Staying over night and the next day at Rawlins, I make the sixteen miles
to Port Fred Steele next morning before breakfast, there bein" a very
good road between the two places. This fort stands on the west bank of
North Platte River, and a few miles west of the river I ride through the
first prairie dog town encountered in crossing the continent from the
west, though I shall see plenty of these interesting little fellows
during the next three hundred miles. These animals sit near their holes
and excitedly bark at whatever goes past. Never before have they had an
opportunity to bark at a bicycle, and they seem to be making the most
of their opportunity. I see at this village none of the small speckled
owls, which, with the rattlesnake, make themselves so much at home in
the prairie-dogs' comfortable quarters, but I see them farther east.
These three strangely assorted companions may have warm affections toward
each other; but one is inclined to think the great bond of sympathy that
binds them together is the tender regard entertained by the owl and the
rattlesnake for the nice, tender young prairie-pups that appear at
intervals to increase the joys and cares of the elder animals.

I am now getting on to the famous Laramie Plains, and Elk Mountain looms
up not over ten miles to the south - a solid, towery mass of black rocks
and dark pine forests, that stands out bold and distinct from surrounding
mountain chains as though some animate thing conscious of its own strength
and superiority. A snow-storm is raging on its upper slopes, obscuring
that portion of the mountain; but the dark forest-clad slopes near the
base are in plain view, and also the rugged peak which elevates its white
crowned head above the storm, and reposes peacefully in the bright
sunlight in striking contrast to the warring elements lower down. I have
heard old hunters assert that this famous "landmark of the Rockies"
is hollow, and that they have heard wolves howling inside the mountain;
but some of these old western hunters see and hear strange things!