130 BUFFALO LAND. 



fill for the rest. The hour of dusk, of all others, is 

 the time for musing, and almost involuntarily our 

 minds wandered back a twelve-month, when the 

 plains were a solitude. No railroad, no houses, no 

 tokens of civilization save only a few solitary posts, 

 garrisoned with corporal's guards, and surrounded by 

 red fiends thirsty for blood. Such was the picture 

 then ; now, the clangor of a city echoed through Big 

 Creek Valley. 



While wondering at the change, away on the hills 

 to our right there rose a thundering tread, like the 

 marching of a mighty multitude. Shamus, who sat 

 directly facing the hill, saw something which chilled 

 the Dobeen blood, and caused that noble Irishman to 

 plunge behind us. Mr. Colon, who had given a 

 startled turn of the head over his right shoulder, ex- 

 claimed, "Bless me, what's that?" The glance of 

 Muggs froze that Briton so completely that he failed 

 to tell us of ever having seen a more " hextraor- 

 dinary thing in Hingland." I am in doubt whether 

 even our grave professor did not imagine for the mo- 

 ment that the mammalian age was taking a tilt 

 at us. 



Gathering twilight had magnified what in broad day 

 would have been an apparition sufficiently startling 

 to any new arrival in Buffalo Land. A long line of 

 black, shaggy forms was standing on the crest and 

 looking down upon us. It had come forward like the 

 rush of a hungry wave, and now remained as one 

 uplifted, dark and motionless. In bold relief against 

 the horizon stood an array of colossal figures, all 

 bristling w r ith sharp points, which at first sight 



