UNCLE SAMUEL IN A BALLOON. 201 



have enriched with it half a dozen scientific institu- 

 tions. Such stones now command a fair market 

 value among travelers, and are generally mounted in 

 rich settings as souvenirs of their trips. 



A picturesque group of some half-dozen oaks of- 

 fered a good camping spot, and around it the wagons 

 were placed for the night in a half-circle, the ends of 

 the crescent resting each side of us upon the creek. 

 The rule of the plains is, " In time of peace prepare 

 for war." 



Northward from us, and distant perhaps fifty yards, 

 rippled the clear waters of the Saline, which was then 

 at a low stage. High above it was the table-land of 

 the plains, and the edge of this, as far as we could 

 trace it, was dotted with the dark forms of countless 

 buffalo. So distant as to appear diminutive, their 

 moving seemed like crawling, and the back -ground 

 of light grass gave them much the appearance of bees 

 upon a board. They were crowding up to the very 

 edge of the valley of the Saline, from whence, as w r e 

 were told, they extended back to the Solomon, thence 

 to the Republican, and at intervals all the way north- 

 ward to the remote regions of the Upper Missouri. 



Could the venerable Uncle Samuel go up in a balloon 

 and take a thousand miles' view of his western stock 

 region, he would perceive that his goodly herds of 

 bison, some millions in number, feeding between the 

 snows of the North and the flowers of the South, were 

 waxing fat and multiplying. This latter fact might 

 somewhat surprise him, when he discovered around 

 his herd a steady line of fire and heard its continual 

 snapping. The unsophisticated old gentleman would 



