Show A BUFFALO STAMPEDE the liying wave that WM ai u or fire detroit free press it is high noon on the great plains of central nebraska an emigrant party composed of a dozen wagons and as many families has faulted on the loup fork of the platte river to cook dinner and rest their animals it is midsummer and the creek has almost disappeared here and there a few barrels of water are left in a deep hole and again the bed of the creek is dry for a hundred rods the suns of july and august beat down on the great plains with terrible effect creeks run dry rivers sink into insignificance the grass is killed to its roots and great cracks open in the baked earth to give convenient shelter to and reptiles then woe to the man or beast who is far from water will craze him in a few hours there is water here for the emigrant 8 ich as it is but the quantity is reduced one half before the horses have had their fill the men look up and down the bed of the creek but as far a the eye can see in either direction there ia no more water last may this loup fork would have floated mountain snows have melted and no rain hag fallen for weeks As the camp fires aro lighted and the dinner made ready let us fly north a dozen miles A hundred miles away is the niobrara Nio brara river rising in the mountains far to the west flowing in the same eccentric manner and its bed also just as dry at this season of the year five or six days ago a heard of buffaloes numbering thousands drank their fill at the niobrara Nio brara as they crossed it working to the south in fear of the indian buffalo hunters who were abroad on the dakota line and in hopes to find richer pasture along the forks of the platte here and there as they have progressed water has been found in small quantities but for thirty hours past not an animal has had a drop the grass is scorched and dead be ground hot to the feet and the almost solid marf covering acre after acre are almost quiet at this noonday hour here and there one tosses his head in anger as thirst torments him and the others give utterance to their sufferings by long drawn sighs and moans every animal has a listless look and vou would say that it would require something beyond the ordinary to cause a single one of them to break into a run the sun glares like a ball of fire the stir ring of so many feet has filled the air with fine dust to add still another torment to the the ox or the horse would long ago have fallen to the earth to die seel near the center of the herd a great bull suddenly throws up his bead and senta the air he is a specimen one of the kings of the beard does his keen sent bring the presence of water over the bozon miles of scorched plain Is there something to make him afraid he wheela around and around be utters hoarse bellows which excite the animals around him and in two minutes half the herd is in a state of agila tiou of a sudden with massive head held low as if to attack with eyes blazing with blots clots of foam flying from the corners of his mouth with a fierceness of demeanor which clears a path for him he heads to the west and charges through the heard he is followed by 1030 by every animal which can move and now begins a stampe e A mighty living mass mas s rolls over the plain a body more to be dreaded than a tidal wave sweeping in from the sea movement incites to new energy a rivalry to leach the front a snort of madbea which knows on fear or obstruction the emigrants are at their din nei and their horaces are feeding about them when an alarm is sounded one of the horses raises his head looks fixedly to the east and utters a ehnle neigh of anxiety the men look up the sky is clear and there are no signs of indians about they make light of the warning and sit down but a moment later half a dozen horses are pulling at their lariats lari ats there is a trembling of the earth and a man whose face is paler than death leaps up to shout A buffalo stamp edul take to the wagons there is room for all and time for all but as the men look to the east and see that great living wave two or three milea long and a mile wide bearing down upon the camp they shout in dismay and cry out in despair nearer nearer coming straight on maddened by their thirst and terrified by their own conduct and there is a chorus of shrieks and shouts the reports of two or three rifles a series of crashes which blend into one and the camp has been blotted out As the great wave itself hurles into the bed of the loup and beyond there is no sign of the camp no sign of the wagons nothing to tell of the thirty human beings alive and well and full of hope only two minutes before all have been wiped oat blotted off the face of the earth |