434 OCEAN TO OCEAN ON HORSEBACK, 



rescue, and kept the animals at bay for the remainder 

 of the night. At daybreak I was not sorry to bid 

 adieu to the haystack and, neither, I believe, was Paul, 

 who had also spent a restless night, notwithstanding 

 the abundance of good fodder at his disposal. 



It may be mentioned that the coyote seems to par- 

 take of the nature of the dog and the wolf. In the 

 winter, when food is scarce, these animals will attack 

 man, but, unlike the wolf, if a bold resistance is 

 oifered, they will speedily decamp. A pack of coy- 

 otes, however, are not pleasant company on a dark 

 night. 



®u^ ^5^^^^^*^^ ^^'^ Sutictl) ©as. 



Pacific Hotel, 



Atlantic, Iowa, 



October Eighteenth. 



Was again all day on the prairie inhaling the pure, 

 invigorating air as Paul and I faced a stiif breeze 

 from the Northwest; and at four o'clock arrived at 

 Atlantic, a thriving village of over three thousand 

 inhabitants, dependent, like all the villages I had 

 passed, upon the surrounding farms. These farms are 

 mostly in a flourishing condition, are fenced and under 

 good cultivation, divided into meadows and fields of 

 every variety of grain. The village is delightfully situ- 

 ated. As an evidence of its prosperity it supported 

 two ably conducted daily papers and three weeklies, 

 three banks and several graded schools. I was now 

 eighty-two miles from Des Moines. The prairie here 

 is gently undulating and the soil composed of vege- 

 table mould and sand. Atlantic, I infer from its busy 



