* : *' : The Wilderness Hunter. 



Some distance beyond the Mississippi, stretching from 

 Texas to North Dakota, and westward to the Rocky 

 Mountains, lies the plains country. This is a region of 

 light rainfall, where the ground is clad with short grass, 

 while cottonwood trees fringe the courses of the winding 

 plains streams ; streams that are alternately turbid tor- 

 rents and mere dwindling threads of water. The great 

 stretches of natural pasture are broken by gray sage-brush 

 plains, and tracts of strangely shaped and colored Bad 

 Lands ; sun-scorched wastes in summer, and in winter 

 arctic in their iron desolation. Beyond the plains rise the 

 Rocky Mountains, their flanks covered with coniferous 

 woods ; but the trees are small, and do not ordinarily 

 grow very closely together. Towards the north the 

 forest becomes denser, and the peaks higher ; and glaciers 

 creep down towards the valleys from the fields of ever- 

 lasting snow. The brooks are brawling, trout-filled tor- 

 rents ; the swift rivers foam over rapid and cataract, on 

 their way to one or the other of the two great oceans. 



Southwest of the Rockies evil and terrible deserts 

 stretch for leagues and leagues, mere waterless wastes of 

 sandy plain and barren mountain, broken here and there 

 by narrow strips of fertile ground. Rain rarely falls, and 

 there are no clouds to dim the brazen sun. The rivers 

 run in deep canyons, or are swallowed by the burning 

 sand ; the smaller watercourses are dry throughout the 

 greater part of the year. 



Beyond this desert region rise the sunny Sierras of 

 California, with their flower-clad slopes and groves of 

 giant trees ; and north of them, along the coast, the rain- 



