PRAIRIE SCENERY. 33 



cities or continental tour ; for here the fop forgets his folly, 

 and the timid and nervous becomes self-reliant. 



Imagine spread before you an immense plain ; in what- 

 ever direction you look, the same expanse of level country 

 stretches before yon. Such is the prairie. The dear old 

 ocean, as viewed from the deck of a vessel, is the nearest 

 simile I can think of. In both an almost level horizon in 

 each direction is met by the sky. Nothing in either is to 

 be seen to break the stillness, save it be the animal life that 

 have these elements for their home. Although this may be 

 applicable, as a general rule to prairie scenery, there are 

 portions less monotonous; in places, heavy belts of timber 

 mark the margin of streams that ultimately help to feed 

 some of the giant rivers of the American continent; while 

 as you approach th^ great vertebra of the country the 

 Rocky Mountains hill after hill rises, overtopping each 

 other; again frowned down upon by lofty mountains, beau- 

 tiful in coloring, soft in their distant outlines, and grand in 

 their irregular and picturesque shape. Moreover, between 

 these hills, almost impassable at first glance, through canons 

 and gulches you can thread your way, perhaps for many, 

 many miles, when, perchance, a beautiful meadow,* thou- 

 sands of acres in extent, opens before you, rich and bright 

 in the abundance of its grasses, while the slopes that gird 

 these retired retreats are covered with the densest and love- 

 liest of indigenous trees. Such spots as these are a natural- 

 ist's elysium, for game of every variety select them for re- 

 treats. The buffalo cow comes to them frequently to calve ; 

 the worn-out fierce-looking bull, over whose head so many 

 years have passed that he no longer has strength to keep 

 pace with the migratory herd, and struggle in its dense 

 phalanx for female favor or choice croppings of pasture, 



* In America termed park. 

 2* 



