IN THE LAND OF THE GREAT SPIRIT 117 



dry, they sometimes act in an exactly opposite 

 manner. For they may form channels up which the 

 fire creeps and spreads, often most insidiously, from 

 place to place. 



The trails are simply tracks formed on the grass by 

 the passage of the Red River carts, or the horses of the 

 old buffalo-hunters from point to point. 



Even at night you can distinguish the trail from 

 the surrounding prairie, for the trail shows up white 

 in the darkness. And in the daylight you see why 

 this is. The trails are covered with buffalo grass.* It , — ^/exA-^^^ax- 

 is an oat grass. But whether it is the same as our 

 own t I do not know. 



Sometimes, although all the trail may be thick with 

 buffalo grass, you will not be able to find any of 

 the same kind in the prairie round about. Horses 

 and cattle are very fond of this grass, and perhaps 

 therefore we may explain its presence by supposing 

 that it is by means of horses and cattle that the 

 seeds become conveyed along the trails. But useful 

 as the oat grass is as a guide at night, it often proves a 

 delusive one. Not seldom the track takes you right up 

 to the side of a quite impassable slew, and away on 



* Stipa spartea. f Avena pratensis. 



