EARLY DAY STORIES. 35 



CHAPTER V. 



From Loup Fork to Wood River — Buffalo Chips — Lone 

 Tree — The first Buffalo hunt — Flagging Antelope. 



After crossing Loup Fork, we went on, the next morn- 

 ing, in a southwest direction, over a low, sandy divide, 

 again striking the Platte valley at or near the present town 

 of Clarks, in Merrick county, crossing on the way Prairie 

 creek, which is a small sluggish stream abounding in sloughs 

 and wet land. This creek, unlike most of the streams trib- 

 utary to the Platte, does not take its rise in the hills but 

 drains the great flat country north of Clarks, Central City, 

 and Chapman, in Merrick county, and north of Grand Island, 

 in Hall county. Here the Platte bottom is very wide, so 

 that the hills on the north side could not be seen often, if 

 at all from the trail, but south across the Platte river they 

 were in plain view. Wood for camp fires now became very 

 scarce — in fact there was none, excepting little willows not 

 larger than one's finger, and even these were not plentiful. 

 We therefore had to depend on the bois de vache (literally 

 wood of cow), as it was called by the Canadian hunters 

 and trappers but which in plain blunt English was trans- 

 lated buffalo chips. This material had been dropped by the 

 millions on millions of buffalo that ranged all over our Ne- 

 braska prairies at that date and when cured by lying in the 

 sun and wind for a year or two, and when perfectly dry, 

 made a passably good fire. It did not burn like dry willow 

 or ash brush, with a quick, bright blaze, but slowly and al- 

 most without flame, like sawdust or wood so rotten and 

 decayed as to fall all to pieces. It produced considerable 

 heat and did very well for cooking, but made a poor camp- 

 fire to sit by in the evening. It had to be perfectly dry to 

 burn at all, and it was amusing whenever there were signs 



