An interesting read, in the genre of "Travel Literature", a firsthand account of the prairies and the Oregon Trail as recounted by Francis Parkman, circa 1845.
Colorful locations and characters, and a world that while only a 165-odd years ago might as well have been the ice age...Fierce and savage Indian tribes, Buffalo herds numbering in the tens of thousands, and everywhere they went wildlife...dozens of snakes underfoot, a cup of water taken from a stream is filled with tadpoles and frogs, and where the author notes there is no game to be shot he clarifies "No buffalo, deer or antelope", because always there are the wolves, the coyotes, the prairie dogs and rattlesnakes....
And I think, I've been to these places, some of which are still wild, yet where is the game now? It's rare enough to spot a frog or snake in the wildest of places, and the buffalo have long been gone from the prairie...