Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1872-08-16


and less fertile border, mile after mile, hour
after hour of plain appears, sometimes as
flat as a billiard table and somewhat re-
SombJlnG one i'll its close carpet of even
green, sometimes tndtIlating just enough
to give one the idea of the same carpet
seen from a rocking chair ia rapid motion.
And SO we slip on and on, till the world
seems one long, sweet, green dream; the
attention being only occasionally aroused
by little patches OF grain and vegetables,
with their neighboring cabins, which alone,
with an ilhrequent drove of Texas cattle,
come to break the sunny mOnotony. The
spots OF cultivation occur sometimes quite
close together, and mark the first attempt
of some sturdy fellows to subdue this ire
mendous Nature, so long regarded as in
tractable, and compel herto minister to the
wants Of humanity. Ever since the
first discovery of thse hopeless-looking
reaches, Science has declared them to
be hopeless, as far as agriculture was con-
cerned; but indomitable pioneer energy
and experience says that they can and
shall obey the plough and the hoe; and so,
Well-Sklllcd and earnest men. some of
whom deserve national reputation, are
kept digging, planting and experimenting
on these lands With different grains and
trees, till their power to support a hume
rous and prosperous population has been
| trlumphantly demonstrated, and good
crops Of the great grains are raised every
GEAR Oh spots i'll western Kansas codsider-
ed hOpelessly barren few years ago
This, be it understood, is entirely aside
from any fertility produced by artificial ir-
rigati0n such rs is practiced in Colorado
and Utah. We could not sufficiently ad-
mire the enterprise of the Kansas Pacific
Railway COmpany,Wh spare neither time,
money nor brains in carrying on this great
work, whose success viii crown their eff
forts not only with pecuniary profit, but
also with the glory of having conferred an
inestimable benefit on the whole nation.
FER-E NATURE.
AS we skim through western Kansas,
and laZily compare the successive scattered
fields of corn and wheat, great white skulls
begin to dot the plain, staring at us from
reprOachtul sockets, under whose 'sbeamed
frontlets" the mild eyes of buffaloes once
, looked out. At one station are stacked up
at least five carloads of these bleaching
mementOes, bound for the sugar refineries
of the East. Little prairie dogs pop up
here and there-at least so the conductor
assure the unprotected; who, however,
are usually unable, with their ineXperi-
enced or shOr-si2htel eyes, to be quite
sure whether the upright little images on
sandy hillOckS are really animals or GER
tain Indigenous weed which exactly re-
sembles the dog aforesaid in height and
general tone. Still we are bound to see
prairie dogs in this region, so we say we
do, and in the same spirit of accommoda-
ton accept some animal grazing at dis
lance as buffaloes; though if this narrator
was morally certain ofnever again meeting
any Of the kind people who took such pains
IN pointing them out, she would declare
that to the best of her know ledge and be-
lief these animals We're peaceful domestic
quadrupeds of more familiar 3type,
namely-cOws!
The truth is, that every place in these
United States IS becoming in its movable
features cxasperatingly like every other
place, and that he who would see the
original inhabitants of these plains at home
must come soon, or he will be as completely
disappointed as the traveller who should
now expect to find the distinctive peasant
| dress Of the rural regions of France or
Switzerland. Even now wild animals are
veXatiOusly scarce on the railroad tracks
where they used to be so plenty.