ON THE PRAIRIE 55 



for they are most inquisitive. Their bur- 

 rows form one of the chief dangers to riding 

 at full speed over the plains country ; hardly 

 any man can do much riding on the prairie 

 for more than a year or two without coming 

 to grief on more than one occasion by his 

 horse putting its foot in a prairie-dog hole. 

 A badger hole is even worse. When a horse 

 gets his foot in such a hole, while going at 

 full speed, he turns a complete somersault, 

 and is lucky if he escape without a broken 

 leg, while I have time and again known the 

 to be severely injured. There are other 

 smaller animals whose burrows sometimes 

 cause a horseman to receive a sharp tumble. 

 These are the pocket-gophers, queer creat- 

 ures, shaped like moles and having the same 

 subterranean habits, but with teeth like a 

 rat's, and great pouches on the outside of 

 their jaws, whose long, rambling tunnels 

 cover the ground in certain places, though 

 the animals themselves are very rarely seen ; 

 and the little striped gophers and gray go- 

 phers, entirely different animals, more like 



