“I should think you had plenty of game here?” said Ernest Wilton, when they had left Minturne Creek some distance behind them, and entered upon an extensive prairie, that stretched before them, in waves of grass as far as the eye could reach, to the horizon.
“I should think so,” said Mr Rawlings. “Why, it swarms with it.”
“What sort?” asked the other. “Any deer?”
“Every variety you can almost mention. Deer, elk, moose—although these are to be found more to the northwards—antelope, mountain-sheep—as you know already—grizzly bears—if you relish such customers—and buffalo as soon as the sweet summer grasses crop up here, and the pasturage to the south loses its flavour for them.”
“That’s a pretty good catalogue,” said Ernest, who was a keen sportsman. “Any birds?”
“The most uncommon slap-up flying game, I guess, in creation,” said Seth, “if yer cares to tackle with sich like; though I prefers runnin’ game, I does.”
“Seth is right,” said Mr Rawlings; “you will have a varied choice there likewise: grouse, partridge, prairie-fowl, wild geese, ducks—these two, however, are more to be met with in the winter months, and will be off to the Arctic regions soon—all sorts, in fact. And as to fishing, the salmon and trout—the latter of which you’ll find in every stream in the neighbourhood—beat those of England.”
“Well,” said Ernest, laughing, “if your report be true, as I see no reason to doubt, you must have discovered those happy hunting-grounds to which all good Indians go when they die.”
“Don’t talk of Injuns,” said Seth with a shiver and a shake. “That’s the worst part of the hull thing, I reckon. If it warn’t for them, the place would be a kinder paradise—it would so, sirree; but those Injuns spile it all.”
“What he says is true enough,” observed Mr Rawlings. “We are in the very heart of the Indian country, with Blackfeet, Crows, and Sioux, not to mention lesser fry, within striking distance; and if there should be a rising amongst them, as it is threatened this spring or summer, it would be a bad thing for the people in the sparse and scattered settlements in Dakota.”