e celebrated "cotton-wood," a species of poplar
(_Populus angulatus_). I say celebrated, because, being almost the only
tree of large size which is found throughout the region of the great
plains, it is well-known to all hunters and prairie travellers, who
regard it with a peculiar veneration. A grove of cotton-wood is always
a glad sight to those who traverse the limitless levels of the prairie.
It promises shelter from the wind or sun, wood for the camp-fire, and,
above all, water to slake the thirst. As the ocean mariner regards the
sight of the welcome port, with similar feelings of joy the mariner of
the "prairie-sea" beholds, over the broad waste, the silvery foliage of
the cotton-wood grove, regarding it as his temporary home--his place of
rest and refuge.

After travelling through hundreds of small prairies, separated from each
other by groves of cotton-wood, we arrived at a high point on the waters
of the "Little Osage," another tributary of the larger river of that
name. As yet we had met with no traces of the buffalo, and were
beginning to doubt the correctness of the information we had received at
Saint Louis, when we fell in with a band of Kansas Indians--a friendly
tribe--who received us in the most courteous manner. From them we
learned that the buffalo had been upon the Little Osage at an earlier
period in that same year, but that harassed and decimated by their own
hunters, they had roamed much farther west, and were now supposed to be
on the other side of the "Neosho," or Grand River--a northern tributary
of the Arkansas.

This was anything but pleasant news. We should have at least another
hundred miles to travel before coming up with our game; but there was no
thought of going back, until we had done so. No. One and all declared
that rather than give up the object of our expedition, we would travel
on to the Rocky Mountains themselves, risking the chances of being
scalped by hostile Indians.

There was a good deal of bravado in this, it is true; but we were fully
determined that we would not go back without our buffalo-hunt.

Thanking our Kansas friends for their courtesy, we parted from them, and
headed westward for the Neosho.

As we proceeded, timber became scarce, until at length it was found only
on the banks of streams widely distant from each other. Sometimes not a
tree was in sight for the whole day's journey. We were now fairly on
the prairies.

We crossed the Neosho at leng