ON THE PRAIRIE 95 



of a great hill, known as Middle Butte, a 

 huge, isolated mass of rock, several miles in 

 length, and with high sides, very steep to- 

 wards the nearly level summit ; it would be 

 icd a mountain of no inconsiderable size- 

 in the East. We hunted carefully through 

 the outlying foothills and projecting spurs 

 around its base, without result, finding but 

 a few tracks, and those very old ones, and 

 then toiled up to the top, which, though nar- 

 row in parts, in others widened out into 

 plateaus half a mile square. Having made a 

 complete circuit of the top, peering over the 

 edge and closely examining the flanks of the 

 butte with the field-glass, without having 

 seen any tiling, we slid down the other side 

 and took off through a streak of very rugged 

 but low country. This day, though the 

 weather had grown even colder, we did not 

 feel it, for we walked all the while with a 

 quid and the climbing was very hard 



work. The shoulders and ledges of the cliffs 

 had become round and slippery with the ice, 

 and it was no easy task to move up and 



