIC PARTY TAKE THE BIRDS ON THE WING—EVILS OF FAST FIRING—AN OLD-FASHIONED “SLOW SHOT”’ —THE HABITS OF THE PRAIRIE CHICKEN—ITS PROSPECTIVE EXTINC- TION—MODE OF HUNTING IT—THE GOPHER SCALP LAW, . . . (xiii) PAGES. 25-35 36-54 55-63 64-74 XIV CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. A TRIAL BY JUDGE LYNCH—HUNG FOR CONTEMPT OF COURT—QUAIL SHOOTING—HABITS OF THE BIRDS, AND MODE OF KILLING THEM—A RING OF QUAILS—THE EFFECTS OF A SEVERE WINTER—-THE SNOW GOOG Hs! al Veh hove : ES Paes : 3 i A CHAPTER VI. OFF FOR BUFFALO LAND—THE NAVIGATION OF THE KAW—FORT RILEY— THE CENTER-POST OF THE UNITED STATES—OUR PURCHASE OF HORSES —“Lo” AS A SAVAGE AND AS A CITIZEN—GRIPE UNFOLDS THE IN- DIAN QUESTION—-A BALLAD BY SACHEM, PRESENTING ANOTHER VIEW, CHAPTER VII. GRIPE’S VIEWS OF INDIAN CHARACTER—THE DELAWARES, THE ISHMAELITES OF THE PLAINS—THE TERRITORY OF THE ‘LONG HORNS’’—TEXANS AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS—MUSHROOM ROCK—-A VALUABLE DIS- COVERY —FOOTPRINTS IN THE ROCK—THE PRIMEVAL PAUL AND VIRGINIA, . 5 . C C : - CHAPTER VIII. THE ‘‘GREAT AMERICAN DESERT ’?—ITS FOSSIL WEALTH—AN ILLUSION DIS- 4 PELLED—FIRES ACCORDING TO NOVELS AND ACCORDING TO FACT— SENSATIONAL HEROES AND HEROINES—PRAIRIE DOGS AND THEIR HAB- ITS—HAWK AND DOG, AND HAWK AND CAT, . . . . CHAPTER IX. WE SEE BUFFALO—ARRIVAL AT HAYS—GENERAL SHERIDAN AT THE FORT— INDIAN MURDERS—BLOOD-CHRISTENING OF THE PACIFIC RAILROAD— SURPRISED BY A BUFFALO HERD——A BUFFALO BULL IN A QUANDARY— GENTLE ZEPHYRS—HOW A CIRCUS WENT OFF—BOLOGNA TO LEAN ON— A CALL UPON SHERIDAN, . . . . PAGES. 75-83 84-98 99-111 112-123 124-141 CONTENTS. Xv CHAPTER X. PAGES. HAYS CITY BY LAMP-LIGHT—-THE SANTA FE TRADE—BULL-WHACKERS— MEXICANS—SABBATH ON THE PLAINS—THE DARK AGES—WILD BILL AND BUFFALO BILL—OFF FOR THE SALINE—DOBEEN’S GHOST-STORY— AN ADVENTURE WITH INDIANS—MEXICAN CANNONADE—A RUNAWAY, 142-160 CHAPTER XI. WHITE WOLF, THE CHEYENNE CHIEF—HUNGRY INDIANS—RETURN TO HAYS —A CHEYENNE WAR PARTY—THE PIPE OF PEACE —THE COUNCIL CHAMBER—WHITE WOLF’S SPEECH, AS RENDERED BY SACHEM—THE WHITE MAN’S WIGWAM, K < . : x é x . 161-176 CHAPTER XII. ARMS OF A WAR PARTY—A DONKEY PRESENT—EATING POWERS OF THE NOMADS—SATANTA, HIS CRIMES AND PUNISHMENT—RUNNING OFF WITH A GOVERNMENT HERD—DAUB, OUR ARTIST—-ANTELOPE CHASE BY A GREYHOUND, ° : ‘ . . . ‘ . 177-191 CHAPTER XIII. CHARACTER OF THE PLAINS—BUFFALO BILL AND HIS HORSE BRIGHAM— THE GUIDE AND SCOUT OF ROMANCE—CAYOTE VERSUS JACKASS-RAB- BIT—A LAWYER-LIKE RESCUE—OUR CAMP ON SILVER CREEK—UNCLE SAM'S BUFFALO HERDS—TURKEY-SHOOTING—OUR FIRST MEAL ON THE PLAINS—A GAME SUPPER, : . . . . . . - 192-208 CHAPTER XIV. A CAMP-FIRE SCENE—VAGABONDIZING—THE BLACK PACER OF THE PLAINS “—SOME ADVICE FROM BUFFALO BILL ABOUT INDIAN FIGHTING—LO’S ABHORRENCE OF LONG RANGE—HIS DREAD OF CANNON—AN IRISH GOBLIN, . . . . . . . ° . ° ° . 209-219 xvi CONTENTS. CHAPTER XV. A FIRE SCENE—A GLIMPSE OF THB SOUTH—’COON HUNTING IN MISSIS- SIPPI—VOICES IN THE SOLITUDE—FRIENDS OR FOES—A STARTLING ...« §ERENADE—PANIC IN CAMP—CAYOTES AND THEIR HABITS—-WORRY- ING A BUFFALO BULL—THE SECOND DAY—DAUB, OUR ARTIST—HE MAKES HIS MARK,. . ° . . ° ° . ° . CHAPTER XVI. BISON MEAT—A STRANGE ARRIVAL—THE SYDNEY FAMILY—THE HOME IN THE VALLEY—THE SOLOMON MASSACRE—THE MURDER OF THE FATHER AND THE CHILD—THE SETTLERS’ FLIGHT—INCIDENTS—OUR QUEEN OF THE PLAINS—THE PROFESSOR INTERESTED—IRISH MARY— DOBEEN HAPPY—THE HEROINE OF ROMANCE—SACHEM’S BATH BY MOONLIGHT—THE BEAVER COLONY, . ° . . . ° CHAPTER XVII. PREPARATIONS FOR THE CHASE—-THE VALLEY OF THE SALINE—QUEER 7COONS—A BISON’S GAME OF BLUFF—IN PURSUIT—ALONGSIDE THE GAME FIRING FROM THE SADDLE—A CHARGE AND A PANIC—FALSE HISTORY AGAIN—GOING FOR AMMUNITION—THE PROFESSOR’S LET- TER—DISROBING THE VICTIM, . . . . . : CHAPTER XVIII. STILL HUNTING—DARK OBJECTS AGAINST THE HORIZON—THE RED MAN AGAIN—RETREAT TO CAMP—PREPARATIONS FOR DEFENSE—SHAKING HANDS WITH DEATH—MR. COLON’S BUGS—THE EMBASSADORS—A NEW ALARM—MORE INDIANS—TERRIFIC BATTLE BETWEEN PAWNEES AND CHEYENNES—THEIR MODE OF FIGHTING—GOOD HORSEMANSHIP—A SCIENTIFIC PARTY AS SEXTONS—DITTO AS SURGEONS—CAMPS OF THE COMBATANTS—STEALING AWAY—AN APPARITION, . . . « CHAPTER XIX. | STALKING THE BISON—BUFFALO AS OXEN—EXPENSIVE POWER—A BUF- FALO AT A LUNATIC ASYLUM—THE GATEWAY TO THE HERDS—INFER- PAGES, 220-235 . 250-263 264-279 CONTENTS. NAL GRAPE-SHOT—NATURE’S BOMB-SHELLS—CRAWLING BEDOUINS— “THAR THEY HUMP’’—THE SLAUGHTER BEGUN—AN INEFFECTUAL CHARGE—“ KETCHING THE CRITTER’’—RETURN TO CAMP—GALVES’ HEAD ON THE STOMACH—AN UNPLEASANT EPISODE—WOLF BAITING, AND HOW IT IS DONE, . . . . . . . . . ' CHAPTER XX. THE CAYOTES’ STRYCHNINE FEAST—CAPTURING A TIMBER WOLF—A FEW CORDS OF VICTIMS—WHAT THE LAW CONSIDERS “INDIAN TAN’’— ” THE NEW YORK MARKET—A NEW YORK FARMER’S “PINISHING “OPINION OF OUR GRAY WOLF—WESTWARD AGAIN—EPISODES IN OUR JOURNEY—THE WILD HUNTRESS OF THE PLAINS—WAS OUR GUIDE A MURDERER ?—THE READER JOINS US IN A BUFFALO CHASE—THE DYING AGONIES, . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER XXI. “OREASING’? WILD HORSES—MUGGS DISAPPOINTED—A FRAT FOR FIO- TION—HORSE AND MONKEY HOOF WISDOM FOR TURFMEN—PROS- PECTIVE CLIMATIC CHANGES ON THE PLAINS—THE QUESTION OF SPONTANEOUS GENERATION—WANTON SLAUGHTER OF BUFFALO— AMOUNT OF ROBES AND MEAT ANNUALLY WASTED—A STRANGE HABIT OF THE BISON—NUMEROUS BILLS—THE “SNEAK THIEF’ OF THE PLAINS, . ot : ‘ . , abate , CHAPTER XXII. A LIVE TOWN AND ITS GRAVE-YARD—HONEST ROMBEAUX IN TROUBLE— JUDGE LYNCH HOLDS COURT—MARIE AND THE VINE-COVERED COT- TAGE—THE TERRIBLE FLOODS—DEATH IN CAMP AND IN THE DUG- OUT—WAS IT THE WATER WHICH DID IT ?7—DISCOVERY OF A HUGE FOSSIL—THE MOSASAURUS OF THE CRETACEOUS SEA—A GLIMPSE OF THE REPTILIAN AGE—REMINISCENCES OF ALLIGATOR-SHOOTING— THEY SUGGEST A THEORY, . . . . . . . . PAGES. 7 280-291 292-305 y, “~ 306-317 318-329 XVill CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXIII. FROM SHERIDAN TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS—THE COLORADO PORTION OF THE PLAINS—THE GIANT PINES—ATTEMPT TO PHOTOGRAPH A BUF- FALO--THINGS GET MIXED—THE LEVIATHAN AT HOME—A CHAT WITH PROFESSOR COPE—TWENTY-SIX-INCH OYSTERS—REPTILES AND FISHES OF THE CRETACEOUS SEA, . . . . . . . CHAPTER XXIV. CONTINUED BY COPE—THE GIANTS OF THE SEAS—TAKING OUT FOSSILS IN A GALE—INTERESTING DISCOVERIES—THE GEOLOGY OF THE PLAINS,. « . ore, . ° : : : CHAPTER XXY. A SAVAGE OUTBREAK—THE BATTLE OF THE FORTY SCOUTS—THE SUR- PRISE—PACK-MULES STAMPEDED—DEATH ON THE ARICKEREE—THE MEDICINE MAN—A DISMAL NIGHT—MESSENGERS SENT TO WALLACE— MORNING ATTACK—-WHOSE FUNERAL ?—RELIEF AT LAST—THE OLD SCOUT’S DEVOTION TO THE BLUE, . 5 . : A 5 CHAPTER XXVI. THE STAGE DRIVERS OF THE PLAINS—“OLD BOB”—JAMAICA AND GIN- GER—-AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE—BEADS OF THE PAST—ROBBING THE DEAD—A LEAF FROM THE LOST HISTORY OF THE MOUND BUILDERS —INDIAN TRADITIONS—SPECULATIONS—ADOBE HOUSES IN A RAIN— CHEAP LIVING—-WATCH TOWERS, . . . . . . . CHAPTER XXVII. OUR PROGRAMME CONCLUDED—FROM SHERIDAN TO THE SOLOMON—FIERCE WINDS—A TERRIFIC STORM—SHAMUS’ BLOODY APPARITION AND INDIAN WITCH—A RECONNOISSANCE—AN INDIAN BURIAL GROVE—A CONTRACTOR’S DARING AND ITS PENALTY—MORE VAGABONDIZING— PAGES. 330-350 351-365 366-376 377-386 THE OUR CONTENTS. JOSE AT THE LONG BOW—THE “WILD HUNTRESS’’’? COUNTERPART— SHAMUS TREATS US TO “‘CHILE”—THE RESULT, . : - - CHAPTER XXVIII. BLOCK-HOUSE ON THE SOLOMON—HOW THE OLD MAN DIED—WACONDA DA—LEGEND OF WA-BOG-AHA AND HEWGAW—SABBATH MORNING— SACHEM’S POETICAL EPITAPH—AN ALARM—BATTLE BETWEEN AN EMIGRANT AND THE INDIANS—-WAS IT THE SYDNEYS ?—TO THE RESCUE—AN ELK HUNT—ROCKY MOUNTAIN SHEEP—NOVEL MODE OF HUNTING TURKEYS—IN CAMP ON THE SOLOMON—-A WARM WEL- COU ide are dab loii phere ist os toa Apher ewe Xe) “ae ee CHAPTER XXIX. LAST NIGHT TOGETHER—THE REMARKABLE SHED-TAIL DOG—HE RESCUES HIS MISTRESS, AND BREAKS UP A MEETING—A SKETCH OF TERRITORIAL TIMES BY GRIPE—MONTGOMERY’S EXPEDITION FOR THE RESCUE OF JOHN BROWN’S COMPANIONS—SCALPED, AND CARVING HIS OWN EPITAPH—AN IRISH JACOB—“SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST’?— SACHEM’S PORTICAL LETTER—POPPING THE QUESTION ON THE RUN— THE PROFESSOR'S LETTER, . ° . ° xix PAGES. 387-395 396-415 416-428 CONTENTS OF APPENDIX. PRELIMINARY TO THE APPENDIX, . . . . ° . . . CHAPTER FIRST. COME TO THE GREAT WEST—SHOULD THERE NOT BE COMPULSORY EMI- GRATION—“GET A GOOD READY’’—HOMESTEAD LAWS AND REGULA- YIONS—THE STATE OF KANSAS—THE COST OF A FARM——A FEW MORE PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS, ° . . . . . . . CHAPTER SECOND, HUNTING THE BUFFALO—ANTELOPE HUNTING—-ELK HUNTING—-TURKEY HUNTING—GENERAL REMARKS—WHAT TO DO IF LOST ON THE PLAINS —THE NEW FIELD FOR SPORTSMEN, . . . . ° . CHAPTER THIRD. “By THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES’ —THE GREAT WEST— FALL OF THE RIVERS—THE PRINCIPAL RIVERS AND VALLEYS OF BUFFALO LAND—THE VALLEY OF THE PLATTE—THE SOLOMON AND SMOKY HILL RIVERS—THE ARKANSAS RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES —STOCK RAISING IN THE GREAT WEST—THE CATTLE HIVE OF NORTH AMERICA—THE CLIMATE OF THE PLAINS—CLIMATIC CHANGES ON THE PLAINS—THE TREES AND FUTURE FORESTS OF THE PLAINS—THE SUPPLY OF FUEL—DISTRICTS CONTIGUOUS TO THE PLAINS—THE VAL- LEYS OF THE WHITE EARTH AND NIOBRARA—NEW MEXICO: ITS SOIL, CLIMATE, RESOURCES, ETC.—THE DISAPPEARING BISON—THE FISH WITH LEGS—THE MOUNTAIN SUPPLY OF LUMBER FOR THE PLAINS, « : 5 3 ‘ A : c : : : 5 (xx) PAGES. 431, 432 433-450 451-463 465-503 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. From Original Drawings by Henry Worrall, and Actual Photographs, The Engraving by the Bureau of Illustration, Buffalo, N. Y. FRONTISPIECE, : . ALASKAN LOvVERS—SEALING THE CONTRACT, ALASKAN Game or OLD SLEpGs, “ WAUKARUSA,” ata tars “Toasts HIS MoccasINED FEET BY THE Fire,” Tuer ProrrssoR—A REMARKABLE STONE, . TAMMANY SACHEM—PROSPECTIVE AND RETROSPECTIVE, Coton AND SEMI-COLON, . Davip Pyraagoras, M. D., One or THE Mua@sss, . Suamvus Dopeen—His Carp, Hon. T. Gripe (BEATIFIED), “Sperit, GENTLEMEN!” Our First Birp-Ssoortine, Juper Lynca—His Court, UNNATURALIZED, F ° NATURALIZED, . é ° PaGE Facine TitLE Page 27 27 33 33 39 39 43 43 47 53 53 57 60 77 91 91 xxii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. “You’ve Ritep THAT Brooxk’”’—An Oxtp Fansite MopERNIZED, . 5 . Dog TowN—TueE Happy Famity, . 5 5 5 : C 5 Inp1an Rock—From A PuoroGRapH, - 5 0 : : ° 6S Musuroom Rock—From A PHoToGRAPH, . - 5 : - : . Fire ON THE PLAINS, ACCORDING To NovVELS, - - A : - : Fire ON THE PLAINS, ASITIS, . . 6 3 4 . 4 ; - “ Anp Erin’s Son CaristEns THOSE FAr-orr Points oF THE PaciFic RAIL- ROAD WITH HIS Bioop,” . 5 : 5 5 : ° GENTLE ZEPHYRS—GOING OFF WITHOUT A DRAWBACK, ° . ° : ‘‘LooKED LIKE THE END oF A TAIL,” ; 4 3 ¢ 5 : : Tur Rare OLD PLAINSMAN OF THE NOVELS, . C : C 3 A Witp Birt—F rom A PHoTroGRAPH, . 5 3 ‘ . : : : BourraLo Bitt—From A PHOTOGRAPH, - C ‘ ° C ° ° Our Horses Run Away witH Us, . : : - : : 5 i Tur Pier or PeacE—TuHE Proressor’s DILEMMA, ; : . ° Wuitr Wotr at Homr, . g C 7 ° : 7 C Tur Witp DENIZENS OF THE PLAINS, é : : : 5 5 2 SmasHina A CHEYENNE BLACcK-KETTLE, . . : c : a > Mipniaut SERENADE ON THE PLAINS, 5 > ° - : C : GoInG AFTER AMMUNITION, 5 P : 5 ° ° P “ : BATTLE BETWEEN CHEYENNES AND PAWNEES, . : 6 z 0 5 One oF OUR SpECIMENS—PHOTOGRAPHED BY J. LEE Knigut, TOPEKA, < Wanton Destruction oF BurFALO, EMBRACING: Dainy, For Fun, . 5 : 5 : ° . . : 5 300 A Day For PLEASURE, . ° é : ° ° . 5 For EXcivEMENT, . 5 : ° - . . 2 - ; 100,000 ror ToneuEs, . ° : : ° . ° ° ° 2,000,000 ror Rozgs, To GET WHISKY, . C ° 5 . : Due Ovr, . A < . > : < - . ° = = TAKING AND Brina TAKEN, “ 2 . : ° ° ° : - DrvELOPING—ONE OF THE First FAMILIES, . . . - . 2 THE SEA WHICH ONCE COVERED THE PLAINS, . . . . : . Waconpa Da—Garzat Spinit Sart Spring, : S 4 ° ° “ PAGE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xxiii More oF our Specimens (PHoToGRAPHED BY J. Lex Knicur), Empracina: PRAIRIE CHICKENS, ° ° . . ° . . . . 413 Heap oF AN ELK, . ° . . ° ° ° . 5 + 413 Witp Turkey, ° ° ° ° . ° ° . . . 413 BEAVER, . e ° ° ° ° ° . e . A Ble wel PALO Tea ND. CHAPTER I. THE OBJECT OF OUR EXPEDITION—A GLIMPSE OF ALASKA THROUGH CAPTAIN WALRUS’ GLASS—WE ARE TEMPTED BY OUR RECENT PURCHASE—ALASKAN GAME OF “OLD SLEDGE’’—THE EARLY STRUGGLES OF KANSAS—THE SMOKY HILL TRAIL—INDIAN HIGH ART—THE “BORDER-RUFFIAN,” PAST AND PRESENT—TOPEKA—HOW IT RE- . CEIVED ITS NAME—WAUKARUSA AND ITS LEGEND. HE great plains—the region of country in which our expedition sojourned for so many months—is wilder, and by far more interesting, than those soli- tudes over which the Egyptian Sphynx looks out. The latter are barren and desolate, while the former teem with their savage races and scarcely more savage beasts. The very soil which these tread is written all over with a history of the past, even its surface giving to science wonderful and countless fossils of those ages when the world was young and man not yet born. At first, it was rather unsettled which way the steps of our party would turn; between unexplored territory and that newly acquired, there were several fields open which promised much of interest. Orig- inally, our company numbered a dozen; but Alaska tempted a portion of our savans, and to the fishy and frigid maiden they yielded, drawn by a strange predi- lection for train-oil and seal meat toward the land of (25) 26 BUFFALO LAND. furs. For the remainder of our party, however, life under the Alaskan’s tent-pole had no charms. Our decision may have been influenced somewhat by the seafaring man with whom our friends were to sail— Captain Walrus, of the bark Harpoon. This worthy, according to his own statement, had been born on a whaler, and weaned among the Esquimeaux, and, moreover, had frozen off eight toes ‘‘trying to winter it at our recent purchase.” He evidently disliked to have scientific men aboard, intent on studying eclipses and seals. “A heathenish and strange people are the Alaskans,” Walrus was wont to say. ‘“ What is not Indian is Russian, and a compound of the latter and aboriginal is a mixture most villainous. One portion of the partnership anatomy takes to brandy, while the other absorbs train-oil, and so a half-breed Alas- kan heathen is always prepared for spontaneous com- bustion. Rubbed the wrong way, he flames up in- stantly. He is always hot for murder, and if you throw cold water on his designs, his oily nature sheds it.” And many a yarn did the captain spin concerning their strange customs. Sealing a marriage contract consisted in the warrior leaving a fat seal at the hole of the hut, where his intended crawled in to her home privileges of smoke and fish. Their favorite game was “old sledge,” played with prisoners to shorten their captivity. All this, and much more, probably equally true, we had picked up of Alaskan history, and at one time our chests had been packed for a voyage on the Har- poon; but at the final council the west carried it as +> . . ’ bs ’ ¢ . y , ° a t ‘ ‘ . : t sv 11 ** - 9 ~ me, SPs a & > = - rile ‘ * “| an “hes gad - eto 5 ‘ ea Di aa “ So = rhe © a A tad + Mayu f Ye i SLEDGI GAME OF OLD ALD ALASKAN ISTRATION SUTF: VIE OF thd UF We y \ ! \ ih i A TRACT. a / PUMERU OF MLUSTIA ZION BUPFA = ALASKAN LOVERS—SEALING THE CON ‘‘ BLEEDING KANSAS.” 29 against the north, and our steps were directed toward the setting sun, instead of the polar star. The expedition afforded unexcelled facilities for seeing Buffalo Land. It was composed of good ma- terial, and pursued its chosen path successfully, though under difficulties which would have turned back a less determined party. None of our company, I trust, will consider it an unwarrantable license which recounts to others the personal peculiarities and mistakes about which we joked so freely while in camp. It was generally un- derstood, before we parted, that the adventures should be common stock for our children and children’s children. Why should not the great public share in it also? Let the reader place before him a checker-board, and allow it to represent Kansas, whose shape and outline it much resembles; the half nearest him will stand for the eastern or settled portion of the State, of which the other half is embraced in Buffalo Land proper. It is with the latter that we have first to do, as with it we first became acquainted. Our party entered the State at Kansas City, and took the cars for Topeka, its capital. During our morning ride through the valley of the Kaw, memory went backward to the years when “ Bleeding Kan- sas’ was the signal-cry of emancipation. When gray old Time, a decade and a half ago, was writing the his- tory of those bright children of Freedom, the united sisterhood, a virgin arm reached over his shoulder, and a fair young hand, stained with its own life- 30 BUFFALO LAND. blood, wrote on the page toward which all the world was gazing, “I am Kansas, latest-born of America. I would be free, yet they would make me a slave. Save me, my sisters!” The great heart of our nation was sorely distressed. Conscience pointed to one path—Policy, that rank hypocrite, to another. And so it was that the young queen, with her grand domain in the West, struggled forward to lay her fealty at the feet of our great mother, Liberty. She made a body-guard of her own sons, and their number was quickly swelled by brave hearts from the north, east, and west. The new territory, begging admission as a+ State, became a_ battle-ground. Slavery had reached forth its hand to grasp the new State and fresh soil, but the mutilated member was drawn back with wounds which soon reached, cor- rupted and destroyed the body. In this land of the Far West a nation of young giants had been suddenly developed, and Kansas was forever won for freedom. But there was yet another enemy and another dan- ger. Westward, toward Colorado, the savage’s toma- hawk and knife glittered, and struck among the affrighted settlements. Ad Astra per Aspera, “to the stars through difficulties,” the State exclaims on the seal, and to the stars, through blood, its course has been. Those old pages of history are too bloody to be brought to light in the bright present, and we purpose turning them only enough to gather what will be now of practical use. Kansas suffered cruelly, and brooded over her wrongs, but she has long since struck hands with her bitterer foe. Most of the “ Border THE SMOKY HILL TRAIL. on Ruffians” ripened on gallows trees, or fell by the sword, years ago. A few, however, are yet spared, to cheer their old age by riding around in desolate woods at midnight, wrapped in damp nightgowns, and masked in grinning death-heads. Although the mists of shadow-land are chilling their hearts, yet those organs, at the cry of blood, beat quick again, like regimental drums, for action. The Kaw or the Kansas River, the valley of which we were traversing, is the principal stream of the State—in length to the mouth of the Republican one hundred and fifty miles, and above that, under the name of Smoky Hill, three hundred miles more. The “Smoky Hill trail” is a familiar name in many an American home. It was the great Califor- nia path, and many a time the demons of the plain gloated over fair hair, yet fresh from a mother’s touch and blessing. And many a faint and thirsty trav- eler has flung himself with a burst of gratitude on the sandy bed of the desolate river, and thanked the Great Giver of all good for the concealed life found under the sand, and with the strength thus sucked from the bosom of our much-abused mother, he has pushed onward until at length the grand mountains and great parks of Colorado burst upon his delighted vision. ; About noon we arrived at Topeka, the capital, well situated on the south bank of the river, having a comfortable, well-to-do air, which suggests the quiet satisfaction of an honest burgher after a morning of toil. The slavery billow of agitation rolled even thus far from beyond the border of the state. Armed men 32 BUFFALO LAND. rode over the beautiful prairies, some east, some west—one band to transplant slavery from the tainted soil of Missouri, another to pluck it up. A small party of Free State men settled upon this beautiful prairie. South flowed the Waukarusa, south and east the Shunganunga, and west and north the Kaw or Kansas. Here thrived a bulbous root, much loved by the red man, and here lazy Potta- watomies gathered in the fall to dig it. In size and somewhat in shape, it resembled a goose egg, and had a hard, reddish brown shell, and an interior like damaged dough. The Indian gourmands ate it greedily and called it “Topeka.” From the two or three families of refugee Free State men the town erew up, and from the Indian root it took its name. Its christening took place in the first cabin erected, and it is reported that a now prominent banker of the town stood sponsor, with his back against the door, refusing any egress until the name of his choice was accepted. It is even affirmed that one opposing city founder was pulled back by his coat-tail from an attempted escape up the wide chimney. The old Indian love of commemorating events by significant names is well illustrated in Kansas. One example may be given here. Waukarusa once op- posed its swollen tide to an exploring band of red men. Now, from time beyond ken, the noble savage has been illustrious for the ingenuity with which he lays all disagreeable duties upon the shoulders of the patient squaw. He may ride to their death, in free wild sport, the bison multitudes; but their skins x a Seer sie a 43 # ““TOASTS HIS MOCCASINED FEET BY THE FIRE.” TRACOM tei Cg ‘SWAUKARUSA.”’ 35 must be converted into marketable robes, and the flesh into jerked meat, by the ugly and over-worked partner of his bosom. While she pins the raw hide to earth, and bends patiently over, fleshing it with horn hatchet for weary hours, the stronger vessel, his abdominal recesses wadded with buffalo meat, toasts his moccasined feet by the fire, fills his lungs with smoke from villainous killikinick, and muses sooth- ingly of white scalps and happy hunting grounds. Ox-like maiden, happy “ big injun!” you both be- long to an age and a history well nigh past, and let us rejoice that it is so. But to return to the band long since gathered into aboriginal dust whom we left pausing on the banks of the Waukarusa. “Deep water, bad bottom!” grunted the braves, and, nothing doubting it, one lov- ing warrior pushed his wife and her pony over the bank to test the matter. From the middle of the tide the squaw called back, ‘“ Waukarusa” (thigh deep), and soon had gained the opposite bank in safety. Then and there the creek received its name, “ Waukarusa.” We procured a remarkable sketch, in the well known Indian style of high art, commemorative of this event. It has always struck us that the savage order of drawing resembles very much that of the ancient Egyptian—except in the matter of drawing at sight, with bow or rifle, on the white man. CHAP TAR eLs. A CHAPTER OF INTRODUCTIONS—PROFESSOR PALEOZOIC—TAMMANY SACHEM—DOCTOR PYTHAGORAS—GENUINE MUGGS—COLON AND SEMI-COLON—SHAMUS DOBEEN— TENACIOUS GRIPE—BUGS AND PHILOSOPHY—HOW GRIPE BECAME A REPUBLICAN. \ HEN permission was given me to draw upon the journal of our trip for such material as I might desire, it was stipulated that the camp-names should be adhered to. A company on the plains is no respecter of persons, and titles which might have caused offense before starting were received in good part, and worn gracefully thenceforward. Our leader, Professor Paleozoic, ordinarily existed in a sort of transition state between the primary and tertiary formations. He could tell cheese from chalk under the microscope, and show that one was full of the fossil and the other of the living evidences of animal life. A worthy man, vastly more troubled with rocks on the brain than “rocks”’ in the pocket. Learning had once come near making him mad, but from this sad fate he was happily saved by a somewhat Pickwickian blunder. While in Kansas, some years since, he penetrated a remote portion of the wilderness, where, as he was happy in believing, none but the native savage, or, possibly, the prime- val man, could ever have tarried long enough to leave any sign behind. Imagine his astonishment and (36) A PICKWICKIAN BLUNDER. Sy | delight, therefore, when from the tangled grass he drew an upright stone, with lines chiseled on three sides and on the fourth a rude figure resembling more than any thing else one of those odd fictions which geologists call restored specimens. On a ledge near were huge depressions like foot-prints. They were foot-prints of birds, no doubt, and quite as per- fect as those found in more favored localities, and from which whole skeletons had been constructed by learned men. Both specimens were forwarded to, and at the expense of, noted savans of the East. Our professor called the pillar from the tangled grass an altar raised by early races to the winds. The short lines, he suggested, designated the different points of the compass, while the rude figure was intended for Boreas. Our scientists toward the rising sun met the boxes at the depot, paid charges, and careful draymen bore them to the expectant museum. One hour after, seven wise men might have been seen wending their way sorrowfully homeward, with hands crossed meditatively under their coat-tails, and pocket vacuums where lately were modern coins. Government clearly had a case against our professor. Science decided that he had removed a stone telling in surveyors signs just what section and township it was on. The figure which he had imagined a heathen idea of Boreas was the fancy of some sur- veyor’s idle moment—a shocking sketch of an im- possible buffalo. Whether the bird-tracks had a common origin, or were hewn by the hatchets of the red man, is a point still under discussion. 38 BUFFALO LAND. A worthy man, as before remarked, was the pro- fessor, full of knowledge, genial in camp, and, having rubbed his eye-tooth on a section stone, geological authority of the highest order. When the professor said a particular rock belonged to the cretaceous for- mation, one might safely conclude that no modern influences had been at work either on that rock or in that vicinity. That question was settled. Next came Tammany Sachem, our heavy weight and our mystery. Before joining our party, he had been a New York alderman, noted for prowess in annual aldermanic clam-bakes at Coney Island. He was wont to exhibit a medal, the prize of such a tournament, on which several immense clams were racing to the griddle, for the honor of being devoured by the city fathers. A green-ribbed hunting coat traversed his rotund- ity, which had the generous swell of a puncheon. His face was reddish, and his nose like a beacon- light against a sunset sky. When you thought him awake, he was half asleep; when you thought him asleep, he was wide awake. A look of extreme happiness always beamed on his face when mis- fortunes impended. Per contra, successes made him suspicious and morose. New York aldermen have always been a puzzle to the nation at large. Per- haps our friend’s facial contradictions, put on origin- ally as one of the tricks of the trade, had become chronic from long usage. We have since learned that the sachems of Tammany laugh the loudest and joke the most freely when under affliction. When I was appointed editor, the Sachem volun- a hie ower 4 fF SACHEM—PROSPECTIVE AND RETROSPECTIVE. TAMMANY THE PROFESSOR—-A REMARKABLE STONE. CUPID AND CLAMS. 41 teered as local reporter. Many of the items he gathered are entered in our log-book in rhyme, and to these pages some of them are transferred verba- tim. In wooing the muses, our alderman certainly acted out of character. The ideal poet is thin in- stead of obese, and he is a reckless innovator who lays claim to any measure of the divine afflatus without possessing either a pale face, thin form, or a garret. As to what drove a New York alderman to the society of buffaloes, we had but one explanation, and that was Sachem’s own. We knew that he dis- liked women in every form, Sorosis and Anti-Sorosis, bitter and sweet alike. According to his statement, made to us in good faith, and which I chronicle in the same, Cupid had once essayed to drive a dart into Sachem’s heart, but, in doing so, the barb also struck and wounded his liver. As his love increased, his health failed. His liver became affected in the same ratio as his heart. This was touching our alderman in a tender spot. Imagine a New York city father without digestion; what a subject of scorn he would become to his constituency! Our alderman fled from Cupid, clams, and his beloved Gotham, and sought health and buffalo on the plains of Kansas. As he remarked to us pathetically: ‘A good liver makes a good husband. Indigestion frightens con- nubial bliss out of the window. Pills, my boy, pills is the quietus of love. If you wish Cupid to leave, give him a dose of ’em. The liver, instead of the heart, is at the bottom of half the suicides.” Doctor Pythagoras in years was fifty, and in stature 3 42 BUFFALO LAND. short. His favorite theory was “development,” and this he carried to depths which would have astonished Darwin himself. How humble he used to make us feel by digging at the roots of the family tree until its uttermost fiber lay between an oyster and a sponge! (Rumor charged, him with waiting so long for diseases to develop, that his patients developed into spirits.) While he indorsed Darwin, however, he also admired Pythagoras. The latter’s doctrine of metempsychosis he Darwinized. In their transmigration from one body to another, souls developed, taking a higher or- der of being with each change, until finally fitted to enter the land of spirits. The soul of a jack-of-all- trades was one which developed slowly, and picked up a new craft with each new body. Like Pythag- oras, he remembered several previous bodies which his soul had animated, among others that of the orig- inal Rarey, who existed in Egpyt some centuries be- fore the modern usurper was born. If souls proved entirely unworthy during the probationary or human period, they were cast back into the brute creation to try it over again. ‘To this class belonged prize-fight- ers, Congressmen, and the like. With them the past was a blank the slate. The doctor had a hobby that a vicious horse was only a vicious man entered into a lower or- der of being. To demonstrate this he had traveled, and still persisted in traveling, on eccentric horses, for the purpose of reasoning with them. But his Egyptian lore had been lost in transmission, and his falls, kicks, and bites became as many as the moons which had passed over his head. an unsuccessful problem washed from yrs. 4 aa alt | “ee Aoapnates be fe sh it Sate, 1h" sat aps | | we | i fe ae ed pi Sabin. a, itl wilis sid ba iS =a mn? bag eR 7) Pie im pire ah Lind Jere! i om - ‘es ne Mag Mes a} - so e. caahycigls ipa Ria Sate ae of a nul DAVID PYTHAGORAS, M.D. N ne AN AS . \ COLON AND SEMI-COLON. THE MUGGSEsS. 45 Genuine Muges was an Englishman. The an- tipodes of Tammany Sachem, who would not believe any thing, Muggs swallowed every thing. He had already absorbed so much in this way that he knew all about the United States before visiting it. Given half a chance, he would undoubtedly have told the savage more about the latter’s habits than the ab- origine himself knew. It was positively impossible for him to learn any thing. His round British body was so full of indisputable facts that another one would have burst it. In the Presidential alphabet, from Alpha Washington to Omega Grant, he knew all of our rulers’ tricks and trades, and understood better the crooked ways of the White House than our own talented Jenkins. British phlegm ineased his soul, and British leather his feet. From heel to crown he was com- pletely a Briton. His mutton-chop whiskers came just so far, and the h’s dropped in and out of his ut- terings in a perfectly natural way. In the Briton’s alphabet, Sachem used to remark, the J is so big that it is no wonder the // is often crowded out. Muggs was a fair representative of the average Englishman who has traveled somewhat. The eve- teeth of these persons are generally cut with a slash, and they are forever after sore-mouthed. For a maiden effort they never suck knowledge gently in, but attempt a gulp which strangles. The conse- quence of this hasty acquiring is a bloated condition. The partly-traveled Briton seems, at first acquaint- ance, full and swollen with knowledge; but should 46 BUFFALO LAND. the student of learning apply the prick, the result ob- tained will generally prove to be—gas. Over our great country, some of the family of Muggs meet one at every turn. Often they scurry along solitarily, but occasionally in groups. In the former case they are unsocial to every body—in the latter to every body except their own party. The bliss which comes from ignorance must be of a thor- oughly enjoyable nature, for the Mugegses certainly do enjoy themselves. They will pass through a coun- try, remaining completely uncommunicative and self- wrapped, and know less of it after six months’ traveling than an American in two. The professor says he has met them in the lonely parks of the Rocky Mount- ains and in the fishing and hunting solitudes of the Canadas. If they have been an unusually long time without seeing a human being, they may possibly catch at an eye-glass and fling themselves abruptly into a few remarks. But it is in a tone which says, plainer than words, ‘““No use in your going any further, man; I have absorbed all the beauties and knowledge of this locality.” It is a rare treat to see a coach delivered of Muggs at a country inn. ‘ Hi, porter, look hout for my lug- gage, you know. ‘Tell the publican some chops, rare, and lively now, and a mug of hale, and, if I can ’ave it, a room to myself.” If the latter request 1s granted, and you are inquisitive enough to take a peep, you may see Muggs sturdily surveying himself in the glass, and giving certain satisfied pats to his cravat and waistcoat, as if to satisfy them that they covered a Briton. Could the mirror which reflects pl (la id iit ia ay _— . sided art j Sg edie ‘ ‘eve ’ ‘ ‘a ct PU as Bit F "~) oN aT ne s , ’ “ \ var ; Nth ‘ ao q + = : Pagtis Dateok OA ee ; 4 Yeenen a Pia as 1 n1% re ee i. ® Lf . d P uxt ’ Ves ray ‘ ; ‘ By af ias a4 ee : ay Wi: ' Ww af? sget “gy 5 ‘ ® ‘4 : 7 * - _ ite, € 42 gee). prt sy ? , 7 i ni Pil tt} bint ; ea ake i N . yin ? By Bay rin eee } - us 7 , i] ’ : Pg) Anes MD Rawss ef , * gf ‘4 cu — : ioe tall 7s : | wTlbhig 4 we ath be (te srallevitayt iit =, x ‘ , , "* s ‘ : 7 A hike WIRE pi” 4 ia ' pe i ; , een en - \ a 7 ‘ ; ¥ _ % , ali He, hiv ee dy Phi 6!) rhe MN i? j <* 4 oA h'', ee: me t — i : : oyel ae in de 2 j j ‘ gay yal aA vA m4 ‘i Gil eo Gee Pad pie | Nae, . See : = UW : : 7 ; . 7 « ae ae #2 a oo 2 Eee WAM VET cer ate I mF eas Momabititls. ays git pul’ Feren “aria ia ' ws L,, : _ ; PF ¥ an ; viz Thy Pe i Ls mast Mr weye ori j | in : oie ae , ot € . Biel iaaiey, I i? a em aly teapie’ i Mad : i“ * 4 ’ ’ a ’ ' ; > ¢ . Lal } P ; ie vAtqureel, A chines SLT SH Tass Bg lie t A ee bps : (\ * 4 ; ~ 2 hs vt q aeresio: idhoouin sud ein e) " re: tO LEGAWS ea a? i ‘Han nar hats . ar . : : vin ‘ ‘enh * ‘ tt ; (madd ia. e) Rw 4) eas f hy + Xf masiihe ’ ii 4' mie Es q 1 ; ie wt i enna “wt ee ee , i ok PW a . a) , a od “4g ; : > ay _ * 7 : = penis An we Softee dAwel RaPoa ek 4 - : 4 ri) ‘ pl A , eet Pt ee { . ( sis * : 1 ny! P ‘ . hileeny. Uhh te Te ene ea f 4 i ¢ = - As’ gue "a ‘te as te penn [ , 3) ‘ ae ‘ x Ph ioe : ow] ; P are ei Nae * - j "PG re j aa Nahai! | raat wes ies mgetie Sioa je wae - naa J i sai focahinn ? bie DS | a ue a ah Pepa). Dibaiic ro, uy Tee Al ; « ’ i MUGGSES. THE OF ONE COLON SENIOR. 49 his face also reflect his thoughts, they would read about as follows: ‘‘ Muggs, you are a Briton, and this ‘hotel must be made aware of the fact. Whatever you do, be guilty of no un-English act while in this outlandish land. Your skin is now full of knowl- edge, and let not other travelers, like so many mos- quitoes, suck it from you. Your forefathers blessed their eyes and dropped their h’s, and so must you.” And perhaps by this time, if the chops have arrived, he dines in seclusion and, by so doing, loses a fund of information which his fellow-travelers have obtained by common exchange. Again on the way, Muges nestles in a corner of the coach and acts strictly on the defensive, indig- nantly withdrawing his square-toed, thick-soled Eng- lish shoes, should neighboring feet attempt to hob- nob with them. On a trip through Buffalo Land, however, it is difficult for one of her Britannic Maj- esty’s subjects to maintain the national dignity. But this fact Genuine Muggs—our Muges—evidently did not know. Had he done so, he would never have ‘gone with us in the world. Another of our party rejoiced in the appellation of “Colon.” He obtained this title because his eccen- tric specialities of character several times came very near putting if not a full stop, at least the next thing to it, upon the particular page of history which our party was making. Longitudinally, Mr. Célon was all of five feet eleven; in circumference, perhaps a score or so of inches. He possessed a fair share of oddities, and what is better an equally fair one of dol- lars. The hemispheres of his philanthropic brain 5U BUFFALO LAND. seemed equally pre-empted by philosophy and bugs. Engaging in some immense work for the ameliora- tion of mankind, he would pursue it with ardor, dwell upon it with unction, and then suddenly leave it, half finished, to capture a rare spider. Philosophy and Entomology had constant combat for Colon, and vic- tory tarried with neither long enough for the seat of war to be cultivated and blossom with any lux- uriance. At the time he joined our party one of his grandest charitable projects had lately died in a very early period of infancy, entirely supplanted in his affections for the time being by the prospect of a chase after Brazilian insects. During our journey it was no uncommon thing for us to see his thin form all covered with bugs and reptiles, which had crawled out of the collecting boxes carried in his pockets. If this meets our friend’s eye, let him bear no malice, but reflect, in the language of his own invariable answer to our remonstrances, “It can’t be helped.” Should the public parade of his faults be disagreea- ble, he can suffer no more from them now than we did in the past, and may perhaps call them into closer quarters for the future. Mr. Colon’s son, of two years less than a score, we dubbed Semi-colon, as being a smaller edition, or to be exact, precisely one-half of what the senior Colon was. So perfect was the concord of the two that the junior had fallen into a chronic and to us amusing habit of answering “ Ditto” to the senior’s expressions of opinion. Divide the father’s conversation by two, add an assent to every thing, and the result, socially considered, would be the son. It may readily be seen, DOBEEN AND GRIPE. 51 therefore, why the professor for short should call him, as he nearly always did, ‘‘ Semi.” Shamus Dobeen, our cook and body-servant, accord- ing to his own account, was the child of an impoy- erished but noble Irish family. Indeed, we doubt if any Irishman was ever promoted from shovel laborer to body-servant without suddenly remembering that he was ‘‘descinded” from a line of kings. At the time Shamus was added to the population of Ireland, the patrimonial estate had dwindled down to a peat bog. As this soon “petered out,’ Shamus went from the exhausted moor into the cold world. He had been by turns expelled patriot, dirt disturber on new railroads, gunner on a Confederate cruiser, and high private in a Union regiment. The position of gunner he lost by touching off a piece before the muzzle had been run out, in consequence of which part of the vessel’s side went off suddenly with the gun. Captured, he readily became a Union soldier, and could, without doubt, have transformed himself into a Chevenne, or a Patagonian, had occasion for either ever required. While in Topeka, our party made the acquaintance of Tenacious Gripe, a well-known Kansas politician, and who attached himself to us for the trip. Every person in the State knew him, had known him in territorial times, and would know him until either the State or he ceased to be. Flung headlong from somewhere into Kansas dur- ing the “border ruffian” period, he would probably have passed as rapidly out of it had he been allowed to do so peaceably. But as the slavery party en- 52 BUFFALO LAND. deavored to push him, he concluded to stick. At that particular time, he was a moderate Democrat or conservative Republican, and consequently had no particular principles. But the slavery party sup- posed he had, and to them accordingly he became an object of suspicion. They assumed the aggres- sive, and he at once resolved into a staunch Repub- lican. Had the latter first struck him, he would have been as staunch a Democrat. And Gripe has never known how near he came to being the latter. The Republicans had just decided to order him out of the state as a border ruffian spy, when the Demo- crats took action and did so for his not being one. Those were troublous times. He went to the front at once in the antislavery ranks, and has stayed there ever since. Sore-headed men are apt to become famous. ‘There were those in our late war who were kicked by adversity into the very arms of Fame. Our friend had been in both the upper and lower houses of the State Legislature, and had rolled Con- gressional logs, moreover, until he was hardly happy without having his hands on one, ; A. - a | q iy Fe fs r whine hl in aieanatl bed. gyi ony, By ee Bis SAT ad ‘ ¥ os tak Ay : ; tte at ay 6 nyt erry! 4 fed Ne sg oath Bs ‘ aha J ‘' wre | eulG iat) Tah ad igi 4 ri Ni SN , : 4 Ve Weve yaraly: i Se ‘7 é AL aaah? ins i Nid Say Eisnp dS - . me % . 5s aha ik gee i 14 7 De * .) > ie : ‘ . ees < wet ; es A i yrs as ae b Pea? ‘ a ff ay . (sill ivan Li: iI tatillil i Wy \ Hii} | | | | | | BEATIFIED). HON. T. GRIPE ee 4. L L VM LLL i Ce ) Ln Ku o Wu nN | ; Pi lig Hy i Ht MW | i z SHAMUS DOBEEN—-HIS CARD. | ve | | HN CHAPTER III. THE TOPEKA AUCTIONEER—MUGGS GETS A BARGAIN—CYNOCEPHALUS—INDIAN SUM- MER IN KANSAS—HUNTING PRAIRIE CHICKENS—OUR FIRST DAY’S SPORT. E had three or four days to spend in Topeka, as it was there that we were to purchase our outfit for the buffalo region. With the latter purpose in view, we were wandering along Kansas Avenue the next morning, when a horseman came furi- ously down the street, shouting, at the top of his lungs, “Sell um as he wars har!” Semi hastily re- treated behind Mr. Colon, thinking it might be a Jayhawker, while the professor adjusted his glasses. Muges said the individual reminded him of the famous charge at Balaklava. Muggs had never seen Balaklava, but other Englishmen had, which an- swered the same purpose. The equestrian proved to be a well-known auc- tioneer of Topeka, who may be discovered at almost any time tearing through the streets on some spavined or bow-legged old cob, auctioneering it off as he goes. His favorite expression is, “I’ll sell um as he wars har.” What particular selling charm lies concealed in this announcement even Gripe could not tell. Sachem thought that possibly he had been brought up at some exposed frontier post, where, on account of Indian prejudices, wearing hair is a rare luxury. (55 56 BUFFALO LAND. To say there that a man was still able to comb his own scalp-lock denoted an extraordinary state of physical perfection. Expressions of praise for hu- mans are often applied to horses, and so, perhaps, the one in question, “I have heard,” quoth our alderman, in support of this assertion, “ Fitz say of a belle, at a charity ball, what a ‘bootiful eweature;’ and I have heard him, the day after, in his stable, say the same thing of his horse.” That horse-auction was a sight worth seeing. The erowd collected most thickly on the corner of Kansas Avenue and Sixth Street, and before it the cob came to a stand. And it was a stand—as stiff and pain- ful as that of a retired veteran put on dress parade. The limbs would have had full duty to perform in supporting the careass alone, which had evidently been in light marching order for years past. The additional weight of the auctioneer must certainly have proved altogether too much, had not the horse heard, for the first time, of the wonderful qualities with which he was still endowed. Seeing a whole corner, with gaping mouths, swallow- ing the statement that he was only six years old, reduced by hard work, and could, after three months grass, pull a ton of coal, he would have been a thank-, less horse indeed, which could not strain a point, or , all his points, for such a rider. And so, when the spurs suddenly rattled against his ribs, the old skin full of bones gave a snort of pain, which the auctioneer called “Sperit, gentlemen!” and away up the broad avenue he rolled, at a speed which threatened to break the rider’s neck, and his bows Pet ae a r SPERIT, GENTLEMEN !”? AN UNFORTUNATE WINK. 59 own legs as well. His tail having been cut short in youth, and retrimmed in old age, the outfit made but a sorry figure going up the street. The Professor said it suggested the idea of some fossil vertabra, with a paint brush attached to its end, running away with a geological student. After the return and cries for more bids, Muggs must have winked at the auctioneer—possibly, to slyly telegraph him the fact that in “Hengland” they were up tosuch games. At least the auctioneer so declared, and advaneing the price one dollar in accordance therewith, finally knocked the brute down to him. Then the British wrath bubbled and boiled. The auctioneer was inexorable. Muggs had winked, and that was an advanced bid, according to com- mercial custom the land over. Articles were often sold simply by the vibration of an eyelash, and not a word uttered. The Professor remarked that in law winks would doubtless be accepted as evidence. It was a recog- nized principle of the statutes that he who winked at a matter acquiesced in it, and indeed such signals were often more expressive than words. Sachem sustained this point, and added further that he had known many a man’s head broken on account of an injudicious wink. The crowd, with almost unanimous voice, pro- nounced the auctioneer right and Muges wrong. “Me take the brute!” exclaimed the indignant Briton; ‘why he can ’ardly stand up long enough to be knocked down. Except in France, he could be put to no earthly use whatever. ’Is knees knock to- 60 BUFFALO LAND. gether in an ague quartette, and ’is tail—look at it! It’s hincapable of knocking a fly off; looks more like flying off hitself!”” Muggs further declared the sale was an attempt on the owner’s part to evade the health officer, who would have been around, in a couple of days, to have the carcass removed. The auctioneer waxed belligerent, the crowd noisy, and Muggs, like a true Englishman, secured peace at the price of British gold. The horse was on his hands, having barely escaped being on the town and an enthusiastic crowd of urchins escorted the purchase to a livery stable. Muggs christened the animal Cynocephalus, and soon afterward sold him to Mr. Colon, who was of an economical turn, for the use of his son Semi. ‘““T have heard,” said the thoughtful father, “that the buffalo grass of the plains is very nourishing. All that the poor steed needs is care and fat pastures. Semi can give him the former, and over the latter our future journey lies. I have also learned that what is especially needed in a hunting horse is steadiness, and this quality the animal certainly possesses.” From some months’ acquaintance with the pur- chase, we can say that Cynocephalus was steady to a remarkable degree. We are firmly persuaded that a heavy battery might have fired a salute over his back without moving him, unless, pe the concussion knocked him down. Our first hunting morning, the second day pre- ceding our hegira westward, came to us with a clear sky, the sun shedding a mellow warmth, and the air “ONILOOHS-CuIa LSYIA Ano / Z N ine i ike ‘ Ho LN i 1 ea | ail EE an Mi - arte. a ae? e ; ? it staal . . ve i awe yew ene INDIAN SUMMER IN KANSAS. 61 full of those exhilarating qualities which our lungs afterward drank in so freely on the plains. Indian summer, delightful anywhere, is especially so in Kansas. From the advance guard of the winter king not a single chilling zephyr steals forward among the tar- rying ones of summer. Soothing and gentle as when laden with spicy fragrance south, they here shower the whole land with sunbeams. Earth no longer seems a heavy, inert mass, but floats in that smoky, fleecy atmosphere with which artists delight so much to wrap their angels, It is as if the warmer, lighter clouds of sunny weather were nestling close to earth, frightened from the skies, like a flock of white swans, at the October howls of winter. But I never could agree with those writers who call this season dreamy. If such it be, it is surely a dream of motion. AI] na- ture appears quickened. The inhabitants of the air have commenced their southern pilgrimage, and the oldest and leading ganders may be heard croaking, day-time and night-time, to their wedge-shaped flocks their narrative of summer experiences at the Arctic circle, and their commands for the present journey. Sachem, I find, has recorded as a discovery in nat- ural history that geese form’ their flocks in wedge shape that they may easier “make a split” for the south when Nature, with her north pole, stirs up their feeding and breeding-grounds in November gales, and changes their fields of operation into fields of ice. Sachem was sadly addicted to slang phrases. All game, I may remark, is wilder at this season of the year than earlier. If the earth is dreaming, 62 BUFFALO LAND. its wild inhabitants certainly are not. Men, too, have thrown off the summer lethargy, and shave their neighbors as closely as ever. If any one thinks it a dreamy season of the year, let him test the matter practically by being a day or two behindhand with a payment. In reply to a question, the professor told us that the smoky condition of the atmosphere was probably caused by the exhalation of phosphorus from decay- ing vegetation. Sachem remarked that out of twenty different objects which he had submitted for ex- amination, and as many questions that he had asked, nine-tenths of the results contained phosphorus in some shape. It was becoming monotonous and dan- gerous, } While the party thus mused and speculated, we had come eut into the open country, south-west of town, and were now approaching Webster’s Mound, a cone- shaped hill from which we afterward obtained some excellent views. For the trip we had been supplied with two dogs, one a setter, belonging to the private seeretary of the Governor, and the other a pointer, the property of a real estate dealer. The former was an ancient and venerable animal. The rheumatism was seized of his backbone and held high revel upon the juices which should have lubricated the joints. Even his tail wagged with a jerk, inclining the body to whichever side it had last swung. He was so full of rheumatism that whenever he scented a chicken the pain evoked by the excitement caused him to howl with anguish. The pointer, per contra, was hale and swift, but had lost one eye; and a shot from THE HUNTER’S TRIUMPH. 63 the same charge which destroyed that organ, rattled also on his left ear-drum, and that membrane no longer responded to the shouts of the hunter. On one side he could see, and not hear—on the other, hear, but not see. Nevertheless, with gestures for the left view, and shouts on the right, fair work might still be obtained. Both dogs rejoiced in the uncommon name of Rover, and both possessed that most excellent of all points in such animals, a steady point. If any of my readers are fond of field-sports, and have not yet shot prairie-chickens over a dog, let them take their guns and hie to the West, and taste for themselves of this rare sport. With the wide prairie around him, keeping the bird in full view dur- ing its passage through the air, one can choose his distance for firing and witness the full effect of his shot. I think the brief instant when the flight of the bird is checked and it drops head-foremost to earth, is the sweetest moment of all to the hunter. CVA Pan he iy. CHICKEN-SHOOTING CONTINUED—A SCIENTIFIC PARTY TAKE THE BIRDS ON THE WING—EVILS OF FAST FIRING—AN OLD-FASHIONED ‘SLOW SHOT ’—THE HABITS OF THE PRAIRIE-CHICKEN—ITS PROSPECTIVE EXTINCTION—MODE OF HUNTING IT—THE GOPHER SCALP LAW. E had left the road and were now driving over the fine prairie skirting Webster’s Mound, the grass being about a foot high and affording excellent cover. Taking advantage of its being matted so closely from the early frosts, the old cocks hid under the thick tufts and called for close work on the part of our dogs. Back and forth across our path these intelligent animals ranged, the one fifty yards or so to our right, the other as many to our left, crossing and re-cross- ing, with open mouths drinking in eagerly the tainted breeze. This latter was in our favor, and both dogs suddenly joined company and worked up into it, with outstretched noses pointing to game that was evi- dently close ahead. The pointer crawled cautiously, like a tiger, his spotted belly sweeping the earth, and his tail, which had been lashing rapidly an instant before, gradually stiffening. He would open his mouth suddenly, drink in a quick, deep draught of air, and, closing the jaws again, hold it until obliged to take another (64) THE DOGS COME TO A POINT. 65 respiration. He seemed as loath to let the scent of the chicken pass from his nostrils as a hungry news- boy is to quit the savory precincts of Delmonico’s kitchen window. ‘The setter’s old bones appeared to renew their youth under the excitement, and he was as active as a-retired war-horse suddenly plunged into battle. Both dogs came simultaneously to a point—tails curved up and rigid, each body motionless as if cut in marble and one forepaw lifted. No wonder so many men are wild with a passion for hunting. Jind Providence smiles upon the legitimate sport from conception to close, and gives us a posé to start with fascinating to any lover of the beautiful, whether hunter or not. But one must not pause to moralize while dogs are on the point, or he will have more philosophy than chickens. All the party had got safely to ground and were behind the dogs, with guns ready and eyes eagerly fastened on the thick grass which concealed its treas- ure as completely as if it had been a thousand miles below its roots, or on the opposite side of this mun- dane sphere in China. Not a thing was visible within fifty yards of our noses save two dogs standing mo- tionless, with stiffened tails and eyes fixed on, and nozzles pointed toward, a spot in the sea of brown, withered grass, not ten feet away. The Professor took out his lens, Mr. Colon let down the hammers of his gun and cocked them again, to be sure all was right, while Sachem wore a puzzled expression as if undecided whether the attitude of. the dogs indicated any thing particular or not. The 4 66 BUFFALO LAND. grass nodded and rustled in the light wind, but not a blade moved to indicate the presencé of any living thing beneath it, while the dogs remained as if petrified. The Professor said it was very remarkable, and wondered what had better be done next. Mr. Colon thought that the dogs were tired, and we might as well get into the wagon. Another suggested at ran- dom that we should set the dogs on, and Muggs, who had probably heard the expression somewhere, cried, ‘Hi, boys, on bloods!” At the words the dogs made a few quick steps forward, and on the instant the grass seemed alive with feathered forms, popping into air like bobs in shuttlecock. Such a fluttering and flying I have never seen since, when a boy, I ventured into a dove cote, and was knocked over by the rush of the alarmed inmates. From un- der our very feet, almost brushing. our faces, the beautiful pinnated grouse of the prairies left their cover, and us also. Every gun had gone off on the instant, and we doubt if one was raised an inch higher than it hap- pened to be when the covey started. The Professor afterward extracted some stray shot from the legs of his boots, and the setter, which was next to Muggs, gave a cry of pain for which there was evidently other cause than rheumatism, as was demonstrated by his retirement to the rear, from which he refused to budge until we all got into the wagon, and to which he invariably retreated whenever we got out. From the midst of the birds which were soaring away, one was seen to rise suddenly a few feet above THE SPORT CONTINUED. 69 his comrades, and then fall straight as a plummet, and head first, to earth. It had caught some stray shot from the bombardment—Muggs claimed from his gun, but this statement the setter, could he have spoken, would certainly have disputed. Semi-Colon brought in the game, which proved to be a fine male, with whiskers and full plumage, which must have made sad havoc among the hearts of the hens, when the old fellow was on annual dress pa- rade in the spring. At that season of the year the cocks seek some knoll of the prairie, where the grass has been burnt or cut off, and strut up and down with ruffled feathers, uttering meanwhile a booming sound, which can be heard in a clear morning for miles. The flabby pink skin that at other seasons hangs in loose folds on his neck is then distended like a bag- pipe, and he is a very different bird from the same individual in his Quaker gray and respectable sum- mer and fall habits. Ensconced again in the wagon, our party moved forward, the dogs, as before, examining the prairie. The professor was comparing the birds of the present and the odlitic age, when Muggs suddenly blasted his eyes and declared the beasts were at it again. And so they were, the setter making a good stand at some game in the grass, and the other dog, a short distance off, pointing his companion. During the remainder of the day we found many large flocks of birds, and fired away until two or three swelled noses testified how dirty our guns were. “Fast shooting,” said the professor, as we were on our way home, “is as bad as that too slow. Al- 70 ; BUFFALO LAND. though I am no sportsman from practice, I love and have studied the principles of it. In my father’s day the rule was, when a bird rose, for a hunter to take out his snuff-box, take snuff, replace the box, aim, and fire. You may find the advice yet in some works. The shot then has distance in which tospread. With close shooting they are all together, and you might as well fire a bullet. When you have given the bird time, act quickly. The first sight is the best. Again, the first moment of flight, with most birds, is very irregular, as it is upward, instead of from you.” Dobeen begged leave to inform our ‘honors”’ that in Ireland, after a bird rose, the rule was, instead of taking snuff, to take off the boots before firing. The professor thought that such a habit related to outrun- ning the gamekeeper, and was intended to procure distance for the poacher rather‘than the bird. Sachem stated that he had known a slow hunter once. He was a revolutionary veteran, used a revo- lutionary musket, and believed in revolutionary pow- der. He refused to do any thing different from what his fathers did, and abhorred double-barreled shot- guns and percussion-caps as inventions of the devil. It was constantly, “General Washington did this,” and “Our army did that,” and his old head shook sadly at the innovations Young America was making. His ghost, with the revolutionary musket on its shoulder, had since been known to chase hunters, with breech-loaders, who were caught on his favorite ground after dark. “Old 1776” was great on wing- shooting, and could be seen at almost any time hob- bling over the moor, firing away at snipe and water- EXTERMINATING THE PRAIRIE-CHICKEN. 71 fowl. He was one of those slow, deliberate cases, al- ways taking snuff after the bird rose. There would be a glitter of fluttering wings as the game shot into air. Down would come the long musket, out would come the snuff-box, and the old soldier would go through the present, make ready, take snuff, take aim, and fire, all as coolly as if on parade. The old musket often hung fire from five to ten seconds, and the premonitory flash could be seen as the shaky flint clattered down on the pan. The veteran always patiently covered the bird until the charge got out. The recoil was tremendous, and the old man often went down before the bird; but such positions, he as- serted, were taken voluntarily, as ones of rest. Some said that the gun had been known to kick him again after he was down.” Sachem’s narration was here cut short by the dogs again pointing. This was followed by the usual bom- bardment, which over, the bag showed the mag- nificent aggregate of two chickens for the entire day’s sport. The prairie-chicken is now extinct in many of the Western States where it was once well known. Usually, during the first few years of settlement, it increases rapidly, and is often a nuisance to pioneer farmers. Perhaps, when the latter first settle in a country, a few covies may be seen; under the favora- ble influences of wheat and corn-fields, the dozens in- crease to thousands and cover the land. But with denser settlement come more guns, and, what is a far more destructive agent, trained dogs also. Under the first order of things, the farmer, with his musket, 712 BUFFALO LAND. might kill enough for the home table. With double- barreled gun and keen-scented pointer, the sportsman and pot-hunter think nothing of fifty or sixty birds for a day’s work. It seems almost impossible, under such a combination, for a covey to escape total anni- hilation. We may suppose a couple of fair shots hunting over a dog in August, when the chickens lie close, and the year’s broods are in their most delicate con- dition for the table. The pointer makes a stand be- fore a fine covey hidden in the thick grass before him. The ready guns ask no delay, and, at the word, he flushes the chickens immediately under his nose. Each hunter takes those which rise before him, or on his side, and if four or less left cover at the first alarm, that number of gray-speckled forms the next moment are down in the grass, not to leave it again. If more rose, they are “marked,” which means that their place of alighting is carefully noted, and, as the chicken has but a short flight, this task is easy. Meanwhile, the guns have been reloaded, the dog flushes others of the hiding birds, and so the sport goes on. The birds that get away are ‘marked down,” and again found and flushed by the dog. Without this useful animal the chickens would mul- tiply, despite any number of hunters. IJ have often seen covies go down in the grass but a few hundred yards away, yet have tramped through the spot doz- ens of times without raising a single bird. In twenty years this delicious game will probably be as much a thing of the past as is the Dodo of the Isle de France. At the period of our visit they were GOPHER MOUNDS. 10 already gathering into their fall flocks, which some- times number a hundred or more. In these they remain until St. Valentine recommends a separation. During the colder weather of winter they seek the protection of the timber, and may be seen of morn- ings on the trees and fences. They never roost there, however, but pass the night hidden in the adjacent erass, The prairie-chicken’s admirers are numerous, other animals beside man being willing to dine on its plump breast. We had an illustration of this in our first day’s shooting. Sometimes when we fired, the report would attract to our vicinity wandering hawks, and we found that either instinct or previous experience teaches these fierce hunters of the air that in the vicinity of their fellow-hunter, man, wounded birds may be found. One wounded chicken, which fell near us, was seized by a hawk immediately. As we passed one or two fields, indications of gophers appeared, their small mounds of earth cover- ing the ground. In some counties these animals formerly destroyed crops to such an extent that the celebrated “Gopher Act” was passed. This gave a bounty of two dollars for each scalp, and under it many farms yielded more to the acre than ever before or since. One of these animals which we secured re- sembled in size and shape the Norway rat, and, in the softness and color of its coat, was not unlike a mole. The oddest thing was its earth-pouches—two open sacks, one on either side of its head, and capable of containing each a tablespoonful or more. These the gopher employs, in his subterranean researches,. for 74. BUFFALO LAND. the same purpose that his enemy, man, does a wheel- barrow. Packing them with dirt, the little fellow trudges gayly to the surface, and there cleverly dumps his load. We reached town again, well pleased with our day’s ride, and over our evening pipes discussed the results. Muges thought our shot were too small. Sachem thought the birds were. Colon was delighted with the new State, but be- lieved that wing-shooting was not his forte. He would be more apt to hit a bird on the wing if he could only catch it roosting somewhere. Gripe, at the other end of the room, was piling Re- publican doctrines upon a bearded Democratic heathen from the Western border. CHAPTER V. A TRIAL BY JUDGE LYNCH—HUNG FOR CONTEMPT OF COURT—QUAIL SHOOTING— HABITS OF THE BIRDS, AND MODE OF KILLING THEM—A RING OF QUAILS—THE EFFECTS OF A SEVERE WINTER—THE SNOW GOOSE. SHORT time after supper, Tenacious Gripe appeared with the mayor of the city, who wished to make the acquaintance of the Professor. The two august personages bowed to each other. It was the happiest moment in their respective lives, they declared. An invitation was extended us to delay our departure another day and try quail shoot- ing. The citizens said the birds were unusually abundant, the previous winter having been mild and the summer long enough for two separate broods to be hatched, and the brush and river banks were swarming with them.