TIIIHI* AXNTAL MKETIXC 59 



miles west of the east edffe of the sand-hills and somewhere near the 

 head-waters of the Cedar Iviver. In this \ alley there seemed to be still 

 remaining- a few desirable ([uarter sections that niio-ht be available for 

 entry as tree-elaims. We accordingly proceeded on our way l)y wagon, 

 driving- across country some sixty or seventy miles and arrived after 

 three days' very hard travel through water, slush, and sand. In passing- 

 through this into-veuiug- country we observed many birds, especially 

 shore birds, although the ducks and other water fowl Avere not at all 

 scarce. In fact we found them present in everj^ little lakelet among 

 the sand-hills and along their eastern border. Even the "blowouts" 

 were at this time lakelets. The valleys were also full of water. 



Upon reaching the sand-hills proper we first attempted to drive 

 around all of these bodies of water, thinking that we would surely be 

 mired should we attempt to drive into or through them. After awhile, 

 however, we found that the bottoms of all lakes and other bodies of 

 water were much moi-e solid than some of the low g-i-ouud that re- 

 mained uncovered l)y the water. We accordingly- drove right through 

 many of these small bodies of water. Occasionally they proved to be 

 pretty deei^ — much deeper than we had supposed them to be — and 

 sometimes the water even entered tiie wagon-box. On frequent occasions 

 a spectator might have had the pleasure of seeing several men standing- 

 ankle deep in water with a box of provisions or a bundle of clothing- 

 in arms while the driver in front was carefully guiding the liow steady 

 team in his endeavor to find the high places. The bag of flour was an 

 object of special concern and would frequently be taken up on the 

 shoulder by some member of the party as the water gradually deep- 

 ened. After a day's travel through this alternation of sand, muck, and 

 water we finally' reached the head of the Cedar valley and at the same 

 time the end of oiir journey. Here, too, the bird life was more 

 abundant than at any of the places we had passed through in reaching 

 this region. Such species as the Sand-hill Crane, American Bittern, 

 Coot, Sora Rail, Sickle-billed Curlew, Bartram's Sandpiper, Wilson's 

 Phalarope, Killdeer, Yellow-legs, Willet, Baird's and Least Sandpipers, 

 and a number of other shore birds were met with in abundance. This 

 was during- the last few days of .June and the early part of Julj'. 



We finally located upon land in this valley, built a sod stable, dug 

 a well, and located camp as much as possible out of the waj' of the 

 mosquitoes which at the time were present bj^ the billions. This 

 accomplished we began searching for the corners of our newly acquired 

 land so as to locate the future gToves and break fire lines. In the 

 performance of this work it is needless to state that we found numbers 

 of the nests of these birds. We also continued to run across young 

 birds of various kinds. 1 remember that in a single day we found 

 three broods of joung sand-hill cranes. The birds, while they were 

 only a couple of days old and covered with a reddish fluffy down, were 

 alreadv almost as large as a common domestic fowl. We took them 



