Waterfowl 61 



try, whose western edge lies many miles to the east 

 of the Bad Lands around my ranch. There the 

 land was already partially settled by farmers, and 

 we had one or two days' quite fair duck-shooting-. 

 It was a rolling country of mixed prairie land and 

 rounded hills, with small groves of trees and numer- 

 ous little lakes in the hollows. The surface of the 

 natural prairie was broken in places by great wheat 

 fields, and when we were there the grain was gath- 

 ered in sheaves and stacks among the stubble. At 

 night-time we either put up at the house of some 

 settler, or, if there were none round, camped out. 

 One night we had gone into camp among the 

 dense timber fringing a small river, which wound 

 through the prairie in a deep narrow bed with steep 

 banks. Until people have actually -camped out 

 themselves it is difficult for them to realize how 

 much work there is in making or breaking camp. 

 But it is very quickly done if every man has his 

 duties assigned to him and starts about doing them 

 at once. In choosing camp there are three essentials 

 to be looked to wood, water, and grass. The last 

 is found everywhere in the Eastern prairie land, 

 where we were on our duck-shooting trip, but in 

 many places on the great dry plains further west, 

 it is either very scanty or altogether lacking; and 

 I have at times been forced to travel half a score 

 miles further than I wished to get feed for the 

 horses. Water, again, is a commodity not by any 

 means to be found everywhere on the plains. If 

 the country is known and the journeys timed aright, 



