PRAIRIE SCENERY. 23 



his friend. Again, your gun or rifle, ever a willing 

 servant when properly taken care of, requires no 

 small amount of attention; to no other hands than 

 your own trust it to be cleaned. However high your 

 birth, delicate your nurturing, or boundless your 

 means, to do without the assistance of hirelings, and 

 rely entirely on yourself, is far from derogatory ; on 

 the contrary, it is deserving of commendation, and the 

 benefit that will result in after-life from such lessons 

 cannot be too highly estimated. I have known a few 

 months of wild western life do more good in forming a 

 character than years passed in cities or continental 

 tour ; for here the fop forgets his folly, and the timid 

 and nervous becomes self-reliant. * 



Imagine spread before you an immense plain ; in 

 whatever direction you look, the same expanse of level 

 country stretches before you. Such is the prairie. The 

 dear old ocean, as viewed from the deck of a vessel, is 

 the nearest simile I can think of. In both an almost 

 level horizon in each direction is met by the sky. 

 Nothing in either is to be seen to break the stillness, 

 save it be the animal life that have these elements for 

 their home. Although this may be applicable, as a 

 general rule, to prairie scenery, there are portions less 

 monotonous; in places, heavy belts of timber mark the 

 margin of streams that ultimately help to feed some of 

 the giant rivers of the American continent ; while as 

 you approach the great vertebra of the country the 

 Kocky Mountains hill after hill rises, overtopping 

 each other ; again frowned down upon by lofty moun- 

 tains, beautiful in colouring, soft in their distant out- 

 lines, and grand in their irregular and picturesque 

 shape. Moreover, between these hills, almost impas- 



