th--still no buffalo.

We kept on, and crossed several other large streams, all flowing
south-eastwardly to the Arkansas. Still no buffalo.

We began to yearn exceedingly for a sight of the great game. The few
deer that were killed from time to time offered us but poor sport, and
their meat was not sufficient for our supply.

Of bacon we were heartily tired, and we longed for fresh buffalo-beef.
The praises lavished by our guides upon the delicacy of this viand--
their talk over the camp-fire, about "fat cow" and "_boudins_" and
"hump-ribs," quite tantalised our palates, and we were all eager to try
our teeth upon these vaunted tit-bits. No buffalo appeared yet, and we
were forced to chew our bacon, as well as our impatience, for several
days longer.

A great change now took place in the appearance of the country. The
timber became still more scarce, and the soil drier and more sandy.
Species of cactus (_opuntia_) appeared along the route, with several
other plants new to the eyes of most of us, and which to those of
Besancon were objects of extreme interest. But that which most
gratified us was the appearance of a new herbage, different entirely
from what we had been passing over, and this was hailed by our guides
with exclamations of joy. It was the celebrated "buffalo grass." The
trappers declared we should not have much farther to go until we found
the buffaloes themselves, for, wherever this grass existed in plenty,
the buffalo, unless driven off by hunting, were sure to be found.

The buffalo grass is a short grass, not more than a few inches in
height, with crooked and pointed culms, often throwing out suckers that
root again, and produce other leaves and culms, and in this way form a
tolerably thick sward. When in flower or seed, it is headed by numerous
spikes of half an inch in length, and on these the spikelets are regular
and two rowed.

It is a species of _Sesleria_ (_Sesleria dactyloides_), but Besancon
informed us that it possesses characters that cause it to differ from
the genus, and to resemble the _Chondrosium_.

The buffalo grass is not to be confounded with, another celebrated grass
of the Texan and North Mexican prairies, the "gramma" of the Spaniards.
This last is a true Chondrosium, and there are several species of it.
The _Chondrosium foeneum_ is one of the finest fodders in the world for
the food of cattle, almost equal to unthrashed oats.

The buffalo grass forms the favourite