PERILOUS JOURNEY
After several days I arrived at the end of my railway journey,
Junction City, without delay or accident. The trip was not lacking in
interesting details. The monotony of the never ending prairie was at
times enlivened by herds of buffalo and antelope. On one occasion
they delayed our train for several hours. An enormous herd of
thousands upon thousands of buffalo crossed the railroad track in
front of our train. Bellowing, crowding, and pushing, they were not
unlike the billows of an angry sea as it crashes and foams over the
submerged rocks of a dangerous coast. Their rear guard was made up of
wolves, large and small. They followed the herd stealthily, taking
advantage of every hillock and tuft of buffalo grass to hide
themselves. The gray wolf or lobo, larger and heavier than any dog,
and adorned with a bushy tall was a fierce-looking animal, to be
sure. The smaller ones were called coyotes or prairie wolves, and are
larger than foxes and of a gray-brown color. These are the scavengers
of the plains, and divide their prey with the vultures of the air.
At times we passed through villages of the prairie dog, consisting of
numberless little mounds, with their owners sitting erect on top.
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