The Great Lone Land: A Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North-West of AmericaButler, William Francis, Sir
History
The Great Lone Land: A Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North-West of America
Butler, William Francis, Sir
Northwest, Canadian -- Description and travel
the plains from an elevation of twelve feet above the earth is to survey
at a glance a space so vast that distance alone seems to bound its
limits. The effect of sunset over these oceans of verdure is very
beautiful; a thousand hues spread themselves upon the grassy plains; a
thousand tints of gold are cast along the heavens, and the two oceans of
the sky and of the earth intermingle in one great blaze of glory at the
very gates of the setting sun. But to speak of sunsets now is only to
anticipate. Here at the Red River we are only at the threshold of the
sunset, its true home yet lies many days journey to the west: there,
where the long shadows of the vast herds of bison trail slowly over the
immense plains, huge and dark against the golden west; there, where the
red man still sees in the glory of the setting sun the realization of his
dream of heaven.
Shooting the prairie plover, which were numerous around the solitary
shanty, gossipping with Mr. Connelly on Western life and Red River
experiences--I passed the long July day until evening came to a close.
Then came the time of the mosquito; he swarmed around the shanty, he came
out from blade of grass and up from river sedge, from the wooded bay and
the dusky prairie, in clouds and clouds, until the air hummed with his
presence. My host "made a smoke," and the cattle came close around and
stood into the very fire itself, scorching their hides in attempting to
escape the stings of their ruthless tormentors. My friend's house was not
a large one, but he managed to make me a shake-down on the loft overhead,
and to it he led the way. To live in a country infested by mosquitoes
ought to insure to a person the possession of health, wisdom, and riches,
for assuredly I know of nothing so conducive to early turning in and
early turning out as that most pitiless pest. On the present occasion I
had not long turned in before I became aware of the presence of at least
two other persons within the limits of the little loft, for only a few
feet distant soft whispers became fintly audible. Listening attentively,
I gathered the following dialogue:
"Do you think he has got it about him?"
"Maybe he has," replied the first speaker with the voice of a woman.
"Are you shure he has it at all at all?"
"Didn't I see it in his own hand?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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