202 



BUFFALO LAND. 



see train after train of railroad cars rustling over the 

 plains, every window smoking with the bombardment 



like the port-holes of a man-of-war. II <> would sec 

 Upper Missouri steamers often paddling in a river 

 black witli the crossing herds, and pouring wanton 

 showers of bullets into their shaggy backs. To the 

 south Indians on horseback, to the north Indians on 

 snow shoes, would meet his astonished gaze, and 

 around the outskirts of the vast range his white chil- 

 dren on a variety of conveyances, and all, savage 

 and civilized alike, thirsting for buffalo blood. That 

 the buffalo, in spite of all this, docs apparently con- 

 tinue to increase, shows that the old and rheumatic 

 ones, the veteran bulls which in bands and singly 

 circle around the inner herds of cows and calves, arc 

 the ones that most commonly fall the easy victims to 

 the hunters. Their day has passed, and powder and 

 ball but give the wolves their bones to pick a little 

 earlier. 



Such were the thoughts that revolved in my mind 

 while sitting upon one of the wagons, and dividing 

 my attention between the tent pitching going on 

 undej the trees and the shaggy thousands which, 

 feeding against the horizon, seemed to grow larger as 

 the sun went down behind them and they stood out 

 in deepening relief in the long autumn twilio-ht. 

 These solitudes made me think of Du Chaillu on the 

 African deserts when night set in, and I wondered if 

 the brute denizens there could be more interesting 

 than those which surrounded us. Had a lion roared, I 

 doubt whether it would have struck me as unnatural, 

 although it might have induced a speedy change of 



