THE ROOF OF THE EOCKIES. 295 



ment, never kill old bulls. Cows and calves are 

 generally juicy and tender, but not so the veterans ; 

 they, after death, butt around among one's digestive 

 organs with a ferocity which makes the liver ache. 

 .Being most easily obtained, bull beef is generally all 

 that is sent to market, and thus man^^ a patriarchal 

 bison, dead, accomplishes more in retaliation for his 

 sudden taking-off than the Fates ever permitted him 

 to do in lusty life. 



A few days more were spent in our Silver Creek 

 camp, and we then folded our tents and took a west- 

 ward course, with the purpose of examining, not only 

 the remoter regions of Kansas, but also the Colorado 

 portion of the plains. The new town of Sheridan, 

 fourteen miles east of the State line, and nine from 

 Fort Wallace, was our objective point. 



" Gentlemen," said the Professor, as we packed 

 and adjusted our things in the wagons, "we are now 

 to climb for a hundred miles directly up the roof of 

 the Rocky Mountain water-shed, its long rivers and 

 rich valleys forming the gutters, or spouts, to carry 

 off the surplus water." 



Sachem, who dreaded these lectures almost as 

 much as he did crinoline, interposed with some of his 

 usual badinage ; but among irreverent classes of So- 

 phomores and Freshmen, the Professor had learnt to 

 answer only such questions as were relevant, and to 

 pass all others by unheeded. For this reason such 

 interruptions never broke the thread of his discourse, 

 and but temporarily checked its unwinding. In a few 

 minutes, however, the wagons started, and our oxpcdi- 



