212 A Trip on the Prairie. 



duck, with a brood of little ducklings, balls of fuzzy yellow 

 down, that bobbed off into the reeds like little corks as I 

 walked by. 



Breaking camp is a simple operation for one man ; and 

 but a few minutes after breakfast Manitou and I were off ; 

 the embers of the fire having been extinguished with the 

 care that comes to be almost second nature with the cattle- 

 man, one of whose chief dreads is the prairie fire, that 

 sometimes robs his stock of such an immense amount of 

 feed. Very little game was seen during the morning, as I 

 rode in an almost straight line over the hot, parched plains, 

 the ground cracked and seamed by the heat, and the dull 

 brown blades bending over as if the sun was too much 

 even for them. The sweat drenched the horse even when 

 we were walking ; and long before noon we halted for 

 rest by a bitter alkaline pool with border so steep and rot- 

 ten that I had to bring water up to the horse in my hat ; 

 having taken some along in a canteen for my own use. 

 But there was a steep bank near, overgrown with young 

 trees, and thus giving good shade ; and it was this that 

 induced me to stop. When leaving this halting-place, I 

 spied three figures in the distance, loping towards me ; 

 they turned out to be cowboys, who had been out a couple 

 of days looking up a band of strayed ponies, and as they had 

 exhausted their supply of food, I gave them the antelope 

 hams, trusting to shoot another for my own use. 



Nor was I disappointed. After leaving the cowboys 

 I headed the horse towards the more rolling country 

 where the prairies begin to break off into the edges of the 

 Bad Lands. Several bands of antelope, were seen, and I 



