40 THE BISON. 



he begins to form some conception of the immensity 

 of an American prairie. Baron Humboldt, as before 

 stated, estimates the true prairie country at 2,430,000 

 square miles. But though the prairie appears thus 

 smooth and unbroken to the eye, it is frequently 

 furrowed by large chasms, or canons, while in some 

 parts small streams are to be met with, the banks 

 of which are fringed with an undergro^\i:h of shrubs, 

 with here and there a few cotton trees {PoiDulus 

 angulata). One or two large rivers cross the prairies, 

 such as the Kansas and the Arkansas ; but upon 

 their banks no timber large enough to make a fishing- 

 rod is to be found for miles. In nearly every case 

 the rivers and canons are hidden from view till the 

 prairie-wanderer is close upon them. In the regions 

 of New Mexico are to be found sand prairies, corres- 

 ponding in many respects with the African deserts. 

 The chief of these is the Jornada del Muerte, more 

 commonly called El Llano Estocada, or ^ The Staked 

 Plain.' It is so named from the fact of some traders 

 havinof erected rows of stakes at certain distances 

 to guide them across its arid wastes. It is more 

 than seventy miles across, and entirely without water. 

 Bleached skeletons of horses and mules that have 

 died of thirst, are scattered over the dreary plain. 



But these desolate regions are not the true home 

 of the buffalo. He prefers a land where -food is plen- 

 tiful, and his instinct generally guides him aright. 



