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Show ( 171 J 26 i.n every direction. A sm~ll drove of wild horses made t~lCir ~ppen.rance on the low river bottoms, a mtle or two t0 the left, and l sent ofl one _o~ the Indians (who seemed very eager to catch one) on my led hor_ e; a sptnted and fleet animal. The savage matHruvrcd a little to get the wtnc..: of t~1e horses, m which he succeeded-approaching within a hundred yards Wlt~tout bemg discovered. The chase for a ft:!w mitll~tes w~s animated and_ uHcr sting. .1\'ly hunter ea. ily overtook and passed the h_mcltr~o. t of,t_h~ w~l_c~ drove, which the Indian dtd not nttcmpt to lass(); all Ins eilorts bclllt> ducctecl to the captnre of the leader. But the _strer~3th of tlte horse, weakened by the in. nflicient nourishment of grass, fad d 111 a race, and all the J rove e_scaped We halted at noo11 on the bank of the river, tllc barometer at that llme beiug 26.192, and the thermometer 10~3°, with a light air from ti JC soutl1, and. clear Wt"ather. In the course of the afternoon dust rising among the hills at a particular place, attracted our attention; a;,d, riding up, we fonn~ a band of e_ightcen or t weuty buffalo bull engaged in a desperate .fio-_ht: ~hough bnt~lllg and goring were be towed libPrally, and w1thont dt tlllctwn, yet their effort.., were evidently directed aaain t one-a hnge gaunt old bull, very Jean, while hi adversaries wcr~ all fat and in good order. He appeared very weak, and had already received some woullds, and, while we were lookino- on was several times knocked down aud badly hurt, and a very few m~me;1ts would have put an end to him. Of course, we took th~ side_of the weaker party, and attacked the herd; but they were so blmd wtth rage, that they fought on, utterly regardless of our presc~JCe, although on foot and on hor eback we were firiug in open view wilhm twenty yards of them. Bnt this did not Ia t long. In a very few seconds, we created a commotion among them. One or two, which were knocked over by the balls, jumped up and ran off into •he hills; anu they began to retreat slowly along a broad ravine to the river, fighting furiously as the_y went. By the time they had reached the bottom, we had pretty well dr, persed them, aJJd the old bull hoblJled off, to lie down somewhere. One of his enemies remained on the ground where we had fir~t fired upon them, anJ we stopped there for a short time to cnt from him some meat for our snpper. 'V r. bad neglected to secure our horses . thinking it an unnecessary precaution in their fatigued couc.lition; but our mnle took it into his head to start, and a way he went, followed at full speed by the pack horse, with all the baggage and instruments on his back. They wer recovered awl brought back, after a chase of a mile. Fortunately, every thi11g was \Veil secured, so that nothing, not even the barometer, was in the least iujured. The sun was getting low, a11d some narruw lmes of timber four or five mile distant promised u a pleasa11t camp, where, with pleuty of wood for fire, and comfortable £heltcr, and rich grass for our auimnls, we should .find clear cool springs, instead of the warm we~ter of the Platte. On onr arrival, we found the bed of a stre11m fi fty to oue hun(Jred feet wide, sunk some thirty feet below the. level of the prairie, with perpendicular banks, bordered by a fringe of green cottonwood, but uot a drop of water. There were several smnll forks to the stream, all iu the s~tnlC condition. With the exception of the Platte bottom, the country seemed to be of a clay formation, dry, and perfectly devoid of any moi turc, and baked hard by the sun. TnrllirJg off towards tbe rivt·r, we reached llle bank in about a mile, and were delighted to find an old tr<·e, with thick folillge and spreading branches, where we encamped. At suuset, the barometer was at 25.950, 27 [ 174 J t:hermornct ~r 51°, with a , trong wind from _S. 20° E., and the sky partially covered wrth heavy ma"ses of clond, winch ettled a little toward, the horizorr by 10 o'clork, !Paving it sulllciently clear for a tronomical ob-ervations, wltich placed ns iu latitude 40° 33' 26"', and longitude 103° 30' 37". Ju~IJ S.-Thc morning was very pleasant. Tile breeze was fresJ,I from S. 50° E. with few cloud'; the barometer at 6 o'clock staJJding at 25.970, and the thermometer at 70°. Since leavi11g the fork., onr route llacl pa ~ed OVC'l' a country altcrn11tely clay and sand, each pres<!nting the same uaked :vuste .. On lcavi11g C<~mp tlti moming, we struck ag<1in a sandy region, 111 whiCh the vegetatwn appeared somewhat more viaorous thau tlrat wllich we ~wd ob. crved for the la t few day , ; and on the opposite side of the river were saute tolerably large grove of timber. Journeying along, we came suddenly upon a pbcc where the arotmd was covered with hor es' tracl(!'l, which had been made since the rain and indicated the immediate pre once of Indians in our nciohborhood. Tire buffalo, too, wltich the clay before bad been so numcrou , were nowhere in sight-another sure indication that there were people ncar. Ridtng on we discovered the carcas of a buffalo recently killed-perhaps the day before. ~rc sca11ucd the horizon carefully with the gla s, bnt no liviug object was to be seen. For the next mile or two, tire gronud was dotted with buffalo carcas es, which showed that the Indians had made a surronnd here, and were. i11 considf'rablc force. vVe went on quickly and cautiou ·ly, keeping the nvcr bottom, und carefully avoiding- the hill ; but we met with no interrnption, and began to grow carcles; again. \Ve had already lo t oue of our hor~e,, and here Basil's mule showed symptoms of giving out and fiually refused to advance, being what the Canadians call reste. IIe ti1Crcforc dismounted and drove her along before him; but this was a very slow way of travelling. We had inadvertently got about half a mile in aJvance, hnt our Cheyenne , who were generally a milP- or two in the rear, remaiued with him. There were some dark-looking objects among the bill..., ahout two mil<.·s to the left, here Jow and undulati11g, which we had seem for a little time, and supposed to be hut'falo coming in to water· ~ut., happening t() look behir1cl, l\laxwcll saw the Cllcycllnes whipping np 1unously, ::tnd another glance at the clark objects showed them at once to be Indians coming up at speerl. Had we bern well moun ted, and disencumbered of instruments, we might have . ct them at defiance · but as it was, we wet'e fairly caught. It was too late to rejoiu our friend , and we endeavored to gain a clump of timber about half a mile ahead; but the in trnrneuts and the tired state of our horses did not allow us to go faster than a steady canter, and they were gaining ou us fa I. At fir t, they diJ not appear to be more than fifteen or lwe11ty iu number, but rrroup after group durtcc.l into view ul the top of tl1c hills, uutil all the little emincuccs seemed in motion, and, in a few n1inute::s from the time they were first discovered, two or three hundred, naked to the breech cloth, were sweeping across the prarrie. In a few hundred yards we discovered that tlte timber we were endeavoring to mnk8 was 011 tile oppo!:)ite side of the river; aud before we could readt the bank, down came the India11s upon us. I am ir1clined to think that in a few seconds more the leading man, and perlmrs some of lr is compauions, would lrave rolled in the dnst; for we had jerked th<' covers from our gnn , and our fingers were on the • |
