194 BUFFALO LAND. 



The Professor assured us that the country around 

 was equal to the plains of Lombardy in point of 

 fertility, and as the soil was of great depth, and rich 

 in the proper mineral properties, it would undoubt- 

 edly become before 1890 the great wheat-producing 

 region of the world. 



Our party fell into silence again, and, having noth- 

 ing else to interest me at the moment, I resumed my 

 study, which this episode had interrupted, of Buffalo 

 Bill, our guide. Athletic and shrewd, he rode ahead 

 of us with sinews of iron and eye ever on the alert, 

 clad in a suit of buckskin. His mount was a tough 

 roan pony which he had named Brigham and of 

 which he seemed very fond. Nevertheless, this fond- 

 ness did not prevent hard riding, and when I last saw 

 Brigham, several months afterward, he was a very 

 sorry-lboking animal, insomuch that I concluded not 

 to have his photograph taken as that of a model steed 

 for Buffalo Land, as I once contemplated doing. 



It was extremely fortunate for us that we had 

 secured Cody as guide. The whole western country 

 bordering on the plains, as we afterward learned, 

 from sorry experience, is infested with numberless 

 charlatans, blazing with all sorts of hunting and 

 fighting titles, and ready at the rustle of greenbacks 

 to act as guides through a land they know nothing 

 about. These reprobates delight in telling thrilling 

 tales of their escapes from Indians, and are con- 

 stantly chilling the blood of their shivering party by 

 pointing out spots where imaginary murders took 

 place. Without compasses they would be as hope- 

 lessly lost as needleless mariners. I have my doubts 



