CHAPTER III. 



ADDITIONAL FACTS CONCERNING THE NATURAL 

 FEATURES OF THE GREAT PLAINS; THEIR 

 PRINCIPAL RIVERS AND VALLEYS; THEIR CLL 

 MATE, ETC., ETC. 



" BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES." 



XN my endeavors to place Buffalo Land before the public in 

 -*- its true Uglit, I have felt a desire, as earnest as it is natu- 

 ral, that my readers should feel that the subject has been 

 justly treated. The opinions of any one individual are li- 

 able to be formed too hastily, and the country which before 

 one traveler stretches away bright and beautiful, may appear 

 full of gloomy features to another, who views it under differ- 

 ent circumstances. A late dinner and a sour stomach, before 

 now, have had more to do with an unfavorable opinion con- 

 cerning a new town or country than any actual demerits, 

 i^o two pairs of spectacles have precisely the same power, and 

 defects ofttimes exist in the glass, rather than the vision. 



•" These considerations have been brought to my mind with 

 especial force when, after giving an account of our own ex- 

 pedition, I have searched through the records of others. A 

 portion of the descriptions which I have been able to find are 

 the mature productions of travelers who, perched upon the top 



(4G7) 



