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Show 440 THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON TRAIL. f. resh. mea. t. Tll ey were so wild that ·we mg m vain, but at hunted all the mor noon as we approach d C . n. a large band feedino- nea . . e ow Creek we saw o r Its mura1n C C ]. d o · ow r 1 · d me with trees which intercept th . ee r ls ensely e VIew beyond d . we afterward found at th b ' an H runs as . e ottom of a dee t . h proached by riding alan a the bott f p ~ enc . We ap. o om o a ravm Wh were near enough I held th 1 . e. en we ' e 1orses w hlle f-1 the buffalo. I saw him t. 1 h. . enry crept toward are 1s seat Within h · . prepare his rifle and look b s ootmg distance, a out to select his victi of a fat cow was certain wh d m. The death .[' ' en su denlya a· t k Hom the bed of the C 1 • olea smo e arose ree r With a rattling 11 f A score of long-leo-a d M' . vo ey o musketry. boe Issounans leaped t £ trees and ran after the b ffi 1 ou rom among the h u a o, who one and 11 k eels and vanished T h a too to their . . ese fellows had cr I d the Creek to within a h d. d aw e up the bed of un 1 e yards of the b .cr. 1 there a fairer cha .{' UHa o. Never was nee 10r a shot Th all cracked a w · ey were good marksmen-. ay at once and yet b ' the animal is so t . not a uffalo fell. ln fact enac10us of I'£ th · ledge of anatom t k'll . I e .. at It requires no little know-y 0 l It, and It IS Jd succeeds in h · fi very se om that a novice Is rst attempt t Missourians wer . a approaching. The balked e excessrvely mortifi d . told them tht 'f e ' espeCially when Henry a I they had ke t . meat enough · . P quiet he would have killed In ten minutes to £ d h . fi·iends wh ee t mr whole party. Our ' o Were at no gr t d. dable fusilade th h e a Istance, hearing such a formi- benefit Sh ' oug t the Indians h a d fi re d tlw volley for our . a w came gallopi we were y t · h ng on to reconnoitre and learn if e Ill t e land of th }' . At C e Ivmg. ow Creek we found th grapes and p] h' e very welcome novelty of ripe ums w ICh a 1 . · tle Ark :srew t lere In abundance. At the lit-ansas, not much farth er on, we saw the last buffalo, a THE SETTLEMENTS. 441 miserable old bull, roaming over the prairie alone and melancholy. From this time forward the character of the country was changing every day. We had left behind us the great arid deserts, meagerly covered by the tufted buffalo-grass, with its pale green hue, and its short shrivelled blades. The plains before us were carpeted with rich and verdant herbage sprinkled with flowers. In place of buffalo we found plenty of prairie hens, and we bagged them by dozens without leaving the trail. In three or four dayt; we saw before us the broad woods and the emerald meadows of Council Grove, a scene of striking luxuriance and beauty. It seemed like a new sensation as we rode beneath the resounding arches of these noble woods. The trees were ash, oak, elm, maple and hickory, their mighty limbs deeply overshadowing the path, while enormous grape-vines were entwined among them, purple with fruit. The shouts of our scattered party, and now and then a report of a rifle rung amid the breathing stillness of the forest. We rode forth again with regret into the broad light of the open prairie. Little more than a hundred miles now separated us from the frontier settlements. The whole intervening country was a succession of verdant prairies, rising in broad swells and relieved by trees clustering like an oasis around some spring, or following the course of a stream along some fertile hollow. These are the prairies of the poet and the novelist. We had left danger behind us. Nothing was to be feared from the Indians of this region, the Sacs and Foxes, the Kanzas, and the Osages. We had met with signal good fortune. Although for five months we had been travellina with an insufficient force through a b country where we were at any moment liable to depredation, |