136 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



long over the nearest ravine into some rugged canon 

 impossible to descend into, or where, even if successful in 

 reaching its bottom, the carcass would be found pounded 

 and torn into a shapeless mass of flesh, only fit food for 

 the loathsome vultures who probably have already com- 

 menced to congregate, in expectation of a feed on their 

 beloved carrion. 



In the days of De Bonneville, and Lewis and Clark, 

 big-horns and rocky mountain sheep were very abundant 

 in the mountain ridges that encompass the upper waters of 

 the turbulent Columbia river, but the tide of emigration 

 which has flowed into Oregon and British north- 

 western possessions has had the effect of lessening their 

 numbers, and driving a large proportion of the survivors 

 from what at one time must have been one of their chief 

 habitats. However, both these species are not likely soon 

 to become extinct, for the nature of the country they 

 inhabit is a safeguard which the poor buffalo unfortunately 

 does not possess ; aye, and what will the undulating prairie 

 be to the Indian and hunter when you deprive it of the 

 lordly bull, who in times gone by caused each tree, rock 

 and ravine to reverberate with his deep voice or heavy 

 tread ? 



The time may come I do not wish to see it when 

 these broad acres will possess mills and factories, daily 

 disgorging their inky smoke into the pure azure heavens, 

 or their thousands of unwashed mortality over what now is 

 a flower-studded prairie. 



Manchester doubtless is charming to the factory owner, 

 for well is he aware that every throb of its machinery, 



