214 A Trip on the Prairie. 



A solitary trip such as this was, through a compara- 

 tively wild region in which game is still plentiful, always 

 has great attraction for any man who cares for sport and 

 for nature, and who is able to be his own companion, but 

 the pleasure after all depends a good deal on the weather. 

 To be sure, after a little experience in roughing it, the 

 hardships seem a good deal less formidable than they for- 

 merly did, and a man becomes able to roll up in a wet 

 blanket and sleep all night in a pelting rain without hurt' 

 ing himself though he will shiver a good deal, and feel 

 pretty numb and stiff in those chill and dreary hours just 

 before dawn. But when a man's clothes and bedding and 

 rifle are all wet, no matter how philosophically he may 

 bear it, it may be taken for granted that he does not enjoy 

 it. So fair weather is a very vital and important element 

 among those that go to make up the pleasure and success 

 of such a trip. Luckily fair weather can be counted on 

 with a good deal of certainty in late spring and through- 

 out most of the summer and fall on the northern cattle 

 plains. The storms that do take place, though very vio- 

 lent, do not last long. 



Every now and then, however, there will be in the fall 

 a three-days' storm in which it is almost impossible to 

 travel, and then the best thing to be done is to lie up 

 under any shelter that is at hand until it blows over. I 

 remember one such camp which was made in the midst of 

 the most singular and picturesque surroundings. It was 

 toward the end of a long *.vagon trip that we had been 

 taking, and all of the horses were tired by incessant work. 

 We had come through country which was entirely new 



