PRAIRIE SCENERY. 33 
cities or continental tour; for here the fop forgets his folly, 
and the timid and nervous becomes self-reliant. 
Imagine spread hefore you an immense plain; in what- 
ever direction you look, the same expanse of level country 
stretches before you. Such is the prairie. The dear old 
ocean, as viewed from the deck of a vessel, is the nearest 
simile I can think vf. In both an almost level horizon in 
each direction is met by the sky. Nothing in either is to 
be seen to break the stillness, save it be the animal life that 
_.have these elements for their home. Although this may be 
applicable, as a general rule to prairie scenery, there are 
portions less monotsnous; in places, heavy belts of timber 
mark the margin of streams that ultimately help to feed 
some of the giant rivers of the American continent; while 
as you approach the great vertebra of the country—the 
Rocky Mountains —hill after hill rises, overtopping each 
other; again frowned down upon by lofty mountains, beau- 
tiful in coloring, soft in their distant outlines, and grand in 
their irregular and picturesque shape. Moreover, between 
these hills, almost impassable at first glance, through cafions 
and gulches you can thread your way, perhaps for many, 
many miles, when, perchance, a beautiful meadow,* thou- 
sands of acres in extent, opens before you, rich and.bright 
in the abundance of its grasses, while the slopes that gird 
these retired retreats are covered with the densest and love- 
liest of indigenous trees. Such spots as these are a natural- 
ist’s elysium, for game of every variety select them for re- 
treats. The buffalo cow comes to them frequently to calve; 
the worn-out fierce-looking bull, over whose head so many 
years have passed that he no longer has strength to keep 
pace with the migratory herd, and struggle in its dense 
phalanx for female favor or choice croppings of pasture, 
*In America termed park. 
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