\ *$ %& * "HwP ^ KtfVHe/j T *it*i ^ F^sr -r * ^ s 'r- \ <^ flff w '"&> > X v . IR Wj '% ^o^ j|:as r ^> "HvT^ M\^ ^ sv. Ue/> ^ *w * rf c AUA . ^ ! i^i::i3L-__'^ > >w* K -BVd8/7 BUFFALO LAND: L i 57 AUTHENTIC ACCOUNT Discoveries, Adventures, and Mishaps of a Scientific and Sporting Party IN THE WILD WEST; WITH GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF THE COUNTRY; THE RED MAN, SAVAGE AND CIVILIZED ; HUNTING THE BUFFALO, ANTELOPE, ELK, AND WILD TURKEY ; ETC., ETC. KEPLETE WITH INFORMATION, WIT, AND HU3IOR. &|je ^ppenbix Comprising a Complete <$uib.e for Sportsmen anb emigrants. BY W. E. AV^EBB, OF TOPEKA7~KANSAS. FROM ACTUAL PHOTOGRAPHS, AND ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY HENRY WORRALL. CINCINNATI AND CHICAGO: E HANNAFORD & COMPANY. SAN FKANCISCO: F. DEWING & CO. 1872. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by E. HANNAFORD & CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 8TEKEOTTPED AT THE FBANKLIN TYPE FOUHDBY. CINCINNATI. to QTie Original Westerner, and First Buffalo Sunter t t0 OTorfe is BetouaUfc, WITH PEorouND REGARD, Sr THE AUTHOR. BUFFALO LAND. BY OUR TAMMANT SACHEM. THERE'S a wonderful land far out in the West, Well worthy a visit, my friend; There, Puritans thought, as the sun went to rest, Creation itself had an end. 'Tis a wild, weird spot on the continent's face, A wound which is ghastly and red, Where the savages write the deeds of their race In blood that they constantly shed. The graves of the dead the fair prairies deface, And stamp it the kingdom of dread. The emigrant trail is a skeleton path; You measure its miles by the bones; There savages struck, in their merciless wrath, And now, after sunset, the moans, When' tempests are out, fill the shuddering air, And ghosts flit the wagons beside, And point to the skulls lying grinning and bare And beg of the teamsters a ride; Sometimes 'tis a father with snow on his hair, Again, 'tis a youth and his bride. What visions of horror each valley could tell, If Providence gave it a tongue ! How often its Eden was changed to a hell, In which a whole train had been flung; (vii) Vlll BUFFALO LAND. How death cry and battle-shout frightened the birds, And prayers were as thick as the leaves, And no one to catch the poor dying one's words But Death, as he gathered his sheaves : You see the bones bleaching among the wild herds, In shrouds that the field spider weaves. That era is passing another one comes, The era of steam and the plow, With clangor of commerce and factory hums, Where only the wigwam is now. Like mist of the morning before the bright sun, The cloud from the land disappears ; The Spirit of Murder his circle has run And fled from the march of the years ; The click of machine drowns the click of the guii, And day hides the night time of tears. PEEFACE. THE purpose of this work is to make the reader better acquainted with that wild land which he has known from childhood, as the home of the Indian and the buffalo. The Rocky Mountain chain, dis- torted and rugged, has been aptly called the colossal vertebrae of our continent's broad back, and from thence, as a line, the plains, weird and wonderful, stretch eastward through Colorado, and embrace the entire western half of Kansas. Fortune, not long since, threw in my way an in- vitation, which I gladly accepted, to join a semi- scientific party, since somewhat known to fame through various articles in the newspaper press, in a sojourn of several months on the great plains. At a meeting held with due solemnity on the eve of starting, the Professor (to whom the reader will be introduced in the proper connection) was chosen leader of the expedition, while to my lot fell the X PREFACE. office of editor of the future record, or rather Grand Scribe of what we were pleased to call our "Log- Book " The latter now lies before me, in all its glory of shabby covers and dirty pages. Its soiled face is as honorable as that of the laborer who comes from his task in a well harvested field. Out of the sheaves gathered during our journey, I shall try and take such portions as may best supply the mental cravings of the countless thousands who hunger for the life and the lore of the far West. I have given the mistakes as well as triumphs of our expedition, and the members of the party will readily recognize their familiar camp names. The disguise will probably be pleasant, as few like to see their failures on public parade, preferring rather to leave these in barracks, and let their successes only appear at review. The plains have a face, a people, and a brute creation, peculiarly their own, and to these our party devoted earnest study. The expedition pre- sented a rare opportunity of becoming acquainted with the game of the country; and, in writing the present volume, my aim has been to make it so far a text-book for amateur hunters that they may become at once conversant with the habits of the game, and the best manner of killing it. The time is not far distant, when the plains and the Rocky PREFACE. XI Mountains will be sought by thousands annually, as a favorite field for sport and recreation. Another and still larger class, it is hoped, will find much of interest and value in the following pages. From every state in the Union, people are constantly passing westward. We found emigrant wagons on spots from which the Indians had just removed their wigwams. Multitudes more are now on the way, with t&e earnest purpose of founding homes and, if possible, of finding fortunes. In order to aid this class, as well as the sportsman, I have gathered in an appendix such additional infor- mation as may be useful to both. The scientific details of our trip will probably be published in proper form and time, by the savans interested. In regard to these, my object has been simply to chronicle such matters as made an im- pression upon my own mind, being content with what cream might be gathered by an amateur's skimming, while the more bulky milk should be saved in capacious scientific buckets. Professor Cope, the well known naturalist, of the Academy of Sciences, Philadelphia, received for ex- amination and classification the most valuable fossils we obtained, and to him I am indebted for a large amount of most interesting and valuable Xll PREFACE. scientific matter, which will be found embodied in chapters twenty-third and twenty-fourth. The illustrations of men and brutes in this work are studies from life. Whenever it was possible, we had photographs taken. The plains, it must be said, are a tract with which Romance has had much more to do than History. Red men, brave and chivalrous, and un- natural buffalo, with the habits of lions, exist only in imagination. In these pages, my earnest en- deavor, when dealing with actualities, has been to "hold the mirror up to Nature," and to describe men, manners, and things as they are in real life upon the frontiers, and beyond, to-day. W. E. W. TOPEKA, KANSAS, May, 1872. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. piorc. THK OBJECT OP OUR EXPEDITION A GLIMPSE OP ALASKA THROUGH CAP- TAIN WALRUS* GLASS WE ARE TEMPTED BY OUR RECENT PURCHASE ALASKAN GAMK OP "OLD SLEDGE " THE EARLY STRUGGLES OF KAN- SAS THE SMOKY HILL TRAIL INDIAN HIGH ART THE "BORDER- RUFFIAN," PAST AND PRESENT TOPEKA HOW IT RECEIVED ITS NAME WAUKARUSA AND ITS LEGEND, 25-36 CHAPTER II. A CHAPTER OP INTRODUCTIONS PROFESSOR PALEOZOIC TAMMANY SACHEM DOCTOR PYTHAGORAS GENUINE MUGGS COLON AND SEMI-COLON BHAMDS DOBEEN TENACIOUS GRIPE BUGS AND PHILOSOPHY HOW GRIPE BECAME A REPUBLICAN, 36-54 CHAPTER III. THK TOPEKA AUCTIONEER MUGGS GETS A BARGAIN CYNOCEPHALUS INDIAN SUMMER IN KANSAS HUNTING PRAIRIE CHICKENS OUR FIRST DAY'S SPORT, 55-63 CHAPTER IV. CHICKEN-SHOOTING CONTINUED A SCIENTIFIC PARTY TAKE THE BIRDS ON THE WING EVILS OF FAST FIRING AN OLD-FASHIONED "SLOW SHOT 1 ' THE HABITS OF THK PRAIRIE CHICKEN ITS PROSPECTIVE EXTINC- TION liODE OP HUNTING IT THE GOPHER SCALP LAW, (Xiii) 64-74 x iv CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. PA'tES. A TRIAL BY JUDGE LYNCH HUNG FOR CONTEMPT OF COURT QUAIL SHOOTING HABITS OF THE BIRDS, AND MODE OF KILLING THEM A RING OF QUAILS THE EFFECTS OF A SEVERE WINTER THE SNOW GOOSE, ...i 75-83 CHAPTER VI. OFF FOR BUFFALO LAND THE NAVIGATION OF THE KAW FORT RILEY ' THE CENTER-POST OF THE UNITED STATES OUR PURCHASE OF HORSES "liO" AS A SAVAGE AND AS A CITIZEN GRIPE UNFOLDS THE IN- DIAN QUESTION A BALLAD BY SACHEM, PRESENTING ANOTHER VIEW, 84-98 CHAPTER VII. GHIPK'S VIEWS OF INDIAN CHARACTER THE DELAWARES, THE ISHMAELITES OF THE PLAINS THE TERRITORY OF THE "LONG HORNS " TEXANS AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS MUSHROOM ROCK A VALUABLE DIS- COVERY FOOTPRINTS IN THE ROCK THE PRIMEVAL PAUL AND VIRGINIA, 99-111 CHAPTER VIII. THE "GREAT AMERICAN DESERT" ITS FOSSIL WEALTH AN ILLUSION DIS- PELLED FIRES ACCORDING TO NOVELS AND ACCORDING TO FACT SENSATIONAL HEROES AND HEROINES PRAIRIE DOGS AND THEIR HAB- ITS HAWK AND DOG, AND HAWK AND CAT, . . . H2-123 CHAPTER IX. X'E SEE BUFFALO ARRIVAL AT HAYS GENERAL SHERIDAN AT THE FORT INDIAN MURDERS BLOOD-CHRISTENING OF THE PACIFIC RAILROAD SURPRISED BY A BUFFALO HERD A BUFFALO BULL IN A QUANDARY GKNTLE ZEPHYRS HOW A CIRCUS WENT OFF BOLOGNA TO LEAN ON A CALL UPON SHERIDAN, 124-141 CONTENTS. XV CHAPTER X. TAQF*. KAYS CITY BY LAMP-LIGHT THB SANTA FB TRADE BULL-WHACKERS MEXICANS SABBATH ON THB PLAINS THE DARK AGES WILD BILL AND BUFFALO BILL OFF FOR THE SALINE DOBEEN's GHOST-STORY AN ADVENTURE WITH INDIANS MEXICAN CANNONADE A RUNAWAY, 142-160 CHAPTER XL WHITE WOLF, THE CHEYENNE CHIEF HUNGRY INDIANS RETURN TO HAYS A CHEYENNE WAR PARTY THE PIPE OF PEACE TH COUNCIL CHAMBER WHITE WOLF'S SPEECH, AS RENDERED BY SACHEM THH WHITE MAN'S WIGWAM. 161-176 CHAPTER XII. ARMS OF A WAR PARTY A DONKEY PRESENT EATING POWERS OF THE NOMADS SATANTA, HIS CRIMES AND PUNISHMENT RUNNING Off WITH A GOVERNMENT HERD DAUB, OUR ARTIST ANTELOPE CHA83 BY A GREYHOUND, . . 177-191 CHAPTER XIII. CHARACTER OF THE PLAINS BUFFALO BILL AND HIS HORSE BRIGHAJf THE GUIDE AND SCOUT OF ROMANCE CAYOTE VERSUS JACKASS-RAB- BIT A LAWYER-LIKE RESCUE OUR CAMP ON SILVER CREEK UNCLH SAM'S BUFFALO HERDS TURKEY-SHOOTING OUR FIRST MEAL ON THE PLAINS A GAME SUPPER, 192-208 CHAPTER XIV. CAMP-FIRE SCENE VAGABONDIZING THE BLACK PACER OF THE PLAINS SOME ADVICE FROM BUFFALO BILL ABOUT INDIAN FIGHTING LO'S ABHORRENCE OF LONG RANGE HIS DREAD OF CANNON AN IRISH GOBLIN. . . 209-219 XVi CONTENTS. CHAPTER XV. P*OE4. A FIRE SCENE A GLIMPSE OF THE SOUTH 'COON HUNTING IN MISSIS- SIPPI VOICES IN THE SOLITUDE FRIENDS OR FOES A STARTLING SERENADE PANIC IN CAMP CAYOTES AND THEIR HABITS WORRY- ING A BUFFALO BULL THE SECOND DAY DAUB, OUR ARTIST HK MAKES HIS MARE, 220-235 CHAPTER XVI. BISON MEAT A STRANGE ARRIVAL THE SYDNEY FAMILY THE HOME IN THE VALLEY THE SOLOMON MASSACRE THE MURDER OF THE FATHER AND THE CHILD THE SETTLERS* FLIGHT INCIDENTS OUR QUEEN OF THE PLAINS THE PROFESSOR INTERESTED IRISH MARY DOBEEN HAPPY THE HEROINE OF ROMANCE SACHEM'S BATH BY MOONLIGHT THE BEAVER COLONY, 236-249 CHAPTER XVII. PREPARATIONS FOR THE CHASE THE VALLEY OF THE SALINE QUEER 'COONS A BISON'S GAME OF BLUFF IN PURSUIT ALONGSIDE THM GAME FIRING FROM THE SADDLE A CHARGE AND A PANIC FALSE HISTORY AGAIN GOING FOR AMMUNITION THE PROFESSOR'S LET- TER DISROBING THH VICTIM, 250-263 CHAPTER XVIII. STILL HUNTING DARK OBJECTS AGAINST THE HORIZON THE RED MAX AGAIN RETREAT TO CAMP PREPARATIONS FOR DEFENSE SHAKING HANDS WITH DEATH MR. COLON'S BUGS THE EMBASSADORS A NEW ALARM MORE INDIANS TERRIFIC BATTLE BETWEEN PAWNEES AND CHEYENNES THEIR MODE OF FIGHTING GOOD HORSEMANSHIP A SCIENTIFIC PARTY AS SEXTONS DITTO AS SURGEONS CAMPS OF THE COMBATANTS STEALING AWAY AN APPARITION, .... 264-279 CHAPTER XIX. STALKING THE BISON BUFFALO AS OXEN EXPENSIVE POWER A BUF- FALO AT A LUNATIC ASYLUM THE GATEWAY TO THE HERDS INFEB- CONTENTS. PAQIS. NA.Ii GRAPK-SHOT NATURE'S BOMB-SHELLS CRAWLING BEDOUINS "THAR THEY HUMP" THE SLAUGHTER BEGUN AN INEFFECTUAL CHAHGH "RETCHING THE CRITTER" RETURN TO CAMP CALVES' HEAD ON THE STOMACH AN UNPLEASANT EPISODE WOLF BAITING, AND HOW IT IS DONE, 280-29i CHAPTER XX. THE CATOTES' STRYCHNINE FEAST CAPTURING A TIMBER WOLF A FEW CORDS OF VICTIMS WHAT THE LAW CONSIDERS "INDIAN TAN 1 ' "FINISHING" THE NEW YORK MARKET A NEW YORK FARMER'S OPINION OF OUR GRAY WOLF WESTWARD AGAIN EPISODES IN OUR JOURNEY THE WILD HUNTRESS OF THE PLAINS WAS OUR GUIDE A MURDERER? THE READER JOINS US IN A BUFFALO CHASE THE DYING AGONIES, 292-305 CHAPTER XXI. "CREASING" WILD HORSES MUGGS DISAPPOINTED A FEAT FOE FIC- TION HORSE AND MONKEY HOOF WISDOM FOR TURFMEN PROS- PECTIVE CLIMATIC CHANGES ON THE PLAINS THE QUESTION OF SPONTANEOUS GENERATION WANTON SLAUGHTER OF BUFFALO AMOUNT OF ROBES AND MEAT ANNUALLY WASTED A STRANGK HABIT OF THE BISON NUMEROUS BILLS THE " SNEAK THIEF" OP THE PLAINS, 306-317 CHAPTER XXII. A LIVE TOWN AND ITS GRAVE-YARD HONEST ROMBEAUX IN TROUBLE JUDGE LYNCH HOLDS COURT MARIE AND THE VINE-COVERED COT- TAGE THE TERRIBLE FLOODS DEATH IN CAMP AND IN THE DUG- OUT WAS IT THE WATER WHICH DID IT ? DISCOVERY OF A HUGE FOSSIL THE MOSASAURUS OF THE CRETACEOUS SEA A GLIMPSE OF THE REPTILIAN AGE REMINISCENCES OF ALLIGATOR-SHOOTING THEY SUGGEST A THEORY, 318-329 xviii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXIII. PAGEft, FROM SHERIDAN TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS THE COLORADO PORTION OF THE PLAINS THE GIANT PINES ATTEMPT TO PHOTOGRAPH A BUF- FALO THINGS GET MIXED THE LEVIATHAN AT HOME A CHAT WITH PROFESSOR COPE TWENTY-SIX-INCH OYSTERS REPTILES AND FISHES OF THE CRETACEOUS SEA, 330-350 CHAPTER XXIV. CONTINUED BY COPE THE GIANTS OF THE SEAS TAKING OUT FOSSILS IN A GALE INTERESTING DISCOVERIES THE GEOLOGY OF THE PLAINS, 351-365 CHAPTER XXV. A SAVAGE OUTBREAK THE BATTLE OF THE FORTY SCOUTS THE SUR- PRISE PACK-MULES STAMPEDED DEATH ON THE ARICKEREE THB MEDICINE MAN A DISMAL NIGHT MESSENGERS SENT TO WALLACE MORNING ATTACK WHOSE FUNERAL ? RELIEF AT LAST THE OLD \ SCOUT'S DEVOTION TO THE BLUB 366-376 CHAPTER XXVI. THB STAGE DRIVERS OF THE PLAINS "OLD BOB" JAMAICA AND GIN- GER AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE BEADS OF THE PAST ROBBING THfl DEAD A LEAF FROM THE LOST HISTORY OF THE MOUND BUILDERS INDIAN TRADITIONS SPECULATIONS ADOBE HOUSES IN A RAIN CHEAP LIVING WATCH TOWERS, . . . > . . . . . 377-386 CHAPTER XXVII. OUR PROGRAMME CONCLUDED FROM SHERIDAN TO THE SOLOMON FIERCB WINDS A TERRIFIC STORM SHAMUS* BLOODY APPARITION AND INDIAN WITCH A RECONNOISSANCE AN INDIAN BURIAL GROVE A CONTRACTOR'S DARING AND ITS PENALTY MORE VAGABONDIZING CONTENTS. PAGES. JOSE AT THB LONG BOW THE "WILD HUNTRESS 1 " COUNTERPART 8HAMUS TREATS US TO "CHILE" THE RESULT, .... 387-395 CHAPTER XXVIII. THE BLOCK-HOUSE ON THE SOLOMON HOW THE OLD MAN DIED WACONDA DA LEGEND OP WA-BOG-AHA AND HEWGAW SABBATH MORNING SACHEM'S POETICAL EPITAPH AN ALARM BATTLE BETWEEN AN EMIGRANT AND THE INDIANS WAS IT THB SYDNEYS ? TO THE RESCUE AN ELK HUNT ROCKT MOUNTAIN SHEEP NOVEL MODE OF HUNTING TURKEYS IN CAMP ON THB SOLOMON A WARM WEL- COME, 396-415 CHAPTER XXIX. OUR LAST NIGHT TOGETHER THE REMARKABLE SHED-TAIL DOG HB RESCUES HIS MISTRESS, AND BREAKS UP A MEETING A SKETCH OF TERRITORIAL TIMES BY GRIPE MONTGOMERY'S EXPEDITION FOR THB RESCUE OF JOHN BROWN'S COMPANIONS SCALPED, AND CARVING HIS OWN EPITAPH AN IRISH JACOB "SURVIVAL OF THB FITTEST" SACHEM'S POETICAL LETTER POPPING THE QUESTION ON THB RUN THB PROFESSOR'S LETTER, . . 416-428 CONTENTS OF APPENDIX. PAGES. PEKLIMINARY TO THE APPENDIX, ...... . 431, 432 CHAPTER FIRST. COME TO THE GREAT WEST SHOULD THERE NOT BE COMPULSORY EMI- GRATION "GET A GOOD READY" HOMESTEAD LAWS AND REGULA- TIONS THE STATE OF KANSAS THE COST OF A FARM A FEW MORE PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. . 433-450 CHAPTER SECOND, HUNTING THE BUFFALO ANTELOPE HUNTING ELK HUNTING TURKEY HUNTING GENERAL REMARKS WHAT TO DO IF LOST ON THE PLAINS THE NEW FIELD FOR SPORTSMEN, . . . . . ,.' . 451-463 CHAPTER THIRD. "BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES" THE GRBAT WEST FALL OF THE RIVERS THE -PRINCIPAL RIVERS AXH VALLEYS OF BUFFALO LAND THE VALLEY OF THE PLATTE THE SOLOMON AND SMOKY HILL RIVERS THE ARKANSAS RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES STOCK RAISING IN THE GREAT WEST THE CATTLE HIVE OF NORTH AMERICA THE CLIMATE OF THE PLAINS CLIMATIC CHANGES ON THE PLAINS THE TREES AND FUTURE FORESTS OF THE PLAINS THE SUPPLY OF FUEL DISTRICTS CONTIGUOUS TO THE PLAINS THE VAL- LEYS OF THE WHITE EARTH AND NIOBRARA NEW MEXICO I ITS I SOIL, CLIMATE, RESOURCES, ETC. THE DISAPPEARING BISON THE FISH WITH LEGS THE MOUNTAIN SUPPLY OF LUMBER FOR THE PLAINS,. 465-503 (XI) LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. "From Original Drawings by Henry Worrall, and Actual Photographs. The Engraving by the Bureau of Illustration, Buffalo, If, T. pioa FRONTISPIECE, ' FACING TITLE PAGB ALASKAN LOVERS SEALING THE CONTRACT, 27 ALASKAN GAME OF OLD SLEDGE, 27 "WAUKARUSA," - 33 " TOASTS HIS MOCCASINED FEET BY THE FIRE," 33 THE PROFESSOR A REMARKABLE STONE, 39 TAMMANY SACHEM PROSPECTIVE AND RETROSPECTIVE, .... 39 COLON AND SEMI-COLON, 43 DAVID PYTHAGORAS, M. D., 43 ONE OF THE MUGGSES, ,....47 SHAMUS DOBEEN His CARD, 53 HON. T. GRIPE (BEATIFIED), . . 53 "SPERIT, GENTLEMEN!" 57 OUR FIRST BIRD-SHOOTING, 67 JUDGE LYNCH His COURT, 77 UNNATURALIZED, .......91 NATURALIZED, 91 (xzi) is xxii BIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAOB " YOU'VE RILED THAT BROOK" AN OLD FABLE MODERNIZED, ... 96 DOG TOWN THE HAPPY FAMILY, ... ., 96 INDIAN ROCK FROM A PHOTOGRAPH, 105 MUSHROOM ROCK FROM A PHOTOGRAPH, 105 FIRE ON THE PLAINS, ACCORDING TO NOVELS, . . . . .115 FIRE ON THE PLAINS, AS IT is, 115 "AND ERIN'S SON CHRISTENS THOSE FAR-OFF POINTS OF THE PACIFIC RAIL- ROAD WITH HIS BLOOD," 127 GENTLE ZEPHYRS GOING OFF WITHOUT A DRAWBACK, .... 133 "LOOKED LIKE THE END OF A TAIL," . . . . . . 137 THE RARE OLD PLAINSMAN OF THE NOVELS, 137 WILD BILL FROM A PHOTOGRAPH, 147 BUFFALO BILL FROM A PHOTOGRAPH, 147 OUR HORSES RUN AWAY WITH Us, 157 THE PIPE OF PEACE THE PROFESSOR'S DILEMMA, 167 WHITE WOLF AT HOME, 172 THE WILD DENIZENS OF THE PLAINS, 197 SMASHING A CHEYENNE BLACK-KETTLE 219 MIDNIGHT SERENADE ON THE PLAINS, 227 GOING AFTER AMMUNITION, 259 BATTLE BETWEEN CHEYENNES AND PAWNEES, 271 ONE OF OUR SPECIMENS PHOTOGRAPHED BY J. LEE KNIGHT, TOPKKA, . 301 WANTON DESTRUCTION OF BUFFALO, EMBRACING: DAILY, FOR FUN 315 300 A DAY FOR PLEASURE, 315 FOR EXCITEMENT, 315 100,000 FOR TONGUES, 315 2,000,000 FOR ROBES, TO GET WHISKY, 315 Duo OUT, , 329 TAKING AND BEING TAKEN, . . . . . . . . . 335 DEVELOPING ONE OF THE FIRST FAMILIES, 348 THE SEA WHICH ONCE COVERED THE PLAINS, 357 WAOONDA DA GREAT SPIRIT SALT SPRING, 398 LIST OF ILLUSTRATION^. xxiii FA6B MORE OF OUR SPECIMENS (PHOTOGRAPHED BY J. LEE KNIGHT), EMBRACING: PRAIRIE CHICKENS, 413 IfEAD OP AN ELK, 413 WILD TUBKBT, 413 BBAVEB, .413 BUFFALO LAND. CHAPTER I. THE OBJECT OP OUR EXPEDITION A GLIMPSE OF ALASKA THROUGH CAPTAIN WALRUS* GLASS WE ARE TEMPTED BY OUR RECENT PURCHASE ALASKAN GAME OF "OLD SLEDGE" THE EARLY STRUGGLES OF KANSAS THE SMOKY HILL TRAIL INPIAX HIGH ART THE "BORDER-RUFFIAN," PAST AND PRESENT TOPEKA HOW IT RE- CEIVED ITS NAME WAUKARUSA AND ITS LEGEND. THE great plains the region of country in which, our expedition sojourned for so many months is wilder, and by far more interesting, than those soli- tudes over" which the Egyptian Sphynx looks . out. The latter are barren and desolate, while the former teem with their savage races and scarcely more savage beasts. The very soil which these tread is written all over with a history of the past, even its surface giving to science wonderful and countless fossils of those ages when the world was young and man not yet born. At first, it was rather unsettled which way the steps of our party would turn ; between unexplored territory and that newly acquired, there were several fields open which promised much of interest. Orig- inally, our company numbered a dozen; but Alaska tempted a portion of our savans, and to the fishy and frigid maiden they yielded, drawn by a strange predi- lection for train-oil and seal meat toward the land of (25) 2(5 BUFFALO LAND. furs. For the remainder of our party, however, life under the Alaskan's tent-pole had no charms. Our decision may have been influenced somewhat by the seafaring man with whom our friends were to sail. The real name of this son of Neptune was Samuels, but our party called him, as it savored more of salt water, Captain Walrus, of the bark Harpoon. This worthy, according to his own statement, had been born on a whaler, weaned among the Esquimeaux, and, moreover, had frozen off eight toes "trying to winter it at our recent purchase." He evidently dis- liked to have scientific men aboard, intent on studying eclipses and seals. "A heathenish and strange people are the Alaskans," Walrus was wont to say. "What is not Indian is Russian, and a compound of the latter and aboriginal is a mixture most villainous. One por- tion of 'the partnership anatomy takes to brandy, while the other absorbs train-oil, and so a half-breed Alaskan heathen is always prepared for spontaneous combus- tion, and if rubbed the wrong way, flames up instantly. He is always hot for murder, and if you throw cold water on his designs, his oily nature sheds it." And many a yarn did the captain spin concerning their strange customs. Sealing a marriage contract consisted in the warrior leaving a fat seal at the hole of the hut, where his intended crawled in to her home privileges of smoke and fish. Their favorite game was "old sledge," played with prisoners to shorten their captivity. All this, and much more, probably equally true, we had picked up of Alaskan history, and at one time our chests had been packed for a voyage on the Har- poon; but at the final council the west carried it "BLEEDING KANSAS." 29 against the north, and our steps were directed toward the setting sun, instead of the polar star. The expedition afforded unexcelled facilities for seeing Buffalo Land. It was composed of good ma- terial, and pursued its chosen path successfully, though under difficulties which would have turned back a less determined party. None of our company, I trust, will consider it an unwarrantable license which recounts to others the personal peculiarities and mistakes about which we joked so freely while in camp. It was generally un- derstood, before we parted, that the adventures should be common stock for our children and children's children. Why should not the great public share in it also ? Let the reader place before him a checker-board, and allow it to represent Kansas, whose shape and outline it much resembles ; the half nearest him will stand for the eastern or settled portion of the State, of which the other half is embraced in Buffalo Land proper. It is with the latter that we have first to do, as with it we first became acquainted. Our party entered the State at Kansas City, and took the cars for Topeka, its capital. During our morning ride through the valley of the Kaw, memory went backward to the years when "Bleeding Kan- sas " was the signal-cry of emancipation. When gray old Time, a decade and a half ago, was writing the his- tory of those bright children of Freedom, the united sisterhood, a virgin arm reached over his shoulder, and a fair young hand, stained with its own life- 30 BUFFALO LAND. blood, wrote on the page toward which all the world was gazing, "I am Kansas, latest-born of America. I would be free, yet they would make me a slave. Save me, my sisters ! " The great heart of our nation was sorely distressed. Conscience pointed to one path Policy, that rank hypocrite, to another. And so it was that the young queen, with her grand domain in the West, struggled forward to lay her fealty at the feet of our great mother, Liberty. She made a body-guard of her own sons, and their number was quickly swelled by brave hearts from the north, east, and west. The new territory, begging admission as a State, became a battle-ground. Slavery had reached forth its hand to grasp the new State and fresh soil, but the mutilated member was drawn back with wounds which soon reached, cor- rupted and destroyed the body. In this land of the Far West a nation of young giants had been suddenly developed, and Kansas was forever won for freedom. But there was yet another enemy and another dan- ger. Westward, toward Colorado, thflfcivage's toma- hawk and knife glittered, and struck among the affrighted settlements. Ad Astra per Aspera, "to the stars through difficulties," the State exclaims on the seal, and to the stars, through blood, its course has been. Those old pages of history are too bloody to be brought to light in the bright present, and we purpose turning them only enough to gather what will be now of practical use. Kansas suffered cruelly, and brooded over her wrongs, but she has long since struck hands with her bitterer foe. Most of the " Border THE SMOKY HILL TEAIL. 31 Ruffians " ripened on gallows trees, or fell by the sword, years ago. A few, however, are yet spared, to cheer their old age by riding around in desolate woods at midnight, wrapped in damp nightgowns, and masked in grinning death-heads. Although the mists of shadow-land are chilling their hearts, yet those organs, at the cry of blood, beat quick again, like regimental drums, for action. The Kaw or the Kansas River, the valley of which we were traversing, is the principal stream of the State in length to the mouth of the Republican one hundred and fifty miles, and above that, under the name of Smoky Hill, three hundred miles more. The " Smoky Hill trail " is a familiar name in many an American home. It was the great Califor- nia path, and many a time the demons of the plain gloated over fair hair, yet fresh from a mother's touch and blessing. And many a faint and thirsty trav- eler has flung himself with a burst of gratitude on the sandy bed of the desolate river, and thanked the Great Giver of all good for the concealed life found under the sand, and with the strength thus sucked from the bosom of our much-abused mother, he has pushed onward until at length the grand mountains and great parks of Colorado burst upon his delighted vision. About noon we arrived at Topeka, the capital, well situated on the south bank of the river,- having a comfortable, well-to-do air, which suggests the quiet satisfaction of an honest burgher after a morning of toil. The slavery billow of agitation rolled even thus far from beyond the border of the state. Armed men 32 BUFFALO LAND. rode over the beautiful prairies, some east, some west one band to transplant slavery from the tainted soil of Missouri, another to pluck it up. A small party of Free State men settled upon this beautiful prairie. South flowed the Waukarusa, south and east the Shunganunga, and west and north the Kaw or Kansas. Here thrived a bulbous root, much loved by the red man, and here lazy Potta- watomies gathered in the fall to dig it. In size and somewhat in shape, it resembled a goose egg, and had a hard, reddish brown shell, and an interior like damaged dough. The Indian gourmands ate it greedily and called it "Topeka." From the two or three families of refugee Free State men the town grew up, and from the Indian root it took its name. Its christening took place in the first cabin erected, and it is reported that a now prominent banker of the town stood sponsor, with his back against the door, refusing any egress until the name of his choice was accepted. It is even affirmed that one opposing city founder was pulled back by his coat-tail from an attempted escape up the wide chimney. The old Indian love of commemorating events by significant names is well illustrated in Kansas. One example may be given here. Waukarusa once op- posed its swollen tide to an exploring band of red men. Now, from time beyond ken, the noble savage has been illustrious for the ingenuity with which he lays all disagreeable duties upon the shoulders of the patient squaw. He may ride to their death, in free wild sport, the bison multitudes; but their skins 1 WAUKARUSA." "TOASTS HIS MOCCASINED FEET BY THE FIRE." " WAUKARUSA." 35 must be converted into marketable robes, and the flesh into jerked meat, by the ugly and over-worked partner of his bosom. While she pins the raw hide to earth, and bends patiently over, fleshing it with horn hatchet for weary hours, the stronger vessel, his abdominal recesses wadded with buffalo meat, toasts his moccasined feet by the fire, fills his lungs with smoke from villainous killikinick, and muses sooth- ingly of white scalps and happy hunting grounds. Ox-like maiden, happy " big injun ! " you both be- long to an age and a history well nigh past, and let us rejoice that it is so. But to return to the band long since gathered into aboriginal dust whom we left pausing on the banks of the Waukarusa. " Deep water, bad bottom ! " grunted the braves, and, nothing doubting it, one lov- ing warrior pushed his wife and her pony over th bank to test the matter. From the middle of the tide the squaw called back, "Waukarusa" (thigh deep), and soon had gained the opposite bank in safety. Then and there the creek received its name, " Waukarusa." We procured a remarkable sketch, in the well known Indian style of high art, commemorative of this event. It has always struck us that the savage order of drawing resembles very much that of the ancient Egyptian except in the matter of drawing at sight, with bow or rifle, on the white man. CHAPTER II. A CHAPTER OP INTRODUCTIONS PROFESSOR PALEOZOIC TAMMANY SACHEM DOCTOR PYTHAGORAS GENUINE MUGGS COLON AND SEMI-COLON SHAMUS DOBEEN TENACIOUS GRIPE BUGS AND PHILOSOPHY HOW GRIPE BECAME A REPUBLICAN. WHEN permission was given me to draw upon the journal of our trip for such material as I might desire, it was stipulated that the camp-names should be adhered to. A company on the plains is no respecter of persons, and titles which might have caused offense -before starting were received in good part, and worn gracefully thenceforward. Our leader, Professor Paleozoic,, ordinarily existed in a sort of transition state between the primary and tertiary formations. He could tell cheese from chalk under the microscope, and show that one was full of the fossil and the other of the living evidences of animal life. A worthy man, vastly more troubled with rocks on the brain than "rocks" in the pocket. Learning had once come near making him mad, but from this sad fate he was happily saved by a somewhat Pickwickian blunder. While in Kansas, some years since, he penetrated a remote portion of the wilderness, where, as he was happy in believing, none but the native savage, or, possibly, the prime- val man, could ever have tarried long enough to leave any sign behind. Imagine his astonishment and (36) A PICKWICKIAN BLUNDER. 37 delight, therefore, when from the tangled grass he drew an upright stone, with lines chiseled on three sides and on the fourth a rude figure resembling more than any thing else one of those odd fictions which geologists call restored specimens. On a ledge near were huge depressions like foot-prints. They were foot-prints of birds, no doubt, and quite as per- fect as those found in more favored localities, and from which whole skeletons had been constructed by learned men. Both specimens were forwarded to, and at the expense of, noted savans of the East. Our professor called the pillar from the tangled grass an altar raised by early races to the winds. The short lines, he suggested, designated the different points of the compass, while the rude figure was ' intended for Boreas. Our scientists toward the rising sun met the boxes at the depot, paid charges, and careful draymen bore them to the expectant museum. One hour after, seven wise men might have been seen wending their way sorrowfully homeward, with hands crossed meditatively under their coat-tails, and pocket vacuums where lately were modern coins. Government clearly had a case against our professor. Science decided that he had removed a stone telling in surveyors' signs just what section and township it was on. The figure which he had imagined a O o heathen idea of Boreas was the fancy of some sur- veyor's idle moment a shocking sketch of an im- possible buffalo. Whether the bird-tracks had a common origin, or were hewn by the hatchets of the red man, is a point still under discussion. 38 BUFFALO LAND. A worthy man, as before remarked, was the pro- fessor, full of knowledge, genial in camp, and, having rubbed his eye-tooth on a section stone, geological authority of the highest order. When the professor said a particular rock belonged to the cretaceous for- mation, one might safely conclude that no modern influences had been at work either on that rock or in that vicinity. That question was settled. Next came Tammany Sachem, our heavy weight and our mystery. Before joining our party, he had been a New York alderman, noted for prowess in annual aldermanic clam-bakes at Coney Island. He was wont to exhibit a medal, the prize of such a tournament, on which several immense clams were racing to the griddle, for the honor of being devoured by the city fathers. A green-ribbed hunting coat traversed his rotund- ity, which had the generous swell of a puncheon. His face was reddish, and his nose like a beacon- light against a sunset sky. When you thought him awake, he was half asleep ; when you thought him asleep, he was wide awake. A look of extreme happiness always beamed on his face when mis- fortunes impended. Per contra, successes made him suspicious and morose. New York aldermen have always been a puzzle to the nation at large. Per- haps our friend's facial contradictions, put on origin- ally as one of the tricks of the trade, had become chronic from long usage. We have since learned that the sachems of Tammany laugh the loudest and joke the most freely when under affliction. When I was appointed editor, the Sachem volun- CUPID AND CLAMS. 41 teered as local reporter. Many of the items he gathered are entered in our log-book in rhyme, and to these pages some of them are transferred verba- tim. In wooing the muses, our alderman certainly acted out of character. The ideal poet is thin in- stead of obese, and he is a reckless innovator who lays claim to any measure of the divine afflatus without possessing either a pale face, thin form, or a garret. As to what drove a New York alderman to the society of buffaloes, we had but one explanation, and that was Sachem's own. We knew that he dis- liked women in every form, Sorosis and Anti-Sorosis, bitter and sweet alike. According to his statement, made to us in good faith, and which I chronicle in the same, Cupid had once essayed to drive a dart into Sachem's heart, but, in doing so, the barb also struck and wounded his liver. As his love increased, his health failed. His liver became affected in the same ratio as his heart. This was touching our alderman in a tender spot. Imagine a New York city father without digestion ; what a subject of scorn he would become to his constituency ! Our alderman fled from Cupid, clams, and his beloved Gotham, and sought health and buffalo on the plains of Kansas. As he remarked to us pathetically: "A good liver makes a good husband. Indigestion frightens con- nubial bliss out of the window. Pills, my boy, pills is the quietus of love. If you wish Cupid to leave, give him a dose of 'em. The liver, instead of the heart, is at the bottom of half the suicides." Doctor Pythagoras in years was fifty, and in stature 42 BUFFALO LAXD. short. His favorite theory was "development," and this he carried to depths which would have astonished Darwin himself. How humble he used to make us feel by digging at the roots of the family tree until its uttermost fiber lay between an oyster and a sponge ! (Rumor charged him with waiting so long for diseases to develop, that his patients developed into spirits.) While he indorsed Darwin, however, he also admired Pythagoras. The latter's doctrine of metempsychosis he Darwinized. In their transmigration from one body to another, souls developed, taking a higher or- der of being with each change, until finally fitted to enter the land of spirits. The soul of a jack-of-all- trades was one which developed slowly, and picked up a new craft with each new body. Like Pythag- oras, he remembered several previous bodies which his soul had animated, among others that of the orig- inal Rarey, who existed in Egpyt some centuries be- fore the modern usurper was born. If souls proved entirely unworthy during the probationary or human period, they were cast back into the brute creation to try it over again. To this class belonged prize-fight- ers, Congressmen, and the like. With them the past was a blank an unsuccessful problem washed from the slate. The doctor had a hobby that a vicious horse was only a vicious man entered into a lower or- der of being. To demonstrate this he had traveled, and still persisted in traveling, on eccentric horses, for the purpose of reasoning with them. But his Egyptian lore had been lost in transmission, and his falls, kicks, and bites became as many as the moons which had passed over his head. THE MUGGSES. 45 Genuine Muggs was an Englishman. The an- tipodes of Tammany Sachem, who would not believe any thing, Muggs swallowed every thing. He had already absorbed so much in this way that he knew all about the United States before visiting it. Given half a chance, he would undoubtedly have told the savage more about the latter's habits than the ab- origine himself knew. It was positively impossible for him to learn any thing. His round British body was so full of indisputable facts that another one would have burst it. In the Presidential alphabet, from Alpha Washington to Omega Grant, he knew all of our rulers' tricks and trades, and understood better the crooked ways of the White House than our own talented Jenkins. British phlegm incased his soul, and British leather his feet. From heel to crown he was com- pletely a Briton. His mutton-chop whiskers came just so far, and the h's dropped in and out of his ut- terings in a perfectly natural way. In the Briton's alphabet, Sachem used to remark, the / is so big that it is no wonder the H is often crowded out. Muggs was a fair representative of the average Englishman who has traveled somewhat. The eye- teeth of these persons are generally cut with a slash, and they are forever after sore-mouthed. For a maiden effort they never suck knowledge gently in, but attempt a gulp which strangles. The conse- quence of this hasty acquiring is a bloated condition. The partly-traveled Briton seems, at first acquaint- ance, full and swollen with knowledge ; but should 46 BUFFALO LAND. the student of learning apply the prick, the result ob- tained will generally prove to be gas. Over our great country, some of the family of Muggs meet one at every turn. Often they scurry along solitarily, but occasionally in groups. In the former case they are unsocial to every body in the latter to every body except their own party. The bliss which comes from ignorance must be of a thor- oughly enjoyable nature, for the Muggses certainly do enjoy themselves. They will pass through a coun- try, remaining completely uncommunicative and self- wrapped, and know less of it after six months' traveling than an American in two. The professor says he has met them in the lonely parks of the Rocky Mount- ains and in the fishing and hunting solitudes of the Canadas. If they have been an unusually long time without seeing a human being, they may possibly catch at an eye-glass and fling themselves abruptly into a few remarks. But it is in a tone which says, plainer than words, "No use in your going any further, man; I have absorbed all the beauties and knowledge of this locality." It is a rare treat to see a coach delivered of Muggs at a country inn. " Hi, porter, look hout for my lug- gage, you know. Tell the publican some chops, rare, and lively now, and a mug of hale, and, if I can 'ave it, a room to myself." If the latter request is granted, and you are inquisitive enough to take a peep, you may see Muggs sturdily surveying himself in the glass, and giving certain satisfied pats to his cravat and waistcoat, as if to satisfy them that they covered a Briton. Could the mirror which reflects ONE OF THE MUGGSES. COLON SENIOR. 49 his face also reflect his thoughts, they would read about as follows : " Muggs, you are a Briton, and this hotel must be made aware of the fact. Whatever you do, be guilty of no un-English act while in this outlandish land. Your skin is now full of knowl- edge, and let not other travelers, like so many mos- quitoes, suck it from you. Your forefathers blessed their eyes and dropped their h's, and so must you." And perhaps by this time, if the chops have arrived, he dines in seclusion and, by so doing, loses a fund of information which his fellow-travelers have obtained by common exchange. Again on the way, Muggs nestles in a corner of the coach and acts strictly on the defensive, indig- nantly withdrawing his square-toed, thick-soled Eng* lish shoes, should neighboring feet attempt to hob- nob with them. On a trip through Buffalo Land, however, it is difficult for one of her Britannic Maj- esty's subjects to maintain the national dignity. But this fact Genuine Muggs our Muggs evidently did not know. Had he known it, he would never have gone with us in the world. 49 Another of our party rejoiced in the appellation of " Colon." He obtained this title because his eccen- tric specialities of character several times came very* near putting if not a full stop, at least the next thing to it, upon the particular page of history which our party was making. Longitudinally, Mr. Colon was all of five feet eleven ; in circumference, perhaps a score or so of inches. He possessed a fair share of oddities, and what is better an equally fair one of dol- lars. The hemispheres of his philanthropic brain 50 BUFFALO LAND. seemed equally pre-empted by philosophy and bugs. Engaging in some immense work for the ameliora- tion of mankind, he would pursue it with ardor, dwell upon it with unction, and then suddenly leave it, half finished, to capture a rare spider. Philosophy and Entomology had constant combat for Colon, and vic- tory tarried with neither long enough for the seat of war to be cultivated and blossom with any lux- uriance. At the time he joined our party one of his grandest charitable projects had lately died in a very early period of infancy, entirely supplanted in his affections for the time being by the prospect of a chase after Brazilian insects. During our journey it was no uncommon thing for us to see his thin form all covered with bugs and reptiles, which had crawled out of the collecting boxes carried in his pockets. If this meets our friend's eye, let him bear no malice, but reflect, in the language of his own invariable answer to our remonstrances, "It can't be helped." Should the public parade of his faults be disagreea- ble, he can suffer no more from them now than we did in the past, and may perhaps call them into closer quarters for the future. Mr. Colon's son, of two years less than a score, we dubbed Semi-colon, as being a smaller edition, or to be exact, precisely one-half of what the senior Colon was. So perfect was the concord of the two that the junior had fallen into a chronic and to us amusing habit of answering " Ditto " to the senior's expressions of opinion. Divide the father's conversation by two, add an assent to every thing, and the result, socially considered, would be the son. It may readily be seen, DOBEEN AND GRIPE. 51 therefore, why the professor for short should call him, as he nearly always did, " Semi." Shamus Dobeen, our cook and body-servant, accord- ing to his own account, was the child of an impov- erished but noble Irish family. Indeed, we doubt if any Irishman was ever promoted from shovel laborer to body-servant without suddenly remembering that he was "descinded" from a line of kings. At the time Shamus was added to the population of Ireland, the patrimonial estate had dwindled down to a peat bog. As this soon "petered out," Shamus went from the exhausted moor into the cold world. He had been by turns expelled patriot, dirt disturber on new railroads, gunner on a Confederate cruiser, and high private in a Union regiment. The position of gunner he lost by touching off a piece before the muzzle had been run out, in consequence of which part of the vessel's side went off suddenly with the gun. Captured, he readily became a Union soldier, and could, without doubt, have transformed himself into a Cheyenne, or a Patagonian, had occasion for either ever required. While in Topeka, our party made the acquaintance of Tenacious Gripe, a well-known Kansas politician, and who attached himself to us for the trip. Every person in the State knew him, had known him in territorial times, and would know him until either the State or he ceased to be. Flung headlong from somewhere into Kansas dur- ing the "border ruffian" period, he would probably have passed as rapidly out of it had he been allowed to do so peaceably. But as the slavery party en- 52 BUFFALO LAND. deavored to push him, he concluded to stick. At that particular time, he was a moderate Democrat or conservative Republican, and consequently had no particular principles. But the slavery party sup- posed he had, and to them accordingly he became an object of suspicion. They assumed the aggres- sive, and he at once resolved into a staunch Repub- lican. Had the latter first struck him, he would have been as staunch a Democrat. And Gripe has never known how near he came to being the latter. The Republicans had just decided to order him out of the state as a border ruffian spy, when the Demo- crats took action and did so for his not being one. Those were troublous times. He went to the front at once in the antislavery ranks, and has stayed there ever since. Sore-headed men are apt to become famous. There were those in our late war who were kicked by adversity into the very arms of Fame. Our friend had been in both the upper and lower houses of the State Legislature, and had rolled Con- gressional logs, moreover, until he was hardly happy without having his hands on one, CHAPTER III. TUB TOPEKA AUCTIONEER MUGGS GETS A BARGAIN CYNOCEPHALU8 INDIAN BUJl- MER IN KANSAS HUNTING PRAIRIE CHICKENS OUB FIRST DAY'S SPORT. WE had three or four days to spend in Topeka, as it was there that we were to purchase our outfit for the buffalo region. With the latter purpose in view, we were wandering along Kansas Avenue the next morning, when a horseman came furi- ously down the street, shouting, at the top of his lungs, " Sell um as he wars har ! " Semi hastily re- treated behind Mr. Colon, thinking it might be a Jayhawker, while the professor adjusted his glasses. Muggs said the individual reminded him of the famous charge at Balaklava. Muggs had never seen Balaklava, but other Englishmen had, which an- swered the same purpose. The equestrian proved to be a well-known auc- tioneer of Topeka, who may be discovered at almost any time tearing through the streets on some spavined or bow-legged old cob, auctioneering it off as he goes. His favorite expression is, " I '11 sell um as he wars har." What particular selling charm lies concealed in this announcement even Gripe could not tell. Sachem thought that possibly he had been brought up at some exposed frontier post, where, on account of Indian prejudices, wearing hair is a rare luxury. (55) 56 BUFFALO LAND. To say there that a man was still able to comb his own scalp-lock denoted an extraordinary state of physical perfection. Expressions of praise for hu- mans are often applied to horses, and so, perhaps, the one in question. " I have heard," quoth our alderman, in support of this assertion, "Fitz say of a belle, at a charity ball, what a ' bootiful cweature ; ' and I have heard him, the day after, in his stable, say the same thing of his horse." That horse-auction was a sight worth seeing. The crowd collected most thickly on the corner of Kansas Avenue and Sixth Street, and before it the cob came to a stand. And it was a stand as stiff and pain- ful as that of a retired veteran put on dress parade. The limbs would have had full duty to perform in supporting the carcass alone, which had evidently been in light marching order for years past. The additional weight of the auctioneer must certainly have proved -altogether too much, had not the horse heard, for the first time, of the wonderful qualities 'with which he was still endowed. Seeing a whole corner, with gaping mouths, swallow- ing the statement that he was only six years old, reduced by hard work, and could, after three months grass, pull a ton of coal, he would have been a thank- less horse indeed, which could not strain a point, or all his points, for such a rider. And so, when the spurs suddenly rattled against his ribs, the old skin full of bones gave a snort of pain, which the auctioneer called "Sperit, gentlemen ! " and away up the broad avenue he rolled, at a speed which threatened to break the rider's neck, and his 'AN UNFORTUNATE WINK. 59 own legs as well. His tail having been cut short in youth, and retrimmed in old age, the outfit made but a sorry figure going up the street. The Professor said it suggested the idea of some fossil vertabra, with a paint brush attached to its end, running away with a geological student. After the return and cries for more bids, Muggs must have winked at the auctioneer possibly, to slyly telegraph him the fact that in "Hengland" they were up to such games. At least the auctioneer so declared, and advancing the price one dollar in accordance therewith, finally knocked the brute down to him. Then the British wrath bubbled and boiled. The auctioneer was inexorable. Muggs had winked, and that was an advanced bid, according to com- mercial custom the land over. Articles were often sold simply by the vibration of an eyelash, and not a word uttered. The Professor remarked that in law winks would doubtless be accepted as evidence. It was a recog- nized principle of the statutes that he who winked at a matter acquiesced in it, and indeed such signals were often more expressive than words. Sachem sustained this point, and added further that he had known many a man's head broken on account of an injudicious wink. The crowd, with almost unanimous voice, pro- nounced the auctioneer right and Muggs wrong. "Me take the brute!" exclaimed the indignant Briton ; " why he can 'ardly stand up long enough to be knocked down. Except in France, he could be put to no earthly use whatever. 'Is knees knock to- 60 BUFFALO LAND. gether in an ague quartette, and 'is tail look at it ! It's hincapable of knocking a fly off; looks more like flying off hitself ! " Muggs further declared the sale was an attempt on the owner's part to evade the health officer, who would have been around, in a couple of days, to have the carcass removed. The auctioneer waxed belligerent, the crowd noisy, and Muggs, like a true Englishman, secured peace at the price of British gold. The horse was on his hands, having barely escaped being on the town, and an enthusiastic crowd of urchins escorted the purchase to a livery stable. Muggs christened the animal Cynocephalus, and soon afterward sold him to Mr. Colon, who was of an economical turn, for the use of his son Semi. "I have heard," said the thoughtful father, "that the buffalo grass of the plains is very nourishing. All that the poor steed needs is care and fat pastures. Semi can give him the former, and over the latter our future journey lies. I have also learned that what is especially needed in a hunting horse is steadiness, and this quality the animal certainly possesses." From some months' acquaintance with the pur- chase, we can say that Cynocephalus was steady to a remarkable degree. We are firmly persuaded that a heavy battery might have fired a salute over his back without moving him, unless, possibly, the concussion knocked him down. Our first hunting morning, the second day pre- ceding our hegira westward, came to us with a clear sky, the sun shedding a mellow warmth, and the air INDIAN SUMMER IN KANSAS. 61 full of those exhilarating qualities which our lungs afterward drank in so freely on the plains. Indian summer, delightful anywhere, is especially so in Kansas. From the advance guard of the winter king not a single chilling zephyr steals forward among the tar- rying ones of summer. Soothing and gentle as when laden with spicy fragrance south, they here shower the whole land with sunbeams. Earth no longer seems a heavy, inert mass, but floats in that smoky, fleecy atmosphere with which artists delight so much to wrap their angels. It is as if the warmer, lighter clouds of sunny weather were nestling close to earth, frightened from the skies, like a flock of white swans, at the October howls of winter. But I never could agree with those writers who call this season dreamy. If such it be, it is surely a dream of motion. All na- ture appears quickened. The inhabitants of the air have commenced their southern pilgrimage, and the oldest and leading ganders may be heard croaking, day-time and night-time, to their wedge-shaped flocks their narrative of summer experiences at the Arctic circle, and their commands for the present journey. Sachem, I find, has recorded as a discovery in nat- ural history that geese form their flocks in wedge shape that they may easier "make a split" for the south when Nature, with her north pole, stirs up their feeding and breeding-grounds in November gales, and changes their fields of operation into fields of ice. Sachem was sadly addicted to slang phrases. All game, I may remark, is wilder at this season of the year than earlier. If the earth is dreaming, 62 BUFFALO LAND. its wild inhabitants certainly are not. Men, too, have thrown off the summer lethargy, and shave their neighbors as closely as ever. If any one thinks it a dreamy season of the year, let him test the matter practically by being a day or two behindhand with a payment. In reply to a question, the professor told us that the smoky condition of the atmosphere was probably caused by the exhalation of phosphorus from decay- ing vegetation. Sachem remarked that out of twenty different objects which he had submitted for ex- amination, and as many questions that he had asked, nine-tenths of the results contained phosphorus in some shape. It was becoming monotonous and dan- gerous. While the party thus mused and speculated, we had come out into the open country, south-west of town, and were now approaching Webster's Mound, a cone- shaped hill from which we afterward obtained some excellent views. For the trip we had been supplied with two dogs, one a setter, belonging to the private secretary of the Governor, and the other a pointer, the property of a real estate dealer. The former was an ancient and venerable animal. The rheumatism was seized of his backbone and held high revel upon the juices which should have lubricated the joints. Even his tail wagged with a jerk, inclining the body to whichever side it had last swung. He was so full of rheumatism that whenever he scented a chicken the pain evoked by the excitement caused him to howl with anguish. The pointer, per contra, was hale and swift, but had lost one eye ; and a shot from THE HUNTER'S TRIUMPH. 63 the same charge which destroyed that organ, rattled also on his left ear-drum, and that membrane no longer responded to the shouts of the hunter. On one side he could see, and not hear on the other, hear, but not see. Nevertheless, with gestures for the left view, and shouts on the right, fair work might still be obtained. Both dogs rejoiced in the uncommon name of Rover, and both possessed that most excellent of all points in such animals, a steady point. If any of my readers are fond of field-sports, and have not yet shot prairie-chickens over a dog, let them take their guns and hie to the West, and taste for themselves of this rare sport. With the wide prairie around him, keeping the bird in full view dur- ing its passage through the air, one can choose his distance for firing and witness the full effect of his shot. I think the brief instant when the flight of the bird is checked and it drops head-foremost to earth, is the sweetest moment of all to the hunter. CHAPTER IV. CHICKEN-SHOOTING CONTINUED A SCIENTIFIC PARTY TAKE THE BIRDS ON THt VnNG EVILS OF PAST FIRING AN OLD-FASHIONED "SLOW SHOT 1 ' THH HABITS OF THE PRAIRIE-CHICKEN ITS PROSPECTIVE EXTINCTION MODE OF HUNTING IT THE GOPHER SCALP LAW. WE had left the road and were now driving over the fine prairie skirting Webster's Mound, the grass being about a foot high and affording excellent cover. Taking advantage of its being matted so closely from the early frosts, the old cocks hid under the thick tufts and called for close work on the part of our dogs. Back and forth across our path these intelligent animals ranged, the one fifty yards or so to our right, the other as many to our left, crossing and re-cross- ing, with open mouths drinking in eagerly the tainted breeze. This latter was in our favor, and both dogs suddenly joined company and worked up into it, with outstretched noses pointing to game that was evi- dently close ahead. The pointer crawled cautiously, like a tiger, his spotted belly sweeping the earth, and his tail, which had been lashing rapidly an instant before, gradually stiffening. He would open his mouth suddenly, drink in a quick, deep draught of air, and, closing the jaws again, hold it until obliged to take another (64) THE DOGS COME TO A POINT. 65 respiration. He seemed as loath to let the scent of the chicken pass from his nostrils as a hungry news- boy is to quit the savory precincts of Delmonico's kitchen window. The setter's old bones appeared to renew their youth under the excitement, and he was as .active as a retired war-horse suddenly plunged into battle. Both dogs came simultaneously to a point tails curved up and rigid, each body motionless as if cut in marble and one forepaw lifted. No wonder so many men are wild with a passion for hunting. Kind Providence smiles upon the legitimate sport from conception to close, and gives us a pose to start with fascinating to any lover of the beautiful, whether hunter or not. But one must not pause to moralize while dogs are on the point, or he will have more philosophy than chickens. All the party had got safely to ground and were behind the dogs, with guns ready and eyes eagerly fastened on the thick grass which concealed its treas- ure as completely as if it had been a thousand miles below its roots, or on the opposite side of this mun dane sphere in China. Not a thing was visible within fifty yards of our noses save two dogs standing mo- tionless, with stiffened tails and eyes fixed on, and nozzles pointed toward, a spot in the sea of brown, withered grass, not ten feet away. The Professor took out his lens, Mr. Colon let down the hammers of his gun and cocked them again, to be sure all was right, while Sachem wore a puzzled expression as if undecided whether the attitude of the dogs indicated any thing particular or not. The 4 66 BUFFALO LAND. grass nodded and rustled in the light wind, but not a blade moved to indicate the presence of any living thing beneath it, while the dogs remained as if petrified. The Professor said it was very remarkable, and wondered what had better be done next. Mr. Colon thought that the dogs were tired, and we might as well get into the wagon. Another suggested at ran- dom that we should set the dogs on, and Muggs, who had probably heard the expression somewhere, cried, " Hi, boys, on bloods ! " At the words the dogs made a few quick steps forwaid, and on the instant the grass seemed alive with feathered forms, popping into air like bobs in shuttlecock. Such a fluttering and flying I have never seen since, when a boy, N I ventured into a dove cote, and was knocked over by the rush of the alarmed inmates. From un- der our very feet, almost brushing our faces, the beautiful pinnated grouse of the prairies left their cover, and us also. Every gun had gone off on the instant, and we doubt if one was raised an inch higher than it hap- pened to be when the covey started. The Professor afterward extracted some stray shot from the legs of his boots, and the setter, which was next to Muggs, gave a cry of pain for which there was evidently other cause than rheumatism, as was demonstrated by his retirement to the rear, from which he refused to budge until we all got into the wagon, and to which he invariably retreated whenever we got out. From the midst of the birds which were soaring away, one was seen to rise suddenly a few feet above THE SPORT CONTINUED. 69 his comrades, and then fall straight as a plummet, and head first, to earth. It had caught some stray shot from the bombardment Muggs claimed from his gun, but this statement the setter, could he have spoken, would certainly have disputed. Semi-Colon brought in the game, which proved to be a fine male, with whiskers and full plumage, which must have made sad havoc among the hearts of the hens, when the old fellow, was on annual dress pa- rade in the spring. At that season of the year the cocks seek some knoll of the prairie, where the grass has been burnt or cut off, and strut up and down with ruffled feathers, uttering meanwhile a booming sound, which can be heard in a clear morning for miles. The flabby pink skin that at other seasons hangs in loose folds on his neck is then distended like a bag- pipe, and he is a very different bird from the same individual in his Quaker gray and respectable sum- mer and fall habits. Ensconced again in the wagon, our party moved forward, the clogs, as before, examining the prairie. The professor was comparing the birds of the present and the past ages, when Muggs suddenly blasted his eyes and declared the beasts were at it again. And so they were, the setter making a good stand at some game in the grass, and the other dog, a short distance off, pointing his companion. During the remainder of the day we found many large flocks of birds, and fired away until two or three swelled noses testified how dirty our guns were. " Fast shooting," said the professor, as we were on our way home, "is as bad as that too slow. Al- 70 BUFFALO LAND. though I am no sportsman from practice, I love and have studied the principles of it. In my father's day the rule was, when a bird rose, for a hunter to take out his snuff-box, take snuff, replace the box, aim, and fire. You may find the advice yet in some works. The shot then has distance in which to* spread. With close shooting they are all together, and you might as well fire a bullet. When you have given the bird time, act quickly. The first sight is the best. Again, the first moment of flight, with most birds, is very irregular, as it is upward, instead of from you." Dobeen begged leave to inform our "honors " that in Ireland, after a bird rose, the rule was, instead of taking snuff, to take off the boots before firing. The professor thought that such a habit related to outrun- ning the gamekeeper, and was intended to procure distance for the poacher rather than the bird. Sachem stated that he had known a slow hunter once. He was a revolutionary veteran, used a revo- lutionary musket, and believed in revolutionary pow- der. He refused to do any thing different from what his fathers did, and abhorred double-barreled shot- guns and percussion-caps as inventions of the devil. It was constantly, " General Washington did this," and "Our army did that," and his old head shook sadly at the innovations Young America was making. His ghost, with the revolutionary musket on its shoulder, had since been known to chase hunters, with breech-loaders, who were caught on his favorite ground after dark. "Old 1776" was great on wing- shooting, and could be seen at almost any time hob- bling over the moor, firing away at snipe and water- EXTERMINATING THE PRAIRIE-CHICKEN. 71 fowl. He was one of those slow, deliberate cases, al- ways taking snuff after the bird rose. There would be a glitter of fluttering wings as the game shot into air. Down would come the long musket, out would come the snuff-box, and the old soldier would go through the present, make ready, take snuff, take aim, and fire, all as coolly as if on parade. The old musket often hung fire from five to ten seconds, and the premonitory flash could be seen as the shaky flint clattered down on the pan. The veteran always patiently covered the bird until the charge got out. The recoil was tremendous, and the old man often went down before the bird ; but such positions, he as- serted, were taken voluntarily, as ones of rest. Some said that the gun had been known to kick him again after he was down." Sachem's narration was here cut short by the dogs again pointing. This was followed by the usual bom- bardment, which over, the bag showed the mag- nificent aggregate of two chickens for the entire day's sport. The prairie-chicken is now extinct in many of the Western States where it was once well known. Usually, during the first few years of settlement, it increases rapidly, and is often a nuisance to pioneer farmers. Perhaps, when the latter first settle in a country, a few covies may be seen ; under the favora- ble influences of wheat and corn-fields, the dozens in- crease to thousands and cover the land. But with denser settlement come more guns, and, what is a far more destructive agent, trained dogs also. Under the first order of things, the farmer, with his musket, 72 BUFFALO LAND. might kill enough for the home table. With double- barreled gun and keen-scented pointer, the sportsman and pot-hunter think nothing of fifty or sixty birds for a day's work. It seems almost impossible, under such a combination, for a covey to escape total anni- hilation. We may suppose a couple of fair shots hunting over a dog in August, when the chickens lie close, and' the years broods are in their most delicate con- dition for the table. The pointer makes a stand be- fore a fine covey hidden in the thick grass before him. The ready guns ask no delay, and, at the word, he flushes the chickens immediately under his nose. Each hunter takes those which rise before him, or on his side, and if four or less left cover at the first alarm, that number of gray-speckled forms the next moment are down in the grass, not to leave it again. If more rose, they are "marked," which means that their place of alighting is carefully noted, and, as the chicken has but a short flight, this task is easy. Meanwhile, the guns have been reloaded, the dog flushes others of the hiding birds, and so the sport goes on. The birds that get away are "marked down," and again found and flushed by the dog. Without this useful animal the chickens would mul- tiply, despite any number of hunters. I have often seen covies go down in the grass but a few hundred yards away, yet have tramped through the spot doz- ens of times without raising a single bird. In twenty years this delicious game will probably be as much a thing of the past as is the Dodo of the Isle de France. At the period of our visit they were GOPHER MOUNDS. 73 already gathering into their fall flocks, which some- times number a hundred or more. In these they remain until St. Valentine recommends a separation. During the colder weather of winter they seek the protection of the timber, and may be seen of morn- ings on the trees and fences. They never roost there, however, but pass the night hidden in the adjacent grass. The prairie-chicken's admirers are numerous, other animals beside man being willing to dine on its plump breast. We had an illustration of this in our first day's shooting. Sometimes when we fired, the report would attract to our vicinity wandering hawks, and we found that either instinct or previous experience teaches these fierce hunters of the air that in the vicinity of their fellow-hunter, man, wounded birds may be found. One wounded chicken, which fell near us, was seized by a hawk immediately. As we passed one or two fields, indications of gophers appeared, their small mounds of earth cover- ing the ground. In some counties these animals formerly destroyed crops to such an extent that the celebrated " Gopher Act " was passed. This gave a bounty of two dollars for each scalp, and under it many farms yielded more to the acre than ever before or since. One of these animals which we secured re- sembled in size and shape the Norway rat, and, in the softness and color of its coat, was not unlike a mole. The oddest thing was its earth-pouches two open sacks, one on either side of its head, and capable of containing each a tablespoonful or more. ' These the gopher employs, in his subterranean researches, for 74 BUFFALO LAND. the same purpose that his enemy, man, does a wheel- barrow. Packing them with dirt, the little fellow trudges gayly to the surface, and there cleverly dumps his load. We reached town again, well pleased with our day's ride, and over our evening pipes discussed the results. Muggs thought our shot were too small. Sachem thought the birds were. Colon was delighted with the new State, but be- lieved that wing-shooting was not his forte. He would be more apt to hit a bird on the wing if he could only catch it roosting somewhere. Gripe, at the other end of the room, was piling Re- publican doctrines upon a bearded Democratic heathen from the Western border. CHAPTER V. A TRIAL BY JUDGE LTNCH HONG FOB CONTEMPT OF COURT QUAIL SHOOTING- HABITS OF THE BIRDS, AND MODE OF KILLING THEM A RING OF QUAILS THS EFFECTS OF A SEVERE WINTER THE SNOW GOOSE. A SHORT time after supper, Tenacious Gripe appeared with the mayor of the city, who wished to make the acquaintance of the Professor. The two august personages bowed to each other. It was the happiest moment in their respective lives, they declared. An invitation was extended us to delay our departure another d&y and try quail shoot- ing. The citizens said the birds were unusually abundant, the previous winter having been mild and the summer long enough for two separate broods to be hatched, and the brush and river banks were swarming with them. As we were about to abandon the birds of the West and seek an acquaintance with its beasts, we decided, after a brief consultation, to accept the invitation and remain another day. Among the persons present in the crowded office of the hotel, was a man from the southwestern part of the state who had lately been interested in a trial before the celebrated Judge Lynch. Sachem inter- viewed him, and reports his statement of the occur- rence in the log book, as follows : (75) 76 BUFFALO LAND. A stranger played me fur a fool, An' threw the high, low, jack, An' sold me the wuss piece of mule That ever humped a back. But that wer fair ; I don't complain, That I got beat in trade ; I don't sour on a fellow's gain, When sich is honest made. But wust wer this, he stole the mule, An' I were bilked complete ; Such thieves, we hossmen makes a rule To lift 'em from their feet. We started arter that 'ere pup, An' took the judge along, For fear, with all our dander up, We might do somethin' wrong. We caught him under twenty miles, An tried him under trees ; The judge he passed around the "smiles," As sort o' jury fees. "Pris'ner," says judge, " now say your say, An' make it short an' sweet, An', while yer at it, kneel and pray, For Death yer can not cheat. No man shall hang, by this 'ere court, Exceptin' on the square ; There's time fur speech, if so it's short, But none to chew or swear." QUAIL-HUNTING ON THE KAW. 79 An' then the thievin' rascal cursed, An' threw his life away, He said, " Just pony out your worst, Your best would be foul play." Then judge he frowned an awful frown, An' snapped this sentence short, " Jones, twitch the rope, an' write this down, Hung for contempt of court ! " Sharp 8 next morning saw us on the road leading east of town, the two dogs with us, and a young one additional, the property of a resident sportsman. Our last acquisition joined us on the run, and kept on it all day, going over the ground with the speed of a greyhound, his fine nose, however, giving him better success than his reckless pace would have indicated. Three miles from town, or half way between it and Tecumseh, our party left the wagon, with direc- tion for it to follow the road, while we scouted along on a parallel, following the river bank. The Kaw stretched eastward, broad and shallow, with numerous sand bars, and along its edges grew the scarlet sumach and some stunted bushes, and between these and the corn a high, coarse bottom grass, with intervals at every hundred yards or so apart of a shorter variety, like that on a poor prairie. Among the bushes, there was no grass whatever, and yet the birds seemed indifferently to frequent one spot equally with another. In less than ten minutes after leaving the wagon, all the dogs were pointing on a barren looking spot, 80 BUFFALO LAND. thinly sprinkled with scrubby bushes not larger than jimson-weeds. They were several yards apart, so that each animal was clearly acting on his own responsibility. If it puzzled us the day before to discover any signs of game under their noses, it certainly did so now. There was apparently no place of concealment for any object larger than a field-mouse. The bushes were wide apart, and the soil between was a loose sand. Around the roots of the scrubs, it is true, a few thin, wiry spears of grass struggled into existence, but these covered a space not larger than a man's hand, and it seemed preposterous to imagine that they could be capable of affording cover. That three dogs were pointing straight at three bushes was apparent, but we could see nothing in or about the latter calling for such attention. Shamus, who had accompanied us, wished to know if the twigs were witch hazels, because, if so, three invisible old beldames might be taking a nap under them, after a midnight ride. "But, then," said Do- been, "the dog's hairs don't stand on end as they always do in Ireland when they see ghosts and witches." We believe that our worthy cook was really disappointed in not discovering any stray broomsticks lying around. These, he afterward in- formed us, could not be made invisible, though their owners should take on airy shapes unrecognizable by mortal e}*es. Muggs had suggested urging the dogs in, but the party, wiser from yesterday's experience, desired a ground shot, if it could be secured. The Professor A WORSTED NIMROD. 81 adjusted his lens, and decided to make a personal inspection around the roots of the bush immediately in front of him. Carefully the sage bent over, the suspicious spot, and almost fell backward as, with a whiz and a dart, half a dozen quails flew out, brushing his very nose. Instantly every bush sent forth its fugitives. A flash of feathered balls, and they were all gone. Such whizzing and whirring! it was as if those scraggy bushes were mitrailleuses, in quick succession dis- charging their loads. Only one gun had gone off, but that so loudly that our ears rung for several seconds. Mr. Colon had accidentally rammed at least two, perhaps half a dozen, loads into one barrel, and the gun discharged with an aim of its own, the butt very low down. Two birds fell dead. But alas for our Nimrod! Colon stood with one hand on his stomach undecided whether that organ remained or not. On this point,, however, he was fully re-assured at the supper-table that night, and in all our after experience, we never knew that gun to have the least opportunity for going off, except when at its owner's shoulder, and he perfectly ready for it. The two birds were now submitted to the party for inspection. They were fine specimens of the Ameri- can quail, more properly called by those versed in quailology, the Bob White. This bird is very plen- tiful throughout Kansas, and just before the shoot- ing season commences, in September, will even fre- quent the gardens and alight on the houses of To- peka. They "lay close" before a dog, take flight 82 BUFFALO LAND. into air with a quick, whirring dart, and their shoot- ing deservedly ranks high. They are very rapid in their movements upon the ground, often running- fifty or seventy-five yards before hiding. When this takes place, so closely do they huddle that it is sel- dom more than the upper bird that can be seen. "Green hunters " sometimes pause, trying to discover the rest of the covey before firing, and experience a great and sudden disgust when the single bird which they have disdained suddenly develops into a dozen flying ones. We had an eventful days' sport, expending more ammunition than when among the chickens, and with more satisfactory results, as we brought in over two dozen birds. More than half of these were taken by Sachem at one lucky discharge. He saw a covey in the grass, huddled together as they generally are when not running. At these times they form a circle about as large in diameter as the hoop of a nail keg, with tails to the center and heads toward the outside. Fifteen quails would thus be a circle of fifteen heads, and a pail, could it be dropped over the covey, would cover them all. Not only is this an economy of warmth, there being no outsiders half of whose bodies must get chilled, but there is no blind side on which they can be approached, every portion of the circle having its full quota of eyes. Let skunk or fox, or other roamer through the grass, creep ever so stealthily, he will be seen and avoided by flight. Sachem aiming at the midst of such a ring, broke it tip as effectually as Boutwell's discharge of bullion did that on Wall Street. WE SEE SXOW-GEESE. 83 We have since found the frozen bodies of whole covies, which had gone to roost in a circle and been buried under such a heavy fall of snow that the birds could not force their way upward. Their habit is to remain in imprisonment, apparently waiting for the snow to melt before even making an effort for deliverance. Oftentimes it is then too late, a crust having formed above. A severe winter will some- times completely exterminate the birds in certain lo- calities. During this first day of quail-shooting, we also saw for the first time flocks of the snow-goose. The Pro- fessor counted fifty birds on one sand bar. This variety, in its flight across the continent, apparently passes through but a narrow belt of country, being found, to the best of my knowledge, in but few of the states outside of Kansas. Our return to the hotel was without accident, and our supper such as hungry hunters might well enjoy. After it was disposed of, we gathered around the ample stove in the hotel office, and lived over again the events of the day. CHAPTER VI. OFF FOR BUFFALO LAND THE NAVIGATION OP THE KAW FORT RILET THE CEN- TER-POST OF THE UNITED STATES OUR PURCHASE OF HORSES "LO" AS A SAVAGE AND AS A CITIZEN GRIPE UNFOLDS THE INDIAN QUESTION A BALLAD BY SACHEM, PRESENTING ANOTHER VIEW. NEXT morning we said good-by to hospitable To- peka, and took up our westward way over the Pacific Railroad. An ever-repeated succession of valley and prairie stretched away on either hand. To the left the Kaw came down with far swifter cur- rent than it has in its course below, from its far-away source in Colorado. It might properly be called one of the eaves or water-spouts of the great Rocky Mountain water-shed. With a pitch of over five feet to the mile, its pace is here necessarily a rapid one, and when at freshet height the stream is like a mill-race for foam and fury. At the junction of the Big Blue we found the old yet pretty town of Manhattan. To this point, in early times, water transit was once attempted. A boat of exceedingly light draught, one of those built to run on a heavy dew, being procured, freight was advertised for, and the navigation of the Kaw com- menced. The one hundred miles or more to Man- hattan was accomplished principally by means of the capstan, the boat being " warped " over the number- less shallows. This proved easier, of course a trifle (84) A FUTURE RALLY-POINT. 85 easier than if she had made the trip on macadamized roads. If her stern had a comfortable depth of water it was seldom indeed, except when her bow was in the air in the process of pulling the boat over a sand bar. The scared catfish were obliged to re- treat up stream, or hug close under the banks, to avoid obstructing navigation, and it is even hinted that more than one patriarch of the finny tribe had to be pried out of the way to make room for his new rival to pass. Once at Manhattan, the steamboat line was sus- pended for the season, its captain and crew deciding they would rather walk back to the Missouri River than drag the vessel there. Soon afterward, the steamer was burned at her landing, and the Kaw has remained closed to commerce ever since. About the same time, an enterprising Yankee ad- vocated in the papers the straightening of the river, and providing it with a series of locks, making it a canal. As he had no money of his own with which to develop his ideas into results, and could command nobody's else for that purpose, the project failed in its very inception. Fort Ililey, four miles below Junction City, is claimed as the geographical center of, the United States, the exact spot being marked by a post. What a rallying point that stick of wood will be for future generations ! When the corner-stone of the National Capitol shall there be laid, the orator of the day can mount that post and exclaim, with eloquent significance, elsewhere impossible, "No north, no south, no east, no west!" and enthusiastic multi- 5 86 BUFFALO LAXD. tucles, there gathered from the four quarters of the continent, will hail the words as the key-note of the republic. That spot of ground and that post are valuable. I hope a national subscription will be started to buy it. It is the only place on our continent which can ever be entirely free from local jealousies. There would be no possible argument for ever removing the capital. The Kaw could be converted into a magnificent canal, winding among picturesque hills past the base of the Capitol ; and then, in case of war, should any hostile fleet ever ascend the rapid Missouri, it would be but necessary for our legislators to grasp the canal locks, and let the water out, to insure their perfect safety. Imagine the humiliation of a foreign naval hero arriv- ing with his iron-clads opposite a muddy ditch, and finding it the only means of access to our capital ! A painful rumor has of late obtained circulation that a band of St. Louis ku-klux, yclept capital movers, intend stealing the pole and obliterating the hole. Let us hope, however, that it is without foundation. Before leaving Topeka, the party had purchased horses for the trip, and consigned the precious load to a car, sending a note to General Anderson, super- intendent, asking that they might be promptly and carefully forwarded to Hays City, our present ob- jective point upon the plains. The professor, bringing previous experience into requisition, selected a stout mustang probably as tractable as those brutes ever become. He was war- ranted by the seller never to tire, and he never did, keeping the philosopher constantly on the alert to IROX BILLY AFTER BUFFALO. 87 save neck and knees. It is the simple truth that, in all our acquaintance with him, that mustang never appeared in the least fatigued. After backing and shying all day, he would spend the night in kicking and stealing from the other horses. Mr. Colon, by rare good fortune, obtained a beau- tiful animal, formerly known in Leavenworth as Iron Billy a dark bay, with head and hair fine as a pointer's, limbs cut sharp, and joints of elastic. After carrying Mr. C. bravely for months, never tripping or failing, he was sold on our return to the then Secretary of State, who still owns him. More than once did Billy make his rider's arm ache from pulling at the curb, when the other horses were all knocked up by the rough day's riding. It was in- teresting to see him in pursuit of buffalo. He would often smell them when they were hidden in ravines, and we wholly unaware of their vicinity. Head and ears were erect in an instant, and, with nostrils ex- panded, forward he went, keeping eagerly in front at a peculiar prancing step which we called tiptoeing. Once in sight of the game, and the rider became a person of quite secondary importance. Billy said, as plainly as a horse could say any thing, "/ am going to manage this thing ; you stick on." And manage it he did. Not many moments, at the most, before he was at the quarters of the fleeing monsters, and nipping them mischievously with his teeth. I could always imagine him giving a downright horse-laugh, his big bright eyes sparkled so when the frightened bison, at the touch, gave a switch of his tail and a swerve of alarm, and plunged more wildly forward, BUFFALO LAND. If the rider wished to shoot, he could do so; if not, content himself, as Mr. Colon usually did, with cling- ing to the saddle, and uttering numberless expostu- latory but fruitless " whoa's." Once on our trip Billy was loaned for the day to a gentleman who wished to examine a prospective coal mine. When barely out of sight of camp, Billy dis- covered a herd of buffalo, and, despite the vehement remonstrances of his rider, straightway charged it. The mine-seeker was no hunter, but a wise and thor- oughly timid devotee of science in search of coal measures. A few moments, and the poor, frightened gentleman found himself in the midst of a surging mass of buffalo, his knees brushing their hairy sides, and their black horns glittering close around him, like an array of serried spears. He drew his knees into the saddle, and there, clinging like a monkey, lost his hat, his map of the mine, and his spectacles. He returned Billy as soon as he could get him back to camp, with expressions of gratitude that he had been allowed to escape with life, and never mani- fested the least desire to mount him again. Sachem's purchase was a horse which had run unaccountably to legs. He was sixteen hands high, a trifle knock-kneed, and with a way of flinging the limbs out when put to his speed which, though it seemed awkward enough, yet got over the ground remarkably well. With the shambling gait of a camel, he had also the good qualities of one, and did hfs owner honest service. Muggs bought a mule, partly because advised to do so by a plainsman, and partly because the rest of A SOLID BEAST. 89 us took horses. With true British obstinacy he paid no attention to our expostulations, and the creature he obtained was as obstinate as himself. Poor Muggs ! A mule may be good property in the hands of a plainsman, but was never intended to carry a Briton. Semi-Colon had the auction purchase, and Dobeen selected a Mexican donkey, one of the toughest little animals that ever pulled a bit. He could excel a trained mule in the feat of dislodging his rider, and had a remarkable penchant for running over persons who by chance might be looking the other way. It seemed to be his constant study to take unexpected positions, or, as Sachem phrased it, to "strike an attitude." My mount was a stout-built old mare, recommended to me as a solid beast, on the strength of which, and wishing to avoid experiments, I made purchase at once. I found her solid indeed. When on the gallop her feet came down with a shock which made my head vibrate, as if I had accidentally taken two steps instead of one, in descending a staircase. Could the good people of Topeka have gotten us to ride out of their town upon our several animals, it would have given them a fair idea of a mardi gras cavalcade in 'New Orleans. And so, our camp equipage and live stock follow- ing by freight, the express rolled us forward toward the great plains. So far along our route we had seen but few Indians, and those civilized specimens, such as straggle occasionally through the streets of Topeka. The Indian reservations in Kansas are at some dis- 90 BUFFALO LAND. tance apart, and their inhabitants frequently ex- change visits. The few whom we had seen consisted of Osages, Kaws, Pottawatomies, and Sioux, all equally dirty, but the last affecting clothes more than the others, and eschewing paint. . The members of this tribe, generally speaking, have good farms and are worth a handsome average per head. At the time of our visit they were expecting a half million dollars or so from Washington, and were soon to be- come American citizens. One privilege of this cit- izenship struck us as very peculiar. By the State law, as long as an Indian is simply an Indian, he can buy no whisky, and is thus cruelly debarred from the privilege of getting drunk, but once a voter, he can luxuriate in corn-juice and the calaboose, as well as his white brother. What a travesty upon American civilization and politics ! Muggs was prejudiced against the Osages, having been induced by one of them to invest in a bow and arrows, "for the Hinglish Museum, you know." On pulling for a trial shot, one end of the bow went further than the arrow, and the cord, warranted to be buffalo sinew, proved to be an oiled string. Sachem declared that he had found Muggs return- ing the wreck to the Indian with the following speech: " 0-sage, little was your wisdom to court thus the wrath of a Briton. Take with the two pieces this piece of my mind. That your noble form may be re- moved soon to the 'appy 'unting ground, where bow trades are not allowed, is the prayer of your patron, Muggs." Mr. Colon asked Tenacious Gripe to explain the DIVERSE APPLICATION OF SIMILAR PRINCIPLES. 93 condition of the Native Americans in Kansas. The orator kindly consented and thereupon discoursed as follows : " The Indians of Kansas are divided into the wild and the tame. Both alike cover their nakedness with bright handkerchiefs, old shirts, military coats, and many-hued ribbons. The principal difference in point of dress is in the method of procuring it. Among those tribes which are at peace with the government, the white man robs the Indian ; among the wild tribes the conditions are reversed the Indian robs the white man. In the one case the contractors and agents carry off their half million dollars or thereabouts ; in the other the savage bears away a quantity of old clothes and fresh scalps. As he finds it difficult to procure sufficient of the white man's justice to satisfy the cravings of his nature, he feeds it with what he can and whenever he can of revenge. Wise men tell us, gentlemen, that re- venge is sweet and justice a dry morsel. All Indians beg when they get an opportunity. The tame ones, *if they find it fruitless, divert themselves by selling worthless pieces of wood with strings attached, as bows. The wild ones, in a like predicament, relieve their tedium by whacking away at our ribs with bows that amount to something. The principles actuating both classes are alike. It is simply the application which causes difficulty in the one case an appeal with bow and arrows to our pockets, in the other to our bodies. "All our wars w;th these people, gentlemen, are a result of their political economy. They believe that 94 BUFFALO LAND. the Great Spirit provided buffalo and other game for his red children. When the white man drives these away, they understand that he takes their place as a means of sustenance, and as they have lived upon the one, so they intend to do upon the other. If the buffalo attempts to evade his duty in the prem- ises, they kill him and take his meat ; if the white man, they kill him and take his hair." Sachem produced a roll of dirty brown paper and said that he had studied the Indian question and found two sides to it. One he could give us in a nut- shell, believing that the meat of the nut had often excited the spirit of war. Where waters sung above the sand, And torrent forced its way, Stretched out, disgusted with the land, A bearded miner lay, Prepared to strike, with willing hand, Whatever lead would pay. Echo of hoof on beaten ground Rung on the desert air, Ringing a tune of gladsome sound To miner, watching there ; A paying lead, at last, he'd found The vein a " man of hair." An instant more, and at the ford A savage chief appeared ; The miner saw his goodly hoard, And tore his own good beard. (You '11 always find an ox is gored When sheep are to be sheared.) SACHEM'S BALLAD. 97 And these the words the miner said : "You've spoilt my drink, old fellow; You 've riled the brook, my brother red, And, by your cheek so yellow, To-night above your sandy bed The prairie gale shall bellow. u No relatives of mine are dead, At least by Injun cunnin', But many other hearts have bled, And many eyes are runnin'; For blood and tears alike are shed, When you go out a guunin'. " Some slumbrin' peaceful, first they knew, They heard your horrid din Women as well as men you slew, You bloody son of sin ; I mourn 'em all, revenge 'em too, Through Adam they were kin." This having said, the miner smart, Drew bead upon the red man : They're fond of beads it touched his heart, And Lo, behold, a dead man ; . % Upon Life's stage he'd played his part, A gory sort of head man ! Two packs of goods lay on the ground ; Quoth miner, " Lawful spoil ! My lucky star at last has found As good as gold and oil ; I kinder felt that fate was bound To bless my honest toil. 98 BUFFALO LAND. " Such heathen have no lawful heirs I '11 be the Probate Judge, i"or though they kinder go in pairs, Their love is all a fudge ; I '11 'ministrate on what he wears, And leave his squaw my grudge." CHAPTER VII. GRIPE'S VIEWS OP INDIAN CHARACTER THE DELAWARES' THE ISHMAEIITBS o THE PLAINS THE TERRITORY OF THE "LONG HORNS " TEXAN8 AND THEIE CHARACTERISTICS MUSHROOM ROCK A VALUABLE DISCOVERY FOOTPRINTS IN THE ROCK THE PRIMEVAL PAUL AND VIRGINIA. WE noticed many fine rivers rolling from the northward into the Kaw, which stream we found was known by that name only after receiving the Republican, at Junction City. Above that point, under the name of the Smoky Hill, it stretches far out across the plains, and into the eastern portion of Colorado. Along its desolate banks we afterward saw the sun rise and set upon many a weary and many a gorgeous day. All the large tributaries of the Kansas river, con- sisting of the Big Blue, Republican, Solomon, and Saline, came in on our right. Upon our left, , toward the South, only small creeks joined waters with the Kaw, the pitch of the great "divides" there being towards the Arkansas and its feeders, the Cotton- wood and Neosho. We had now fairly entered on the great Smcky Hill trail. Here Fremont marked out his path to- wards the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, and on many of the high buttes we discovered the pillars of (99) 100 BUFFALO LAND. stone which he had set up as guides for emigrant trains, looking wonderfully like sentinels standing guard over the valleys beneath. Indeed we did at first take them for solitary herders, watching their cattle in some choice pasture out of sight. Most of our party had expected to find Indians in promiscuous abundance over the entire State, and we were therefore surprised to see the country, after passing St. Mary's Mission, entirely free of them. Muggs asked Gripe if the American Indian was hostile to all nationalities alike, or simply to those who robbed him of his hunting-grounds. The orator replied as follows: "Sir, the aborigine of the western plains cares not what color or flavor the fruit possesses which hangs from his roof tree. The cue of the Chinaman is equally as acceptable as hairs from the mane of the English lion. A red lock is as welcome as a black one, and disputes as to ownership usually result in a dead-lock. His abhorrence is a wig, which he considers a contrivance of the devil to cheat honest Indian industry. I would advise geologists on the plains to carry, along with their picks for breaking stones, a bottle of patent hair restorative. It is handy to have in one's pocket when his scalp is far on its -way towards some Cheyenne war-pole. The scalping process, gentlemen, is the way in which savages levy and collect their poll-tax. Any person in search of romantic wigwams can have his wig warmed very thoroughly on the Arkansas or Texas borders. On the plains along the western border of Kansas, however, geologists can find a rich and com- THE INDIAN ISHMAEL. 101 I paratively safe field for exploration. It is doubtful if the savages ever wander there again. "Of the Indian warrior on the plains we may well say, requiescat in pace, and may his pace be rapid towards either civilization or the happy hunting ground. History shows that his reaching the first has generally given him quick transit to the second. The white man's country has proved a spirit-land to Lo, whose noble soul seems to sink when the scalp- ing-knife gathers any other rust than that of blood, and whose prophetic spirit takes flight at the pros- pect of exchanging boiled puppies and dirt for the white brother's pork and beans. Very often, how- ever, it must be said, Lo's soul is gathered to his fathers by reason of its tabernacle being smitten too sorely by corn lightning." * As Gripe paused, the Professor took up the sub- ject in a somewhat different strain : "We have here in this State," remarked he, "a tribe which may well be called the Indian Ishmael. Its hand is and ever has been, since history took record of it, against its brethren, and its brethren's against it. I refer to the pitiful remnant of the once great Delawares. From the shores of the Atlantic they have steadily retreated before civilization, marking their path westward by constant conflicts with other races of red men. The nation in its eastern forests once numbered thousands of warriors. Now, three hundred miserable survivors are hasten- ing to extinction by way of their Kansas reservation. " A number of their best warriors have been em- ployed as scouts by the government, when administer- 102 BUFFALO LAND. ing well merited chastisement to other murdering bands. The Delawares, I have often thought, are like blood-hounds on the track of the savages of the plains. They take fierce delight in scanning the ground for trails and the lines of the streams for camps. There is something strangely unnatural in the wild eyes of these Ishmaelites, as they lead the destroyers against their race, and assist in blotting it from the face of the continent. Themselves so nearly joined to the nations known only in history, it is like a plague-stricken man pressing eagerly for- ward to carry the curse, before he dies, to the re- mainder of his people." The valleys of the Saline, Solomon, and Smoky Hill, as we passed them in rapid succession, seemed very rich and were already thickly dotted with houses. This is one of the best cattle regions of the state, and vast herds of the long-horned Texan breed cov- ered the prairies. We were informed that they often graze throughout the entire winter. As early in the spring as the grass starts sufficiently along the trail from Texas to Kansas, the stock dealers of the former State commence moving their immense herds over it. The cattle are driven slowly forward, feed- ing as they come, and reach the vicinity of the Kansas railroads when the grass is in good condition for their summer fattening. As many as five hundred thou- sand head of these long horns have been brought into the State in a single season. Some are sold on arrival and others kept until fall, when the choicest beeves are shipped East for packing purposes, or into Illinois for corn feeding. The latter is the case when they THE GENUS TEXAN. 103 are destined eventually for consumption in Eastern markets, grass-fed beef lacking the solid fatness of the corn-fed, and suffering more by long trans- portation. This very important trade in cattle, when fully de- veloped, will probably be about equally divided be- tween southern and central Kansas, each of which possesses its peculiar advantages for the business. While the valley of the Arkansas has longer grass, and more of it, the dealers in tne Kaw region claim that their "feed" is the most nutritious. My own opinion, carefully formed, is that both sections are about equally good, and that the whole of western Kansas, with Colorado, will yet become the greatest stock-raising region of the world. The climate is pecu- liarly favorable. Two seasons out of three, on an average, cattle and sheep can graze during the winter, without any other cover than that of the ravines and the timber along the creeks. The herders who manage these large bodies of cat- tle are a distinctive and peculiar class., We saw numbers of them scurrying along over the country on their wild, lean mustangs, in appearance a species of centaur, half horse, half man, with immense rat- tling spurs, tanned skin, and dare-devil, almost fero- cious faces. After an extensive acquaintance with the genus Texan, and with all due allowance for the better portion of it, I must say, as my deliberate judgment, that it embraces a larger number of mur- derers and desperadoes than can be found elsewhere in any civilized nation. A majority of these herders would think no more of snuffing out a life than of 104 BUFFALO LAND. snuffing out a candle. Texas, in her rude solitude, formerly stretched protecting arms to the evil doers from other states, and to her these classes flocked. She offered them not a city but a whole empire of refuge. Just beyond Brookville, two hundred miles from the eastern border of Kansas, our road commenced ascending the Harker Bluffs, a series of sandstone ridges bordering on the plains. On our left, Mushroom Rock was pointed out to us, a huge table of stone poised on a solitary pillar, and strangely resembling the plant from which it is named. As the professor informed us, we were on the eastern shore of a once vast inland ocean, the bed of which now forms the plains. Sachem thought the rock might be a petrified toad-stool, on a scale with the gigantic toads which hopped around in the mud of that age of monsters. The professor thought it was fashioned by the waters, in their eddyings and washings. Subsequent examinations showed this entire region to be one of remarkable interest to the geologist. A few miles east of Mushroom Rock, near Bavaria, as we learned from the conductor, human foot-prints had been discovered in the sandstone. The pro- fessor, who had long ascribed to man an earlier ex- istence upon earth than that given him by geology, was greatly excited, and at his earnest request, when the down train was met, we returned upon it to Ba- varia. That place we found to consist of two buildings, each serving the double purpose of house and store, MUSHROOM ROCK, On Alum Creek, near Kansas Pacific R. R. From a Photograph. INDIAN ROCK, on Smoky Hill River, Kansas From a Photograph. ; MUMMIES MADE MODERN. 107 the 'track, running between them. Two sandstone blocks, each weighing several hundred pounds, lay in front of one of the stores, and there, sure enough, impressed clearly and deeply upon their surface were the tracks of human feet. They had been discovered by a Mr. J. B. Hamilton on the adjacent bluffs. There was something weird and startling in tliis voice from those long-forgotten ages ages no less remote than when the ridge we were standing upon was a portion of a lake shore. The man who trod those sands, the professor informed us, perished from the face of the earth countless ages before the oldest mummy was laid away in the caves of Egypt ; and yet people looked at the shriveled Egyptian, and thought that they were holding converse with one who lived close upon the time of the oldest inhabitant. They wrested secrets from his tomb, and called them very ancient. And now this dweller beside the great lakes had lifted his feet out of the sand to kick the mummy from his pedestal of honor in the museum, as but a being of yesterday, in comparison with himself. This discovery was soon afterward extensively noticed in the newspapers, and the specimens are now in the collection made by our party at Topeka. It is but fair to say that a difference of opinion exists in regard to these imprints. Many scientific men, among whom is Professor Cope, affirm that they must be the work of Indians long ago, as the age of the rock puts it beyond the era of man, while others attribute them to some lower order of animal, with a foot resembling the human one. For my own part, after careful examination, I accept our profes- 6 108 BUFFALO LAND. sor's theory, that the imprints are those of human feet. The surface of the stone has been decided by experts to be bent down, not chiseled out. Science not long ago ridiculed the primitive man, which it now accepts. It is not strange, therefore, that science should protest against its oldest inhabitant stepping out from ages in which it had hitherto for bidden him existence. We also found on the rocks fine impressions of leaves, resembling those of the magnolia, and gathered a bushel of petrified walnuts and butternuts. There were no other indications whatever of trees, the whole country, as far as we could see, being a deso- late prairie. " Gentlemen," said the professor, " as surely as you stand on the shore of a great lake, which passed away in comparatively modern times, science stands on the brink of important revelations. We have here the evidence of the rocks that man existed on this earth when the vast level upon which you are about to enter was covered by its mass of water. The waves lapped against the Rocky Mountains on the west, and against the ridges on which you are standing, upon the east. From previous explorations, I can assure you that the buffalo now feed over a sur- face strewn with the remains of those monsters which inhabited the waters of the primitive world, and the grasses suck nutriment from the shells of centuries. Geology has held that man did not exist during the time of the great lakes. I assert that he did, gentlemen, and now an inhabitant of that period steps forward to confirm my position. This man PRIMITIVE LOVERS. 109 walked barefooted, and yet the contour of one of the feet, so different in shape from that of any wild people's of the present day, shows that it had been confined by some stiff material, like our leather shoes. The appearance of the big toe is especially confirma- tory of this. I would call your attention, gentlemen, to the block which contains companion impressions of the right and left foot. The latter is deep, and well defined, every toe being separate and perfect. The former is shallow, and spread out, with bulged- up ridges of stojie between each toe. These are ex- actly the impressions your own feet would make, on such a shore to-day, were the sand under the right one to be of such a yielding nature that in moving you withdrew it quickly, and rested more heavily on the other, the material under which was firmer. Your right track would spread, the mud bulging up between the toes, and forcing them out of position, and the material nearly regaining its level, with a misshapen impression upon its surface. " You will also perceive that the sand was already hardening into rock when our ancient friends walked over it. I use the plural because, if I may venture an opinion from this hasty examination, I should say the two tracks were those of a female, the single one that of a man. From the position of the blocks they were probably walking near each other at that pre- cise time when the new rock was soft enough to re- ceive an impression and hard enough to retain it. You will perceive that the surface of the stone is bent down into the cavities, as that of a loaf of half-raised bread would be should you press your hand into it." 110 BUFFALO LAND. Sachem thought that the couple might have been an ancient Paul and Virginia telling their love on the shores of the old-time lake. The Professor continued : " You notice close beside the two imprints an oval, rather deep hole in the rock, precisely like that a boy Often makes by whirl- ing on one heel in the sand." Sachem again interrupted: "Perhaps the maiden went through the fascinating evolution of revolving her body while her mind revolved the ' yes ' or l no ' to her swain's question. It might fee a refined way