nfrequently to be met with on the prairies, and
while I was staying in a town one was brought in in a wagon. Bruin had
been captured by four cowboys, who had lassoed and tied it. He weighed
about 600 lbs., and was a black bear, for the cinnamon and grizzly do
not, I believe, range in open level country.

Besides these harmful animals there were plenty of antelopes to be
found, if one went to look for them, and the cowardly slinking coyote
was often to be seen as one rode across the prairie; and often in
walking I found tortoises with bright red eyes. These were small, about
six inches long. In the creeks were plenty of mud turtles, which are
fond of scrambling on to logs to sun themselves. If disturbed they drop
into the water instantly, giving rise to a saying to express quickness,
"like a mud turtle off a log."

I have said nothing of bison. Perhaps there are none now, but in 1884
there were supposed to be still a few on the Llano Estacado or Stakes
Plain. I knew one man who used to go hunting them every year and usually
killed a few. But the last time I saw him he was on a "jamboree," or
spree, and killed his unfortunate horse by tying it up without feeding
it or giving it water while he was drinking or drunk, and so he did not
make his usual trip. But I imagine there can be few or none left now,
and probably the only representatives of the race are in the National
Park.

IN A SAILORS' HOME

After coming back to England from Australia in the barque _Essex_ I
found "home" a curious place, which afforded very few prospects of a
satisfactory job. For if there is one thing more than another borne in
upon anyone who returns from the Colonies it is the apparent
impossibility of earning one's living in London. Every avenue is as much
choked as the entrance to the pit at a popular theatre on a first night.
And though it is said that we may always get a tooth-brush into a
portmanteau however full it is, there comes a time when not even a
tooth-brush bristle can be put there. I looked at London, wandered round
it, spent all my money, and determined to go to sea again, this time in
a steamer rather than in a "wind-jammer." With this notion in my mind I
went down to Hull, whither a shipmate of mine had preceded me. He had
been a quarter-master in the _Essex_ and was the melancholy possessor
of a cancelled master's certificate. He owed this to drink, of course,
as most men do who pile their ships up on the first reef