1 70 Hunting the Grisly 



white. Generally each band or patch of 

 ground was covered densely by flowers of the 

 same color, making a great vivid streak across 

 the landscape; but in places they were mixed 

 together, red, yellow, and purple, interspersed 

 in patches and curving bands, carpeting the 

 prairie in a strange, bright pattern. 



Finally toward evening we reached the 

 Nueces. Where we struck it first the bed was 

 dry, except in occasional deep, malarial-look 

 ing pools, but a short distance below there be 

 gan to be a running current. Great blue 

 herons were stalking beside these pools, and 

 from one we flushed a white ibis. In the woods 

 were reddish cardinal birds, much less bril 

 liant in plumage than the true cardinals and 

 the scarlet tanagers; and yellow-headed tit 

 mice which had already built large domed 

 nests. 



In the valley of the Nueces itself, the brush 

 grew thick. There were great groves of pe 

 can trees, and evergreen live-oaks stood in 

 many places, long, wind-shaken tufts of gray 

 moss hanging from their limbs. Many of the 

 trees in the wet spots were of giant size, and 

 the whole landscape was semi-tropical in 

 character. High on a bluff shoulder over 

 looking the course of the river was perched 



