2 THE REGION OF THE GREAT PLAINS. 



and Lagoons. "El gran Seco" in Rio La Plata. Why Fresh Waters 

 turn Salt. Wild Animals driven by Thirst. A Hare Drinks out of a 

 Water Vessel held by an Officer. The Plains Rivers. Their Extreme 

 Flatness Exaggerated. Panoramas viewed from Eminences. Mountain 

 Streams Disappearing in the Plain. Timbered Margins of Streams. 

 Crossing Prairie Streams. Sand Streams Dangerous Nature of. Great 

 Herds of Buffalo lost in Crossing Rivers. Quicksands. Terrible Death 

 in a Quicksand. Swamps. Blind Lakes. Ravines. Malaria in Ravines. 

 "Divides" Their Importance to Travellers. Buffalo Paths following 

 Divides. River Bottoms. Great Canons. "The Process of Erosion." 

 Crossing a Canon, Ancient Passes known to the Indians. Descent 

 into a Cafion. The Great Walls of Rock. Voyage through a Canon. 

 Sudden Flood in a dry Canon. Great Lines of Cliffs, or "Bluffs." 

 " Subsidence" as the Creative Power of Bluffs. Natural Terraces. 

 Table Lands. The Great Thibetan and Peruvian Table Lands. The 

 Plains Grasses. Pampas Thistles and Cardoons. The Prairie Indians. 

 Border Wars. Attacks on Emigrant Trains. Border Anecdotes. A 

 Stage Driver in the Apache Country. Frontier Settlers. Indians 

 Following and Watching Waggon. Trains. Indian Attacks and Surprises. 

 A Scout's Prophecy. Destruction of General Custer's Command. 

 Barbarities of Savage Warfare. Torture of Prisoners. The Fiery Ordeal. 

 The Solitary Indian on the Plains. The White Man Lost on the Prairie. 

 Indian Military Genius and War Tactics. Honesty in the Repayment 

 of Debts. 



THE Region of The Great Plains forms the fourth 

 of the great territorial divisions into which our 

 world is divided and one of them extends, in either 

 hemisphere, northwards and southwards, beyond the 

 polar margins of the Desert Zones. Their position 

 therefore begins at about the 3oth parallel of North 

 and South Latitude, and it may be taken as extending 

 to the 5oth parallel. The great plains thus cover an 

 enormous extent of territory, especially in the northern 

 hemisphere for, as a glance at the map will show, 

 the earth's territorial surface is greatly restricted in 

 area between these parallels in the southern hemisphere, 

 in consequence of the vast preponderance of ocean 

 there. " The Region of The Great Plains " comprise within 

 their boundaries the vast area of steppe, in southern 

 Russia and Asia, which beginning from near the mouth 



