CHAPTER XIII. 



CHARACTER OK THE PLAINS BUFFALO BILL aKD HIS HORSE BRIGHAM TUB GUID1) 



AND SCOUT OF ROMANCE CAYOTE VERSUS JACKA8S-RABBIT A LAWYER-LIKE 



RESCUE OUR CAMP OX SILVER CREEK UNCLE SAM'S BUFFALO HERDS TURKEY 



SHOOTING OUR FIRST MEAL ON THE PLAINS A GAME SUPPER. 



OUR trail was taking us west of north. and we ex- 

 pected to reach the Saline about dusk and there 

 encamp. The same strange evenness of country sur- 

 rounded us. Over its surface, smooth and firm as a 

 race track, we could drive a wagon or gallop a horse 

 in any direction. Even the Bedouin has no such field 

 for cavalry practice — his footing being shifting sand, 

 while ours was the compact buffalo grass, so short 

 that its existence at all could scarcely have been de- 

 tected a few yards away. Sachem said he could think 

 of no such cavalry field except that of his boyhood, 

 when he slipped into the parlor and pranced his rock 

 ing-horse over the soft carpet; with which memory, 

 he added, was coupled another, to the effect that 

 while thus skirmishing on dangerous ground, his 

 cavalry was attacked from the rear by heavy infantry 

 and badly cut up. 



Numerous buffalo trails crossed our path, running 

 invariably north and south. This is caused by the 

 animals feeding from one stream to another, the water 

 courses following the dip of the country's surface 



(192) 



