Coyote Hunting on the Plains of Colorado 85 



tlie "hill and bush" country. The one we were goins to was 

 on the plains. 



Our train was nearly two hours late on arrival at Kit Car- 

 son. Our host had left a lantern to meet us. Mr. Petrie 

 managed the six hounds, while Steepleton and the writer came 

 on with the hand baggage. 



Arriving at the ranch, we went into a small detached build- 

 ing about 10 X 14, in which we found a lighted lamp, one 

 double bed and a single bed. ]Mr. Petrie, in the meantime, 

 had found a stable for the hounds and we were soon turned in. 

 It was freezing cold, but there were six blankets and a com- 

 fortable over us, flannel sheets to sleep between, a straw tick 

 that served as a mattress, and a network of ropes that did 

 duty in lieu of springs. 



^Ve were called up before the sun. It was hard work, but 

 seeing a suiu-ise over the great ])lains was, to the writer, worth 

 all the effort and discomfort of the trip. To come to such a 

 place in the middle of the night, and wake up in the morning 

 with a great undulating jjlain stretching miles away in every 

 direction, not a single farm house or a rod of fence, a tree, or 

 a shrub even in sight. 



The vastness of the plains, no pen has ever described it. 

 Plain, plain, everywhere plain! The sunrise was like one at 

 sea, a great yellow-browii sea of buffalo grass with undula- 

 tions that rose and fell like the swells of the ocean, but nowhere 

 a break to the evenness of the horizon. No one could have a 

 more interesting or more fascinating introduction to the plains 

 or to ranch life than at this particular spot, and in this peculiar 

 way. It was to the writer one of the most interesting and 

 impressive sights he ever beheld. No highways, not even a 

 trail. If you wanted to go anj^vhere, you steered a trackless 

 course across the plains to reach there by the straightest line. 

 The ocean is vast, but it is ever changing, ever in motion. It 

 seldom looks the same, two days in succession, but the plain is 



