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Show 214 WESTERN WILDS. dramatic than any ever shown upon the stage. " With two companions he took refuge in his cabin on the prairie, and maintained a desperate fight against the vigilantes. The infuriated Kansians set the dry grass on fire; the cabin was soon in flames, and issuing therefrom with a revolver in each hand, scattering leaden death on all sides, the three died as became their lives, brave men to the last. What a pity such nerve should be lost. It was the material for heroes sadly perverted. " Pity they loved adventurous life's variety ; They were so great a loss to good society." Ellsworth is quiet enough now. During the season for shipping cattle it is a place of some importance ; the rest of the year a quiet country depot. From this on our route is through the Big Past-ure. It extends from latitude 52 in British America, to the Rio Grande, with an aver-age width of three hun-dred miles, sloping steadily eastward from the foot of the Rocky Mountains. Say 1,500 by 300 miles, and we have an area of 450,000 square miles, set apart forever by nature as our national grazing ground. Not one acre in twenty of it can ever be cultivated ; while at least half the area produces the sweetest and most nutritious of grasses. Take a board, four times as long as it is wide, lay it north and south, and tilt it a very little toward the east, then score it from east to west with a number of furrows, and you will have a tolerable map or miniature copy of what is called the " plains." The western border, the high plateau near the mountains, has an aver-age elevation of 5,000 feet ; thence eastward the general slope is ten feet to the mile ; so, by the time we reach the settled portions of Kansas and Nebraska, we are but 1,000 feet or so above sea- level. Going west-ward you are going up- hill and nearer mountains and deserts ; conse-quently into a dryer and colder country, and finally into a region fit for nothing but pasturage. We hurry on, and soon after noon enter the buffalo country. We " SCATTERING LEADEN DEATH ON ALL SIDES." |