CHAPTER XIV.

Prairie from Chicago to Omaha—Plains from North Platte to the Mountains—Omaha, the intersection of the Pacific Railway and the Missouri—Temporary Bridge over the Missouri—Indifference to Risks affecting Life—A Prairie Fire—The Forest on the Mountains on Fire—Fire the cause of the Treelessness of the Prairies—First found Animal Life abounding in the Valley of the Platte—‘The hardest place, Sir, on this Continent’—Its Predecessor—How it is possible to establish Lynch Law at Shyenne—My first Night in Shyenne—A second Night in Shyenne—Necessity and advantages of Lynch Law—‘The use of the Pistol’—A Man shot because ‘he might have done some mischief’—Newness of Aspects both of Society and of Nature 202