ON THE FRINGE 333 



The main agricultural drawback in this flat Pan- 

 handle country, 4,000 feet above the sea, is the want 

 of fresh streams of water. This want is mainly 

 supplied, in local phraseology, by * climbing ' for the 

 precious fluid, or, in other words, by the erection of 

 windmills to pump the water which is found, as a 

 rule, at shallow depth. There are some streams, of 

 course, the Canadian River being the most im- 

 portant of them in the northern section of the State. 



Some of these streams are further utilized by 

 means of irrigation ditches. 1 stayed at a small 

 ranch in the centre of the Capitol property which 

 was a veritable Garden of Eden, where grapes, 

 peaches, pears, apples, etc., and all kinds of vegetables, 

 were produced in profusion from the naturally fertile 

 loam soil, that only required an irrigation ditch to 

 make it smile with this varied and bountiful harvest. 



There are also numerous surface lakes in the Pan- 

 handle, supplemented here and there by artificial 

 dams. In ordinary seasons these surface or rain- 

 filled lakes never go dry. In autumn they are 

 covered with innumerable wild -duck. At the time 

 of my visit, in the month of October, the wild-duck 

 were migrating from their vast breeding-grounds and 

 summer home in the far north of the great American 

 continent to winter in the south. 



Such flights of duck I had never previously seen, 

 and never expect to see again. Had I cared to do 

 it, and possessed sufficient ammunition, I could have 

 killed a cartload of duck any day by walking along 

 rushy water-holes, or by getting some of the cow- 

 boys to ride round the lakes and drive the wild-fowl 

 over me. As they rose in their thousands from these 

 lakes, the noise of their wings sounded like distant 

 thunder. We contented ourselves with keeping the 



