In going to the Niobrara River crossed the track of an Indian pony.

My guide followed the track a few miles and then said, 'It is a stray, black horse, with a long, bushy tail, nearly starved to death, has a split hoof of the left fore foot, and goes very lame, and he passed here early this morning.' Astonished and incredulous, I asked him the reasons for knowing these particulars by the tracks of the animal, when he replied: "'It was a stray horse, because it did not go in a direct line; his tail was long, for he dragged it over the snow; in brushing against a bush he left some of his hair which shows its color.

He was very hungry, for, in going along, he has nipped at those high, dry weeds, which horses seldom eat.

The fissure of the left fore foot left also its track, and the depth of the indentation shows the degree of his lameness; and his tracks show he was here this morning, when the snow was hard with frost.' "At another place we came across an Indian track, and he said, 'It is an old Yankton who came across the Missouri last evening to look at his traps.

In coming over he carried in his right hand a trap, and in his left a lasso to catch a pony which he had lost.