. The passing of the old West . to shake it off. He left his horses with a cowman and heldon to the east. The old trails where oncethe prairie schooners and the oxbows hadwound interminably to the far horizon wereno longer traveled. Steel rails stretched awayin their stead; and the creak of wheels andleather and the bawls of plodding oxen, —all these w^ere replaced by the rattle and roarof freight cars and the screech of the locomo-tives whistles; city streets wound wherethere had been naught but dog towns onblistering flats. Truly development was wonderful and herejoiced with the rest over th
. The passing of the old West . to shake it off. He left his horses with a cowman and heldon to the east. The old trails where oncethe prairie schooners and the oxbows hadwound interminably to the far horizon wereno longer traveled. Steel rails stretched awayin their stead; and the creak of wheels andleather and the bawls of plodding oxen, —all these w^ere replaced by the rattle and roarof freight cars and the screech of the locomo-tives whistles; city streets wound wherethere had been naught but dog towns onblistering flats. Truly development was wonderful and herejoiced with the rest over this sweepingtransformation, the swiftest and most com-plete reclamation in the history of the again the still small voice assailed himfrom within and whispered that a good andworthy job had been just a trifle too welldone. A cold fall storm was driving down fromthe nortn and overtook him in the salt-marsh country of Western Kansas. Thewaterfowl scurried ahead of it. Every pondand slough, each broad prairie lake and60. Great white cranes stalked majestically in theopen flats. Page 61. THE PASSING OF THE OLD WEST marshy bottom was covered with members ofthe feathered horde en route to the winterquarters on the Gulf. Flock followed flockin an endless procession, streaking the prairies were covered with feeding white cranes stalked majestically inthe open flats, traveling in bands of hundreds,and at night the wild whoops of overheadsquadrons almost drowned the clamor ofoncoming hordes of geese. This evidence ofabundance cheered him. He estimated thathe saw over a million birds a day; and hereflected that everywhere east and westof him this great migration was going on;the east coast and the west, the Mississippifly-way and the course of every inland river;all were experiencing this same deluge of birdsheaded into the south. Nowhere had heseen so much bird life except during thepigeon flights in the hardwood country of hisboyhood home. There he had see
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