84 THE PLAINS. 



have never yet been ' drowned out ' by floods from the 

 upper portions of the stream on which I was encamped. 

 This I attribute to a very large ' bump ' of prudence, and 

 also, considering the number of years I have spent on the 

 plains, and the almost innumerable camps I have made, 

 to very extraordinary good luck. 



I have witnessed the phenomena several times, the 

 most remarkable of which I will try to describe. My 

 company was encamped for the summer on a bluff bank 

 about twenty-five feet high, at the foot of which was 

 the dry sandy bed of a stream. The bed averaged 

 about 100 feet wide. The opposite bank was low, and 

 from it the ground extended away in a broad bottom, 

 gradually rising to meet a line of low hills. At intervals 

 in the bed were deep permanent waterholes, which, how- 

 ever, except during high water, were not connected by 

 any surface stream. The camp was about twelve miles 

 in a direct line from the mouth of the canon, by which 

 the stream had cut its way through a high prairie 

 furrowed with innumerable deep ravines, tributary to this 

 principal stream. About eleven o'clock on a clear, bright, 

 beautiful starlight night, I was lying reading in my tent, 

 when I heard a distant roaring, rushing sound, now more 

 now less distinct, but gradually swelling in power. 



Guessing at once the cause, I rushed out and placed 

 myself on the edge of the bank overlooking the sand. 

 In a few moments a long creamy wave, beaten into foam, 

 crept swiftly with a hissing sound across the sand. This 

 appeared to be only a few inches in depth. Following 

 with equal speed, and at a distance of about sixty feet 

 behind the advance of this sheet, was a straight, unbroken 

 mass of water of at least four feet in height. The front 

 of this mass was not rounded into a wave, but rose sheer 

 and straight, a perfect wall of water. From this front 

 wall the mass rose gradually to the rear, and was covered 

 with logs and debris of all kinds, rolling and plunging 

 in the tremendous current. In ten minutes from the 



