THE BUFFALO. 401 



upon his back. All thought he must be killed by the fall ; 

 but, strangely enough, he rose immediately, shook himself, 

 and a second effort in climbing proved more successful the 

 animal had not received the slightest injury ! 



By the middle of the afternoon we were all safely across, 

 after passing some five or six hours completely shut out from 

 the world. Again we found ourselves upon the level prairie, 

 and in looking back, after proceeding some hundred yards, 

 not a sign of the immense chasm was visible. The plain we 

 were then upon was at least one hundred and fifty miles in 

 width, and the two chasms I have mentioned were the reser- 

 voirs of the heavy body of rain which falls during the wet 

 season, and at the same time its conductors to the running 

 streams. The prairie is undoubtedly the largest in the world, 

 and the canons are in perfect keeping with the size of the 

 prairie. Whether the waters which run into them sink into 

 them, or find their way to the Canadian, is a matter of 

 uncertainty but I am inclined to believe the latter is the 

 case. 



This description is accurate as the language is striking no 

 language, indeed, can fully convey the sudden appal with which 

 this gaping waste of piled and torn immensity fills one coming 

 upon it for the first time. It forms a stern and most charac- 

 teristic feature of these dreary steppes, that climb through 

 thousands of miles by imperceptible slopes towards the white 

 soaring crests of the Rocky Mountain chain. 



The buffalo trails leading from every conceivable direction 

 to centre at the far separated crossing places, are, most 

 probably, as old as the face of the continent, and are 

 frequently themselves worn into deep and impracticable 

 gullies, as you approach the point of convergence, by the 

 tramp of myriad hoofs through unrecorded centuries. 



Nothing more strongly indicates the fatuitous recklessness 

 of the Indian tribes, whose sole dependence is upon this 

 animal, than the constant recurrence of such wanton and 



26 



