Excerpt from The Story of a Pioneer Never again will the same primitive condi tions and circumstances be seen or re - enacted within the wide borders of these United States, for the wild grandeur of the scenes in this once vast desert plain has been destroyed. The quiet repose of beast and bird has been disturbed, or they have become extinct. The enterprise of man and the railroad have entered into all the wild places of the Great West, and opened them up to civilization. The buffalo and Indian no longer roam the plains; the stately elk and the fleet-footed antelope no longer make a living picture against the pale blue sky; nor does the heavy; freight wagon drawn by six yoke of oxen, or five span of mules, steer its way over the hills and prairies. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.