Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 V13.djvu/271

 13th.] We were again on our way soon after sunrise, and still continued through plains destitute of timber. After proceeding about four miles, we passed another insignificant brook, and about six miles {200} further a second of the same magnitude. We observed very little game. Yesterday, Mr. Lee pointed out to me the burrow of a badger, about the size of those made by the prairie wolf. Still proceeding, a little to the north of west, about 10 miles further, we came to a considerable rivulet of clear and still water, deep enough to swim our horses. We kept for about two miles through the entangled thickets, by which it was bordered, in search of a ford. Both above and below it was bordered by wooded hills, which appeared almost to shut up our course, and terminate the prairies. This stream was called the Little North Fork[204] (or branch) of the Canadian, and emptied into the main North Fork of the same river, nearly 200 miles distant, including its meanders, which have been ascended by the trappers of beaver. Having encamped, without crossing the rivulet, towards evening, I was about to bathe, but was sufficiently deterred by the discovery of a poisonous water snake, lurking a few yards from the spot I had chosen. No change yet appears in the vegetation; and the superincumbent rock continues arenaceous. No mountains or picturesque prospects present themselves to amuse the eye. Occasionally, indeed the monotonous plain is diversified by the view of low and broken ridges, often presenting isolated hills, deserted by the more friable materials with which they were once surrounded, and now presenting the fantastic appearance of artificial tumuli, and piles of ruins. In the course of the day we passed three or four of these hillocks, of considerable elevation. About six miles from our encampment, to the