i 
LLANO ESCTACADO. 161 
broad level plain, a spur of the Llano Esctacado, covered with 
buffalo grass and mesquite trees, and extenditig as far as the 
eye could reach in a perfect level towards the dim, cloud- 
like mountains at the head of the Brazos.* We found some 
deer here, and one of the Indians shot a fat doe. 
* ha TT Bent 7 
, Or staked plain, is the most el ted table-] J on our 
continent, and is supposed to be the original level of the prairies East. The 
plain proper extends from the thirty-second to the thirty-sixth parallel of 
latitude, and is, in places, two hundred miles wide, without a tree or running 
stream throughout its entire surface. 
Formerly a road was staked off across it by the old Mexicans for the use of 
traders, hence its name. 
