regions,
the hung buffalo proved useful and nutritious.

For several hundred miles, our track lay across the
prairie--monotonous, and comparatively uninteresting now, in its
covering of white--but in early summer clad in lively green and
carpeted with flowers. I read that this fine cultivable well-watered
country extends seven hundred miles north and south, along the eastern
base of the Rocky Mountains, with an average width of two hundred
miles. It is said to be amongst the finest grazing land in the world,
with pasturage for millions of cattle and sheep.

Shortly after passing Antelope Station, the track skirts the "Prairie
Dog City," which I knew at once by its singular appearance. It
consists of hundreds of little mounds of soil, raised about a foot and
a half from the ground. There were, however, no dogs about at the
time. The biting cold had doubtless sent them within doors. Indeed, I
saw no wild animals on my journey across the continent, excepting only
some black antelopes with white faces, that I saw on the plains near
this Prairie Dog City.

For a distance of more than five hundred miles--from leaving Cheyenne
until our arrival in Omaha--the railway held along the left bank of
the Lodge Pole Creek, then along the South Fork or Platte river, and
finally along the main Platte river down to near its junction with the
Missouri. When I went to sleep on the night of the 11th of
February--my fourth night in the railway train--we were travelling
through the level prairie; and when I woke up on the following
morning, I found we were on the prairie still.

At seven in the morning, we halted at the station of Grand Island--so
called from the largest island in the Platte river, near at hand. Here
I had breakfast, and a good wash in ice-cold water. Although the snow
is heavier than ever, the climate seems already milder. Yet it is very
different indeed from the sweltering heat of Honolulu only some twelve
days ago. At about 10 A.M., we bid adieu to the uninhabited
prairie--though doubtless before many years are over, it will be
covered with farms and homesteads--and approached the fringe of the
settled country; patches of cultivated land and the log huts of the
settlers beginning to show themselves here and there alongside the
track.

Some eighty miles from Omaha, we cross the north fork of the Platte
river over one of the usual long timber bridges on piles,--and
continue to skirt the north bank of the Great Platte