1 62 HUNTING TRIPS 



the immense upland water-shed of the 

 staked plains, cutting the sides of the 

 ' divide ' into narrow canyons. The jour- 

 ney to this sportsman's paradise was over 

 the long-rolling plains of Western Texas. 

 Hour after hour through the day's travel 

 we would drop into the trough of some 

 great plains-wave only to toil on up to the 

 crest of the next, and be met by an endless 

 vista of boundless, billowy-looking prairie. 

 We were following the old Fort Terret 

 trail, its ruts cut so deep in the prairie soil 

 by the heavy supply wagons that these ten 

 years have not healed the scars in the 

 earth's face. At last, after journeying for 

 leagues through the stunted live oaks, we 

 saw from the top of one of the larger 

 divides a dark bluish line against the hori- 

 zon, the color of distant leafless trees, 

 and knew that it meant we should soon 

 open out the valley. Another hour brought 

 us over the last divide, and then our hunt- 

 ing grounds lay before and below us. All 

 along through the unbroken natural fields 



