PRAIlllE DOGS. 103 



visit one of their colonies, and the opportunit}- oc- 

 curred to me one evening after a long hunt with the 

 Red Skins. One of the Pawnees, with whom I hap- 

 pened to be hunting, wandering from the party, came 

 uj)on a little valley, in which, on the side exposed 

 to the sun, he hit upon "a prairie-dog town," and 

 the same evening he told us of his discovery. 

 Early next morning we were all agog to visit this 

 curious phalanstery. All that I had heard of these 

 quadrupeds made me approach their immense colony 

 with an interest in addition to that which I felt as 

 a sportsman. 



Before arriving at the hill, on the other side of 

 which were the marmots, we got off our horses, 

 and, leaving them tied up to the trees, we ad- 

 vanced cautiously towards " the town." I know not 

 whether it was the sound of our footsteps, but 

 immediately we approached the sentinels gave the 

 alarm, and ran towards the nearest burrows to re- 

 join their comrades, and then, sitting on their tails 

 at the entrances of the burrow's, they set to barking 

 in a peculiar manner, and after a queer kind of 

 frisk, each disappeared into his respective cave. 

 The " town " of prairie dogs before us covered a 

 space of about twenty acres. Over all this super- 

 ficies the earth was pierced, mined, and covered 

 with caves, pro\ing the subterranean industry of 

 this ciu-ious creature. AYe tried the depths of many 

 of these holes with our ramrods, but were quite 



