20 HINTS ON FOREST AND PRAIRIE LIFE. 



wood {Populus angulata) being most frequently seen. 

 The surface of the land is uneven, so that the visible 

 horizon is seldom at a very great distance. 



These are the dry or rolling prairies, upon which 

 feed vast herds of bison, numbering sometimes from 

 40,000 to 50,000 head. Here, too, may be found 

 the common deer (Gervus Virginianus) as well as 

 its black-tailed kinsman ; and although they do 

 not herd together in such numbers as the bison, 

 two or three hundred may frequently be seen in a 

 space of a square mile, adding beauty to the park- 

 like scenery. The Wapiti, or elk, the prong-horned 

 antelope, the wild horse, with coyotes, or prairie 

 wolves, and hares, ail live upon the rolling prairie; 

 and at night the silence of the huge plain is often 

 broken by the howling of wolves, or by frantic 

 lowings of some buffalo cow at the loss of her calf. 



On the flat grounds are frequently found large 

 patches of weeds and briars, and swamps covered 

 Avith a rank growth of reeds and rushes. These are 

 called the 'weed prairies.' The vegetation consists 

 principally of wild coffee bushes, poison-vines, milk- 

 weed, flags, and gramma-grass. Any hunter who is 

 not afraid of walking ankle-deep or knee-deep in 

 the mud of winter can have the most varied shoot- 

 ing. You put yonr foot on a tussock of grass that 

 promises firm standing-ground, when up flies a snipe 

 from beneath your foot, and a few yards on a bittern- 



