THE BISON MEAT. 263 



well blue-lights would tell ! and, were I to go again to 

 the plains, I would never be without them. 



The night had not long set in when Bayard and Mr 

 Canterall arrived, so with hearts at rest we saw him sit 

 down to a comfortable dinner. Before reaching the 

 plains all the Americans were ringing in my ears the 

 deliciousness of the buffalo meat. " Reckon, sir, you've 

 nothing like it in the old country. Yes, sir, just about 

 a treat you air going to have ; yes, sir, you'll have some 

 thing to speak on, when you go back, that's a fact." 

 When I came to test the matter, I found that it was the 

 " hump rib, " not the hump itself, that was the best part of 

 the bison, and the meat along and on either side the 

 loin, the tongue, and oh, shade of Eude, the marrow 

 bones ! No man can guess what marrow amounts to 

 until he has been to the Far West and eaten it as Wal 

 lace, who cooked on the plains for me, dressed it. The 

 bone was brought to table in its full length, and they 

 had some way of hitting it with the back of an axe 

 which opened one side of it only, like the lid of a box. 

 The bone then, when this lid was removed, exposed in 

 its entire length a regular white roll of unbroken mar 

 row, beautifully done. When hot, as the lid had kept it, 

 and put on thin toast, it was perfection ! On inquiry I 

 found that the two extreme ends of the marrow-bone 

 only were placed on the red embers, and the heat of the 

 bone itself dressed the marrow. As far as the bison 

 meat went, it was precisely lean beef, with no more 

 flavour than lean beef in England would have ; while at 

 the same time, as we were living from hand to mouth, 

 and had no facility for keeping things, of course it was 

 always tough. The veal was precisely lean veal, such as 



