ELK, DEER, AND BEAR. 225 
partakes much less of the nature of the jackal 
than of the common wolf. Still, however 
noisy the former may be, he cannot exceed 
the prairie wolf. Like ventriloquists, a pair 
of these will represent a dozen distinct voices 
in such quick succession—will bark, chatter, 
yelp, whine, and howl in such variety of note, 
that one would fancy a score of them at hand. 
This, added to the long and doleful bugle-note 
of the large wolf, which often accompanies it, 
sometimes makes a night upon the Prairies 
perfectly hideous. Some hunters assert that 
the coyote and the dog will breed toge- 
ther. Be this as it may, certain it is that the 
Indian dogs have a wonderfully wolfish ap- 
pearance. 
The elk as well as the deer is found some- 
what abundant upon the Arkansas river, as 
high as the Santa Fé road, but from thence 
westward they are both very scarce ; for these 
animals do not resort to the high prairie plains. 
Further south, however, in the prairies border- 
ing the brushy tributaries of the Canadian 
and River, emsisee are sas plenty— 
herds of hundreds metimes seen toge- 
ther; but in these heats regions there are 
but few elks. 
About the thickety streams above-mention- 
ed, as well as among the Cross Timbers, 
black bear is common, living chiefly upon 
acorns and other fruits. The grape vines and 
the branches of the scrubby oaks, and plum- 
bushes, are in some places so torn and broken 
by the bear in pursuit of fruits, that a stranger 
