noon
As the night wore on , our fears of a stampede abated , for the buffalo wallows on the mesa filled , and water was on every hand . The rain ceased before dawn , but owing to the saturated condition underfoot , not a hoof lay down during the night , and when the gray of morning streaked the east , what a sense of relief it brought us . The danger had passed . Near noon that day , and within a few miles of the North Fork , we rounded an alkaline plain in which this deadly creek had its source . Under the influence of the season , alkali had oozed up out of the soil until it looked like an immense lake under snow . The presence of range cattle in close proximity to this creek , for we were in the Cherokee Strip , baffled my reasoning ; but the next day we met a range-rider who explained that the present condition of the stream was unheard of before , and that native cattle had instinct enough to avoid it . He accounted for its condition as due to the dry season , there being no general rains sufficient to flood the alkaline plain and thoroughly flush the creek .