THE GREAT NORTHWEST 237 



They ate and slept in the car and were quite success- 

 ful in shooting and fishing. They left here on a side 

 hunt for antelope and bears. 



I wrote these notes seated on the broad prairie be- 

 side a palace car (wherein we were luxuriously fed and 

 housed), waiting until the beds were made up and 

 breakfast was prepared. It is something certainly 

 novel, as well as very pleasant, to sit down in this lati- 

 tude to a dinner of wild roast goose, teal duck, prairie- 

 chicken, fresh peaches, sweet potatoes, ice cream, etc., 

 with plenty of drinkables besides, and all served by 

 competent waiters. For this luxury we were indebted 

 to a Worcester (Mass.) Excursion Company, who were 

 on their twenty-second annual shooting tour and who 

 had invited us to join them for the season. Seven 

 gentlemen of the party started, with nineteen horses, 

 tents, provisions, etc., for a hunt after antelopes and 

 grizzly bears, their destination being some thirty miles 

 from Maple Creek. They expected to be gone a week, 

 and of course each man was anxious to bag his ante- 

 lope or have a wrestle with a bear ; in the meantime 

 we had to be content to worry the prairie-chicken and 

 mallard duck with our dogs and guns. 



One through train from the Pacific and one from 

 the Atlantic stop here for a few minutes each day, and 

 on their arrival the platform is crowded with Indians 

 dressed up in their best bib and tucker, which means 

 plenty of feathers, paint and tomahawk. With a 



