* 
i. NOTES TAKEN. 
day.* Our course had been south, and distance forty-five 
miles. ; 
August 3d.—We made an early start, still travelling south 
across the plain, which became more fertile at every step, 
covered with a rich growth of buffalo grass and very large 
mesquite trees—a great change from the land of bitter water, 
Pretty soon we entered an extensive prairie dog town, 
where (the Doctor being anxious to procure one as a 
specimen) Conner and the other Indians made many shots, 
some of them effective, but did not succeed in securing a 
dog, as they tumbled into their holes and were lost. Two 
skeletons of heads were all that was obtained. 
Enormous rattlesnakes Were seen here, one of which the 
Major wounded, but it glided into a hole and could not be 
withdrawn, These reptiles are always found in numbers 
about these towns, where they subsist upon the puppies, as 
has been proven by opening a snake killed, and not as some 
suppose, living on friendly terms with the inhabitants. - 
A small species of owl, no doubt attracted by the same 
cause, was seen flying around, and rabbits running in and out 
of the holes, whether occuping those deserted by the dogs, 
or as one of the family, could not be ascertained. 
The prairie dog is a species of marmot, with a head similar 
* A good plan, when in a country like this, and having to drink such 
stagnant, warm and unpalatable water, is to cover a canteen or gourd with a 
piece of woolen cloth, or blanket, and filling the vessel, wot the outside and 
hang it on a tree or bush over night; by evaporation a cool drink is thus 
afforded at least once in twenty-four hours. 
