VILLAGES OF THE PRAIRIE MARMOT. 133 



Rattle-snakes of a particular species are seen oc- 

 casionally in these villages. They are found between 

 the Mississippi arid the Rocky Mountains, and seem to 

 prefer an unproductive soil, where their sluggish gait 

 may not be retarded by grass or weeds. Some writers 

 attribute to them a voluntary domiciliation with the 

 Prairie-dog, but the most intelligent travellers re- 

 ject this idea. The rattle-snake, like many other 

 serpents, takes refuge in any convenient hollow, 

 either in a rock or tree, regardless of the rightful 

 owner, but no facts have yet proved that he is an 

 acceptable inmate of the dwelling of the Arctomys. 



Yet though the villages of which we speak are 

 numerous in the most barren regions of the Platte, 

 some few are finely situated. Dr. James noticed 

 one, under circumstances of singular and romantic 

 beauty, which extended over an area of about a 

 mile square, having a smooth surface, and sloping 

 almost imperceptibly towards the east, clothed with 

 thick and closely-fed herbage. As our traveller 

 approached the village, its site was covered with a 

 herd of some thousand bisons; on the left appeared 

 a number of wild horses, and immediately in front 

 twenty or thirty antelopes, with as many deer. The 

 sun was near setting, and his beams fell obliquely 

 upon the grass, giving an additional brilliancy to its 

 dark verdure. The little inhabitants of the village 

 were seen running playfully about, and as the 

 strangers approached, they darted to the top of their 

 burrows, and proclaimed their alarm in the cus- 

 tomary notes of apprehension. They seemed to 

 know that huge bisons and antelopes, deer and 

 horses could not harm them, but man was a strange 



