ge appears to me of a
purer black, and the skin of his head, neck, and legs, of a much more
vivid red--having an appearance as if these parts had been painted. I
think naturalists will yet discover, that besides the great Californian
vulture, there are three if not _four_ species of the smaller
_cathartes_."

So much for the vultures of America.

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.

SUPPING UPON A SKELETON.

Our young travellers had now arrived upon the great buffalo-path.
Without halting, they turned their horses to the right, and followed the
trail. It led directly towards the north, and they had no difficulty in
following it, as the prairie, for a tract of miles in width, was cut up
by the hoofs of the animals; and, in some parts, where the ground was
softer and more loamy, the surface presented the appearance of having
been turned up by the plough! At other places the hard green turf had
resisted the hoof, but even there the grass was so beaten down, that the
trail was a perfectly plain one. Without troubling themselves about the
direction, therefore, the little party rode briskly forward, full of
hope that they would soon overtake the buffaloes. But their hopes were
not so soon to be realised. These animals had gone upon their annual
migration to the north; and as they were keeping almost continually upon
the run--scarcely stopping to rest or pasture themselves--it would be no
easy matter to come up with them. At night our travellers were obliged
to diverge from the trail, in order to get grass for their horses; for,
upon a belt of at least four miles in width which the buffaloes had
passed over, not a blade of grass was left standing.

But another want now began to be felt by the party--one that filled them
with serious apprehensions. At the end of the second day their stock of
dried bear's meat gave out--not an ounce of it was left--and they lay
down upon the prairie supperless and hungry. What rendered the prospect
still more disheartening, they were passing through a region entirely
destitute of game--where no animal is ever seen except the buffaloes
themselves, an occasional antelope, or the ever-present prairie-wolf.
It was a region essentially _desert_ in its character; although the dry
plains were covered with a sward of the famous "buffalo-grass"
(_Sesleria dactyloides_), which forms the favourite pasture of these
wild cattle. As for the antelopes, they love these desert solitudes; as
their free open