168 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 



beacon between the frontiers of the United States and 

 the still distant goal of their long and perilous journey. 

 It was a hot sultry day in July. Not a breath of air 

 relieved the intense and oppressive heat of the atmo- 

 sphere, unusual here, where pleasant summer breezes, 

 and sometimes stronger gales, blow over the elevated 

 plains with the regularity of trade-winds. The sun, at 

 its meridian height, struck the dry sandy plain, and 

 parched the drooping buffalq^-grass on its surface ; and 

 its rays, refracted and reverberating from the heated 

 ground, distorted every object seen through its lurid 

 medium. Straggling antelope, leisurely crossing the 

 adjoining prairie, appeared to be gracefully moving in 

 mid-air ; whilst a scattered band of buffalo bulls loomed 

 huge and indistinct in the vapoury distance. In the 

 timbered valley of the river, deer and elk were standing 

 motionless in the water, under the shade of the over- 

 hanging cottonwoods, seeking a respite from the perse- 

 vering attacks of swarms of horse-flies and musquitos ; 

 and now and then a heavy splash was heard, as they 

 tossed their antlered heads into the stream, to free them 

 from the venomous insects that buzzed incessantly about 

 them. In the sandy prairie, beetles of an enormous 

 size were rolling in every direction huge balls of earth, 

 pushing them with their hind legs with comical perse- 

 verance ; cameleons darted about, assimilating the hue 

 of their grotesque bodies with the colour of the sand : 

 groups of prairie-dog houses were seen, each with its 

 inmate barking lustily on the roof; whilst under cover 

 of nearly every bush of sage or cactus a rattlesnake lay 



