ee | GRASSES. 219 
children might go to school, and that he might soon be 
settled on the Reserve, and have his farm and permanent 
home. He had provided his wife with an excellent side 
saddle, and in her tent I saw a musquito bar, a luxury 
scarcely to be expected in an Indian camp. 
Near our camp I found large- quantities of the black mes- 
quite grass, a very favourite grass with all who have tried it, 
and I collected a stock of the seed, which I trust may stand 
our climate, as from the avidity with which our animals eat 
it, I am sure it would be a great addition to our northern 
crops, either for pasture or fodder. It grows about as high as 
timothy, and has a head on it like wheat. The grasses met 
with are the white gramma, the blue gramma, three varieties 
of the sedge, the buffalo grass, the bearded mesquite and the 
black mesquite. 
Of these, the buffalo grass would make a beautiful sod for 
lawns, as its growth is very short and velvety, appearing 
more like the thickest kind of moss than grass. I observed 
that our horses eat it in preference to any other, even when 
it was quite dry, and green succulent grass in its vicinity. 1 
could not procure any seed. 
But few of the Indians came in to our camp, and those that 
did were some of the chiefs named, and a few war captains. 
Those we saw were not as fine looking nor as wild as the 
Camanches, but very subdued and demure in their appear- 
ance and demeanor. 
The tract to be surveyed was located on both sides of the 
