142 EXPLORATION OF THE PRAIRIES, 1879 



outside of these a ring of white anemones and, growing where it 

 is slightly drier, another flower, Potentilla gracilis, and, as the 

 ground becomes still drier, Penstemon conferius would appear and, 

 lastly, the lilies would surround the whole." 



Mushrooms were extremely abundant and attained a fabulous 

 size. They grew in regular "fairy rings," often more than forty 

 feet in diameter. Some rings we found to contain so many that, 

 taking all, good and bad, from one ring, we could almost load a 

 cart. Other rings were devoted exclusively to the giant puff-ball 

 which was extremely numerous on almost every part of the plains. 

 Amongst many others, I measured one speciman of mushroom 

 which was 33 1-3" in circumference, 2 3-4" through the cap, 

 with stem over 2" in diameter, and weighed over three pounds. 



When we reached the head of Long Lake, we found the first 

 creek at the eastern corner was bad water and, about a mile fur- 

 ther west, along the north end of the Lake, we came upon another 

 creek that flowed in, that contained a large quantity of pure 

 water and, further west, still another creek, so that three creeks 

 were found to flow into the Lake. Hitherto, we had found water 

 to be plentiful, and had had no occasion to trouble ourselves 

 about where we would stop for either fuel or water. Rising out 

 of the depression in which the Lake lay, we reached the summit 

 of a slight rise and we were struck almost speechless by the sight 

 that lay before our eyes. We were now on the verge of the real 

 prairie and we now knew that we had never seen a real one before. 

 Looking west, north, or south, a level expanse of green meadow 

 lay stretching out before us to the horizon, without a break and 

 without anything resembling a live animal or shrub. We passed 

 on about two hundred yards to the prairie and came upon a pool 

 of water and I thought it was wise to camp, although early in the 

 afternoon. As soon as we camped, my nephew and another man 

 got on a couple of horses and rode back to where we had passed 

 through a little burnt wood and pulled down enough of the dead 

 trees to keep us in fuel for a week. That was cut up and the 

 next morning placed in the cart. We had a ten gallon keg with 

 us for the purpose of carrying water where it was scarce, but 

 hitherto we had not used it. We now filled our keg with water 



