102 BUFFALO LAND. 



ing well merited chastisement to other murdering 

 bands. The Delawares, I have often thought, are 

 like blood-hounds on the track of the savages of the 

 plains. They take fierce delight in scanning the 

 ground for trails and the lines of the streams for 

 camps. There is something strangely unnatural in 

 the wild eyes of these Ishmaelites, as they lead the 

 destroyers against their race, and assist in blotting 

 it from the face of the continent. Themselves so 

 nearly joined to the nations known only in history, it 

 is like a plague-stricken man pressing eagerly for- 

 ward to carry the curse, before he dies, to the re- 

 mainder of his people." 



The valleys of the Saline, Solomon, and Smoky 

 Hill, as we passed them in rapid succession, seemed 

 very rich and were already thickly dotted with houses. 

 This is one of the best cattle regions of the state, 

 and vast herds of the long-horned Texan breed cov- 

 ered the prairies. We were informed that they often 

 graze throughout the entire winter. As early in 

 the spring as the grass starts sufficiently along the 

 trail from Texas to Kansas, the stock dealers of the 

 former State commence moving their immense herds 

 over it. The cattle are driven slowly forward, feed- 

 ing as they come, and reach the vicinity of the Kansas 

 railroads when the grass is in good condition for their 

 summer fattening. As many as five hundred thou- 

 sand head of these long horns have been brought into 

 the State in a single season. Some are sold on arrival 

 and others kept until fall, when the choicest beeves 

 are shipped East for packing purposes, or into Illinois 

 for corn feeding. The latter is the case when they 



