48 ON THE FRONTIER. 



After a couple of hours quick walking I sat down on the 

 highest knoll I could find, to rest and reconnoitre. 



I was surrounded by the scattered bands of bulls that 

 always fringe the main herds, and it was most interesting to 

 sit and watch them. 



Some of the buffaloes were feeding ; some lying down 

 chewing the cud ; some dusting themselves by rolling over 

 and over in the little hollows known to "plainsmen" as 

 " buffalo wallows ; " others were pawing the dry dusty 

 ground up with their fore-feet and throwing it in little puffs 

 over their shoulders ; others quarrelling and fighting. 



There were sometimes as many as twenty single combats 

 going on at a time in as many different directions. More 

 than once, while I remained a watcher, a general melee was, 

 to my great entertainment, performed. Occasionally gray 

 wolves would be seen trotting leisurely along some hollow, 

 and a distant flock of antelopes wheeling and playing around 

 in graceful evolutions. 



Above, numerous vultures and turkey-buzzards circled in 

 endless gyrations; some near me, some almost invisible 

 specks against the clear blue sky. 



The little prairie-dogs sat up and barked at the strange 

 intruder on their settlement; while their queer fellow- 

 lodgers, the burrowing-owls, regarded me with looks of 

 comic wisdom; the grasshoppers chirruped, and the bulls 

 roared. 



The proverbial solitude of the wild prairie was changed 

 into a panorama of life and motion. I looked around 

 me and felt happy. The bright warm sunshine, the clear 



