90 THE PLAINS. 



an island in the heart of the deepest and most dense 

 thicket I could find. Tents were pitched, stores put up, 

 and all preparations made for a camp of two or three 

 days. 



During the night the weather changed. A furious 

 storm of wind and snow with the most intense cold set in, 

 and we, with all the protection of the thickets, with our 

 ' Sibley ' stoves red-hot, were forced to remain under 

 cover of piles of buffalo robes all next day. 



Had the camp been on the unprotected bank of the 

 river, we must not only have suffered very considerably, 

 but would undoubtedly have lost a number of animals 

 by freezing. On the third day the storm was over, and 

 we finished with a most delightful and successful hunt. 



Only a very few years ago there was in some portions 

 of the plains a danger to camps which unhappily exists 

 no longer. It was of being run over by buffalo. This 

 animal is habitually stupid and sluggish, but under some 

 circumstances evinces a most peculiar nervousness. He 

 is extremely addicted to ' stampedes,' and during this 

 temporary aberration of his mind is as dangerous a beast 

 collectively as can be found in the world. I have heard 

 many stories of ' hair-breadth 'scapes ' from buffalo ; I have 

 seen railroad and waggon trains stopped to wait his 

 pleasure ; and as close a shave as I ever made to c passing 

 in my checks ' was from a buffalo stampede. 



I was changing posts in March 1871, and had three 

 or four waggons and a small escort. One night I camped 

 on Big Coon Creek. It was too early for rain, and the 

 weather was cold and blustery. My camp was therefore 

 nearly in the bed of the creek, close under the shelter of 

 the steep, almost bluff hillocks, which border the stream. 

 The nook in which I camped was small, and tents and 

 waggons were unusually crowded together. 



It was late at night, and I was in bed. The camp, 

 except one sentinel, was buried in sleep ; the fires were 

 out, darkness and silence reigned supreme. A faint and 



