The Deer of the River Bottoms 129 



to obliterate it; where it leads downhill, the snow 

 water has cut and widened the ruts into deep gul- 

 lies, so that a wagon has at those places to travel 

 alongside the road. From any little rising in the 

 prairie the road can be seen, a long way off, as a 

 dark line, which, when near, resolves itself into two 

 sharply defined parallel cuts. Such a road is a great 

 convenience as a landmark. When traveling along 

 it, or one like it, the hunters can separate in all 

 directions, and no matter how long or how far they 

 hunt, there is never the least difficulty about finding 

 camp. For the general direction in which the road 

 lies, is, of course, kept in mind, and it can be reached 

 whether the sun is down or not; then a glance tells 

 if the wagon has passed, and all that remains to be 

 done is to gallop along the trail until camp is found. 

 On the trip in question we had at first very bad 

 weather. Leaving the ranch in the morning, two 

 of us, who were mounted, pushed on ahead to hunt, 

 the wagon following slowly, with a couple of spare 

 saddle ponies leading behind it. Early in the after- 

 noon, while riding over the crest of a great divide, 

 which separates the drainage basins of two impor- 

 tant creeks, we saw that a tremendous storm was 

 brewing with that marvelous rapidity which is so 

 marked a characteristic of weather changes on the 

 plains. A towering mass of clouds gathered in the 

 northwest, turning that whole quarter of the sky 

 to an inky blackness. From there the storm rolled 

 down toward us at a furious speed, obscuring by 

 degrees the light of the sun, and extending its wings 



