CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
A DOG-TOWN.
Black Hawk strayed off to some distance in search of grass, for the latter was scanty near the spot; and what there was of it had been eaten as close to the ground, as if a thousand rabbits had been feeding upon it! Basil did not hinder his horse from going.

He knew that he was too well trained to run away, and that he could recall him at any moment by a whistle.

He sat still, therefore; now scanning the prairie to the eastward, and now endeavouring to kill time by examining the strange little mounds on the other side.

Of these there were thousands--indeed, they covered the plain, both to the north and south, and west, as far as Basil could see.

They were shaped like truncated cones, about three feet in diameter at the base, and not over two in height.