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Show 248 MEDICINE- BOW RIVER. barous fashion it is. The bulls are never killed for food except in case of necessity, their flesh being very inferior to that of the cows; but an old mountaineer cannot resist the temptation of a fair shot at one when it offers. It is vain to remonstrate against this wholesale destruction. The hunter, this morning, rather plumed himself on his great moderation in only killing four, when it was wholly within his power to kill as many as he pleased: at the same time he knew that one would have amply supplied all our wants. Indeed, of the four killed, but three were butchered, ( that is, the choice parts only taken away,) and we left the ground, having two pack- mules and all the riding- horses loaded down with meat, the fourth animal being wholly untouched; thus abandoning to beasts of prey enough of the richest and sweetest beef to supply a very respectable market for a week. All intercession in favour of the poor buffalo is looked upon by these old mountain- men with a strange mixture of wonder and contempt, which strongly reminded me of the expression of honest Dandie Dinmont, in Scott's admirable tale of Guy Mannering: " Weel, that's queer aneugh! Lord save us! to care about a brock!" The train, in the mean time, had moved forward, ascending a dry branch of Rattlesnake Creek, running E. N. E., with a gradual rise. Reaching its head, in a low gap, we attained the summit, and struck upon a hollow or depression leading down to a small branch, which, rising near the northern end of Medicine-bow Butte, winds its way through a broad and lovely valley, and discharges its waters into the Medicine- bow River. The route led us over some swelling ridges making toward this branch from the mountains on our right, and, crossing three other little streams, tributary to it, we reached in ten and a- half miles the banks of the Medicine- bow River. Here we encamped in a thicket of tall timber and underbrush, on an old Indian campground; the remains of several old forts, now decayed and in ruins, being still visible. On its north- western, northern, and north- eastern sides, the Medicine- bow Butte is surrounded by a well- defined ridge, from which it is separated by a broad intervening valley, the ridge appearing to be concentric with this part of the butte, and three or four miles distant from it. Through this the Medicine- bow River breaks, passing for twenty miles between vertical walls of rock with wide alternate " bottoms on either side. |