BUFFALO hintim;. .>07 



of delicacies which we should enjoy, but a near inspection 

 at once dispelled our illusions. 



On the conBnes of the buffalo hunting-grounds, had 

 settled a family, consisting of a strange mixture of en- 

 terprise and idleness, of ragged-looking men and homely 

 women. They seemed to have all the bad habits of the 

 Indians, with none of their redeeming qualities. They 

 were willing to live without labor, and subsist upon the 

 precarious bounties of nature. 



Located in the fine climate of Northern Tcxa.<, the 

 whole year was to them little less than a continued 

 spring, and the abundance of game with which they 

 were surrounded aflforded, what seemed to them, all the 

 comforts of life. The men never exerted themselves 

 except when hunger prompted, or a spent magazine 

 made the acquisition of "peltries"' necessary to barter 

 for powder and ball. 



A more lazy, contemptible set of creatures never 

 existed, and we would long since have forgotten them, 

 had not our introduction to them associated itself with 

 our first buffalo steak. 



A large rudely-constructed shed, boarded up on the 

 northern side, was the abode. Upon close examination 

 it appeared that this " shed " was the common dwelling- 

 place of the " family," which consisted not only of the 

 human beings, but also of horses, cows, goats, and ill- 

 bred poultry. 



Immediately around the caravansera, the prairie 



