n 8 Deer of the River Bottoms. 



few daring trappers, the only white men to be seen on the 

 last great hunting-ground of the Indians. It was aban- 

 doned as a military route several years ago, and is now 

 only rarely travelled over, either by the canvas-topped 

 ranch-wagon of some wandering cattle-men like our- 

 selves, or else by a small party of emigrants, in two 

 or three prairie schooners, which contain all their house- 

 hold goods. Nevertheless, it is still as plain and distinct 

 as ever. The two deep parallel ruts, cut into the sod by 

 the wheels of the heavy wagon, stretch for scores of 

 miles in a straight line across the level prairie, and 

 take great turns and doublings to avoid the impassable 

 portions of the Bad Lands. The track is always per- 

 fectly plain, for in the dry climate of the western plains 

 the action of the weather tends to preserve rather than to 

 obliterate it ; where it leads downhill, the snow water has 

 cut and widened the ruts into deep gullies, so that a 

 wagon has at those places to travel alongside the road. 

 From any little rising in the prairie the road can be 

 seen, a long way off, as a dark line, which, when near, re- 

 solves itself into two sharply defined parallel cuts. Such 

 a road is a great convenience as a landmark. When 

 travelling along it, or one like it, the hunters can sep- 

 arate in all directions, and no matter how long or how far 

 they hunt, there is never the least difficulty about finding 

 camp. For the general direction in which the road lies, 

 is, of course, kept in mind, and it can be reached whether 

 the sun is down or not ; then a glance tells if the 

 wagon has passed, and all that remains to be done is to 

 gallop along the trail until camp is found 



