37 The Winning of the West 



then existed in such incredible numbers. All the 

 early travelers seem to have been almost equally 

 impressed by the interminable seas of grass, the 

 strange, shifting, treacherous plains, rivers, and the 

 swarming multitudes of this great wild ox of the 

 West. Under the blue sky the yellow prairie spread 

 out in endless expanse ; across it the horseman might 

 steer for days and weeks through a landscape almost 

 as unbroken as the ocean. It was a region of light 

 rainfall ; the rivers ran in great curves through beds 

 of quicksand, which usually contained only trickling 

 pools of water, but in times of freshet would in a 

 moment fill from bank to bank with boiling muddy 

 torrents. Hither and thither across these plains led 

 the deep buffalo-trails, worn by the hoofs of the 

 herds that had passed and repassed through count- 

 less ages. For hundreds of miles a traveler might 

 never be out of sight of buffalo. At noon they lay 

 about in little groups all over the prairie, the yellow 

 calves clumsily frisking beside their mothers, while 

 on the slight mounds the great bulls moaned and 

 muttered and pawed the dust. Toward nightfall the 

 herds filed down in endless lines to drink at the 

 river, walking at a quick, shuffling pace, with heads 

 held low and beards almost sweeping the ground. 

 When Pike reached the country the herds were go- 

 ing south from the Platte toward their wintering 

 grounds below the Arkansas. At first he passed 

 through nothing but droves of bulls. It was not 

 until he was well toward the mountains that he came 

 upon great herds of cows. 



