110 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



ting terribly eaten down, and several stock- owners 

 have been compelled to seek more thinly populated 

 districts elsewhere, and to strike away in the hope of 

 finding good pastures farther north in Montana, and 

 even over the frontier in British territory. 



As regards food, too, fresh meat is not often to be 

 had at the ranches, excepting of course beef, and that 

 usually from anything but a marketable steer. Barely 

 is an antelope killed near at hand, although it seems 

 improbable that they will ever be quite exterminated. 



As regards the larger kinds of game, elk are very 

 scarce and almost unobtainable, although deer are 

 tolerably numerous among the woods on river banks. 



Some of the plains are alkaline, and excessively 

 dazzling to the eye, and render the streams that 

 traverse them unpotable. 



I heard a Westerner enumerate prairie dogs, gophers 

 and chipmunks as the only inhabitants of the " alkali 

 plains," but he might have added rattlesnakes, owls, 

 horned toads, sage hens (the most foolish bird in 

 creation), jack rabbits and coyotes ; and on the foot- 

 hills foxes and antelopes, among the larger animals 

 that one comes across occasionally. 



About thirty miles west of this point, on the North 

 Platte Eiver, one reaches the summit of the water- 

 shed, or divide, flecked with a few patches of snow, 

 rising to a height of over ten thousand feet, but, 

 owing to the general elevation of the whole country, 

 not appearing to reach that altitude. 



From here I made four separate expeditions, the 



