98 NOTES TAKEN. 
whether intended: as an altar for sacrifice, or constructed as 
an additional land mark, it was impossible to tell. 
Some buffalo bones were strewn around, and I roused a 
leaks grey eagle from his eyrje on the rocks; who, evincing 
rather a hostile manner, I thought most prudent to make my 
descent; not before, however, enjoying the view, decidedly 
the finest sunset scene I had yet met with. 
There is a kind of grass, which grows on the prairie, in 
patches, resembles timothy, and when in seed has a long 
shining cottony head. It required but little stretch of the 
imagination to form these patches into lakes, glistening in 
the sunset, so that with our large herd feeding, tents pitched, 
and white covered wagons, dotting the plain, I had as fine a 
pastoral scene before me as could be desired. 
The bustle in camp and the lengthening shadows ad- 
monished me that it was time to mount; so hastening back, 
Lieut. C——n, the Doctor, and myself, mounted, took the 
head of the train, and led off on our grass-grown way. Soon 
an object appears on the distant horizon, “a deer,’ said one, 
“a, horse,” said another,” “no, its a man,” we all exclaim 
together. Now the’sight of a strange face and form, in those 
wilds, is by far the most remarkable that can be met with. 
It is like meeting with a strange sail at sea; curiosity and 
suspicion are both aroused, so that the moment a human 
form is descried, every one is on the alert. “Let us recon- 
noitre,” was our first exclamation, after deciding upon the 
