60 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 



the ground, their upper limbs and smaller branches peeled 

 of their bark, and looking as white and smooth as if 

 scraped with a knife. 



On the forks, however, the timber is heavier and of 

 greater variety, some of the creeks being well wooded with 

 ash and cherry, which break the monotony of the everlast- 

 ing cotton-wood. 



Dense masses of buffalo still continued to darken the 

 plains, and numerous bands of wolves hovered round the 

 outskirts of the vast herds, singling out the sick and wound- 

 ed animals, and preying upon such calves as the rifles and 

 arrows of the hunters had bereaved of their mothers. The 

 white wolf is the invariable attendant upon the buffalo ; 

 and when one of these persevering animals is seen, it is a 

 certain sign that buffalo are not far distant. Besides the 

 buffalo wolf, there are four distinct varieties common to 

 the plains, and all more or less attendant upon the buffalo. 

 These are, the black, the grey, the brown, and, last and 

 least, the coyote or cayeute of the mountaineers, the " wach- 

 imkamdnet" or "medicine wolf" of the Indians, who hold 

 the latter animal in reverential awe. This little wolf, 

 whose fur is of great thickness and beauty, is of diminutive 

 size, but wonderfully sagacious, making up by cunning 

 what it wants in physical strength. In bands of from 

 three to thirty they not unfrequently station themselves 

 along the " runs " of the deer and the antelope, extending 

 their line for many miles ; and the quarry being started, 

 each wolf follows in pursuit until tired, when it relinquishes 

 the chase to another relay, following slowly after until the 

 animal is fairly run down, when all hurry to the spot and 

 speedily consume the carcass. The cayeute, however, is 

 often made a tool of by his larger brethren, unless, indeed, 

 he acts from motives of spontaneous charity. When a 

 hunter has slaughtered game, and is in the act of butcher- 

 ing it, these little wolves sit patiently at a short distance 

 from the scene of operations, while at a more respectful 

 one the larger wolves (the white or grey) lope hungrily 

 around, licking their chops in hungry expectation. Not 

 unfrequently the hunter throws a piece of meat towards 



