ON THE PRAIRIE 153 



sharper ridges were of soft, crumbling sand- 

 stone, and when a buffalo trail crossed such 

 a one, it generally made a curious, heart- 

 shaped cut, the feet of the animals sinking 

 the narrow path continually deeper and 

 deeper, while their bodies brushed out the 

 sides. The profile of a ridge across which 

 several trails led had rather a curious look 

 when seen against the sky. 



Game was scarce on this broken plains 

 country, where the water supply was very 

 scanty, and where the dull brown grass that 

 grew on the parched, sun-cracked ground 

 had been already cropped close; still we 

 found enough to keep us in fresh meat; and 

 though no buffalo were seen, the trip \v. 

 pleasant one. There was a certain charm 

 in the very*vastness and the lonely, melan- 

 choly desolation of the land over which 

 every day we galloped far and wide from 

 dawn till nightfall ; while the heavy can- 

 vas-covered wagon lumbered slowly along 

 to the appointed halting-place. On such a 

 trip one soon gets to feel that the wagon is 



