They would have encamped among them, but there was no water; and without water they could not remain.

There was no grass, either, for their animals; as, strange to say, upon these flower-prairies grass is seldom met with.

The flower-stalks usurp the soil, and no turf is ever found about their roots.

The travellers, therefore, were compelled to ride on, until they should reach some spot having grass and water--two of the necessary requisites of a "night-camp." After proceeding about ten miles the flowers began to appear more thinly scattered over the surface, and at length declined into the _grass_ prairie.

Two or three miles farther brought our adventurers to a small "spring branch" that ran through the open plain, with no timber upon its banks, except a few willows.