s was her public domain, I could not afford to allow this
advancing prosperity to catch me asleep again, and I firmly concluded
to empty that little tin trunk of its musty land scrip. True enough,
the present boom was not noticeable on the frontier, yet there was
a buoyant feeling in the air that betokened a brilliant future.
Something enthused me, and as my creed was land and cattle, I made up
my mind to plunge into both to my full capacity.

The last outfit to return from the summer's drive was detained on the
Clear Fork to assist in the fall branding. Another one of fifteen men
all told was chosen from the relieved lads in making up a surveying
party, and taking fifty saddle horses and a well-stocked commissary
with us, we started due west. I knew the country for some distance
beyond Fort Griffin, and from late maps in possession of the
surveyors, we knew that by holding our course, we were due to strike
a fork of the mother Brazos before reaching the Staked Plain. Holding
our course contrary to the needle, we crossed the Double Mountain
Fork, and after a week out from the ranch the brakes which form the
border between the lowlands and the Llano Estacado were sighted.
Within view of the foothills which form the approach of the famous
plain, the Salt and Double Mountain forks of the Brazos are not over
twelve miles apart. We traveled up the divide between these two
rivers, and when within thirty miles of the low-browed borderland a
halt was called and we went into camp. From the view before us one
could almost imagine the feelings of the discoverer of this continent
when he first sighted land; for I remember the thrill which possessed
our little party as we looked off into either valley or forward to the
menacing Staked Plain in our front. There was something primal in the
scene,--something that brought back the words, "In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth." Men who knew neither creed nor
profession of faith felt themselves drawn very near to some great
creative power. The surrounding view held us spellbound by its beauty
and strength. It was like a rush of fern-scents, the breath of pine
forests, the music of the stars, the first lovelight in a mother's
eye; and now its pristine beauty was to be marred, as covetous eyes
and a lust of possession moved an earth-born man to lay hands on all
things created for his use.

Camp was established on the Double Mountain Fork. Many miles to the
north, a spur