A Trip on the Prairie. 207 



low it, at least for any length of time, and a man's horses 

 are generally safe. 



Near where we had halted for the night camp was a 

 large prairie-dog town. Prairie-dogs are abundant all 

 over the cattle country ; they are in shape like little wood- 

 chucks, and are the most noisy and inquisitive animals 

 imaginable. They are never found singly, but always in 

 towns of several hundred inhabitants ; and these towns are 

 found in all kinds of places where the country is flat and 

 treeless. Sometimes they will be placed on the bottoms of 

 the creeks or rivers, and again far out on the prairie or 

 among the Bad Lands, a long distance from any water. 

 Indeed, so dry are some of the localities in which they 

 exist, that it is a marvel how they can live at all ; yet they 

 seem invariably plump and in good condition. They are 

 exceedingly destructive to grass, eating away every thing 

 round their burrows, and thus each town is always extend- 

 ing at the borders, while the holes in the middle are de- 

 serted ; in many districts they have become a perfect bane 

 to the cattle-men, for the incoming of man has been the 

 means of causing a great falling off in the ranks of their 

 four-footed foes, and this main check to their increase being 

 gone, they multiply at a rate that threatens to make them 

 a serious pest in the future. They are among the few 

 plains animals who are benefited instead of being injured 

 by the presence of man ; and it is most difficult to exter- 

 minate them or to keep their number in any way under, 

 as they are prolific to a most extraordinary degree ; and 

 the quantity of good feed they destroy is very great, and 

 as they eat up the roots of the grass it is a long time, 



