292 VISIT BROWN'S HOLE. 



two hundred acres of what was generally said to be good 

 ground, twenty miles north of Austin, the capital of the 

 state. I then rode, by easy journeys, to the region in 

 which my purchase was located, and to my " exceeding 

 great joy," I found that it was situated on the edge of a 

 prairie, boundless to the eye. The soil was good. There 

 was abundance of pure water in the vicinity ; but the' lack 

 of timber was conspicuous. However, I was delighted with 

 a "morsel of earth," I could call my own. 



Having had my deed recorded at Austin, I journeyed 

 northward, armed in the old trapper style, to visit Brown's 

 Hole. The first night after leaving the town I encamped 

 on the open prairie where the howls of the coyotes 

 sounded like old familiar voices in my ears and my 

 wreathing pipe was a comforting companion. I sat by the 

 fire long that night, recalling the faces of the hunting 

 region and the scenery and incidents of my early life. 

 And as the panorama of recent events passe'd through my 

 mind, like a wondrous vision, I could scarcely realize that 

 I, a poor mountaineer dependent upon my rifle for a sub- 

 sistence had but the other day, travelled in company with 

 an English gentleman to strange and distant countries 

 had encounted the lion, the tiger, the elephant and the 

 giraffe, upon their native plains, and brought them to my 

 feet. But here I was, back in the land of the buffalo, the 

 bear, and the wolf, where my first hunting experience was 



