Our wounded game looked formidable, and we approached cautiously. He made several efforts to run, but each time fell forward, in plunging slides, on his nose and side, rubbing the hair from the latter, and daubing the ground with blood from his nostrils. Muggs felt free to confess that even the pampered stags of England, when perilously roused from their well-kept glens, by over-fed hunters in killing coats and boots, never presented such a picture of wild beauty and agony, colored just the least bit with danger. At this "kill" we lost our black hound. Tempted to incaution by the sight of the noble elk standing wounded and at bay, or else excited by its blood, the dog sprang forward. A chance blow of the massive horns knocked him over, and in an instant more the beast had stamped him to death.
We finished the elk by a united volley, and added him to our trophies. The horns, resting upon their tips, gave space for one of our Mexicans, five feet two in stature, to pass beneath them erect. Elk hairs are remarkably elastic. Single ones obtained from this specimen stretched by trial with the fingers, and detached from the skin so easily that the latter seemed worthless.
During the day we found and secured the remains of two saurians—one about eight and the other ten feet in length, and also the tooth of a fossil horse, quite a number of curious bubble-shaped pieces of iron pyrites, and some fine petrifactions, in the way of butternuts and fragments of trees. The soft, white limestone, mentioned more than once before in this record of our expedition, appeared along our paths in fine outcrops, and contained very perfect fossil shells.
Abe, our guide, told us that a year or two previous, during a winter of unusual severity, he had found a flock of Rocky Mountain sheep feeding near the Solomon. This was the only instance which came to our knowledge of that animal having been seen upon the plains.
We had an amusing experience, before night, with turkeys, hunting them in novel style. The birds were wild from recent pursuit, and, the instant they saw us, would leave the narrow fringe of timber, and run off into the ravines. Then would commence a ludicrous chase, each rider plying spurs, and pursuing. There went Sachem, on his long-legged purchase, the beast staggering and stumbling through ravines; and Semi also, upon Cynocephalus, whose abbreviated tail was hoisted straight in air, while at the other extremity his nose stretched well out and took in air under asthmatic protests. Rearward was the Mexican donkey, arguing the point with Dobeen whether or not to enter the race. Ahead of all went the wild turkeys, running like ostriches. The bird is a heavy one, and its short flights and runs, therefore, though rapid, can not be long continued. Seeing the pursuit gaining, it would turn to the woods again for protection. Other riders would there head it off, and soon, completely exhausted and only able to stagger along, it was easily taken. In this manner, we obtained over twenty turkeys while passing along the river.
MORE OF OUR SPECIMENS—PHOTOGRAPHED BY J. LEE KNIGHT, TOPEKA, KANS. PRAIRIE CHICKENS. HEAD OF AN ELK. WILD TURKEY. BEAVER.
That evening we reached the little settlement on the Solomon, which was the Canaan of all our wanderings to certain members of our party, and went into camp among the Sydneys and their neighbors. Our welcome was a warm one, and it took Shamus but a few moments to find our friend's kitchen, where he at once installed himself in the dual capacity of lover and assistant cook, discharging the duties of each position to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. Our supper with the Sydney family seemed like civilization again, notwithstanding that we were still on the uttermost bounds of civilized manners and customs. The Professor, sitting next to Miss Flora, was the very picture of happiness, and "all went merry as a marriage bell." Even Sachem ceased to sulk before the meal was ended.
At dusk, as we were assuring ourselves by personal inspection that the camp was in proper order, a familiar form came stalking toward us in the gathering gloom. "Tenacious Gripe!" cried the Professor; and so it was. Our friend's ribs had been repaired, and he was now on a mission along the Solomon river, holding railroad meetings in the different counties. The progressive westerner, when he has nothing else to do, is in the habit of starting out on a tour for the purpose of inducing the dear people to vote county bonds for a new railroad, and such a westerner was Gripe.