PEEFACE. 



The purpose of this work is to make the reader 

 better acquainted with that wild land which he has 

 known from childhood, as the home of the Indian 

 and the buffalo. The Rocky Mountain chain, dis- 

 torted and rugged, has been aptly called the colossal 

 vertebrae of our continent's broad back, and from 

 thence, as a line, the plains, weird and wonderful, 

 stretch eastward through Colorado, and embrace 

 the entire western half of Kansas. 



Fortune, not long since, threw in my way an in- 

 vitation, which I gladly accejDted, to join a semi- 

 scientific party, since somewhat known to fame 

 through various articles in the newspaper press, in 

 a sojourn of several months on the great plains. 

 At a meeting held with due solemnity on the eve 

 of starting, the Professor (to whom the reader will 

 be introduced in the proper connection) was chosen 

 leader of the expedition, while to my lot fell the 



(ix) 



