THE ACCESSORIES.

The pool of water is a typical alkaline water-hole, such as are found on the great northern range of bison, and are resorted to for water by wild animals in the fall when the small streams are dry.  The pool is in a depression in the dry bed of a coulée or small creek.  A little mound that rises beside the creek has been partially washed away by the water, leaving a crumbling bank, which shows the strata of the earth, a very thin layer of vegetable soil, beneath a stratum of grayish earth, and a layer of gravel, from which protrude a fossil bone or two.  The whole bank shows the marks of erosion by water.  Near by the pool a small section of the bank has fallen.  A buffalo trail passes by the pool in front.  This is a narrow path, well beaten down, depressed, and bare of grass.  Such paths were made by herds of bison all over their pasture region as they traveled down water-courses, in single file, searching for water.  In the grass some distance from the pool lie the bleaching skulls of two buffalo who have fallen victims to hunters who have cruelly lain in wait to get a shot at the animals as they come to drink.  Such relics, strewn all over the plain, tell the story of the extermination of the American bison.  About the pool and the sloping mound grow the low buffalo-grass, tufts of tall bunch-grass and sage-brush, and a species of prickly pear.  The pool is clear and tranquil.  About its edges is a white deposit of alkali.  These are the scenic accessories of the buffalo group, but they have an interest almost equal to that of the buffaloes themselves, for they form really and literally a genuine bit of the West.  The homesick Montana cowboy, far from his wild haunts, can here gaze upon his native sod again; for the sod, the earth that forms the face of the bank, the sage-brush, and all were brought from Montana—­all except the pool.  The pool is a glassy delusion, and very perfect in its way.  One sees a plant growing beneath the water, and in the soft, oozy bottom, near the edge, are the deep prints made by the fore feet of a big buffalo bull.  About the soft, moist earth around the pool, and in the buffalo trail are the foot-tracks of the buffalo that have tramped around the pool, some of those nearest the edge having filled with water.

THE SIX BUFFALOES.

The group comprises six buffaloes.  In front of the pool, as if just going to drink, is the huge buffalo bull, the giant of his race, the last one that was secured by the Smithsonian party in 1888, and the one that is believed to be the largest specimen of which there is authentic record.  Near by is a cow eight years old, a creature that would be considered of great dimensions in any other company than that of the big bull.  Near the cow is a suckling calf, four months old.  Upon the top of the mound is a “spike” bull, two and a half years old; descending the mound away from the pool is a young