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Show AUTOBIOURAPHY OF until we came to a cleft or ravine, through which we descended from the bluff to the bottom, which was covered with a heavy growth of timber. We then hastened home, arriving there on the twenty-eighth day from the time we left. They had given us over for lost; but when they saw us returning with twenty scalps, and only one of our party hurt, their grief gave way tC? admiration, and we were hailed with shouts of applause. Our rival party, under Red Eyes, had returned five or six days previously, bringing with them seventeen scalps, obtained at the loss of one man. Our party was declared the victor, since we had taken the greater number of scalps, with the weaker party, and without loss of life, thus excelling our rivals in three several points. Red Eyes cheerfully acknowledged himself beaten, good feeling was restored, and the subject of each other's bravery was never after discussed. We had still another advantage, inasmuch as we could dance, a celebration they were deprived of, as they had lost a \~arrior; they, however, joined our party, and wanted nothing in heartiness to render our dance sufficiently boisterous to suffice for the purpose of both. All t_he dancing is performed in the open air, with the sohd groun_d for a floor. It consists of jumping up an~ down, Intermixed with violent gestures and stampmg; they keep time with f1 drum or tambourine, composed of antelope-skin stretched over a hoop, the whole party singing during the performance. • JAMES P. BECKWOURTH. 189 • CHAPTER XIV. Great Loss of Horses in the Mountains.-Destructive Battle with the Black Feet.-Storming of their Natural Fort.-Trouble with the · Cheyennes. WE went along without noteworthy occurrence until the following March, when we moved from the western to the eastern side of what was at that time called Tongue River Mountain, one of the peaks of the Rocky Mountain chain. The buffaloes had receded from the environs of our old camping-ground, and had been attracted to the region whither we removed in consequence of the grass being in a more forward state. Our community numbered ten thousand soulsmen, women, and children-together with an immense number of horses. In crossing the mountain, we found the snow to be of so great depth, being farther in- . creased with a three days' recent storm, that the mountain was impassable. In this severe journey, which occupied three days, we had twelve hundred horses perish in the snow. Previously, the ~lack Feet had stolen eight hundred head, and we were 1n no condition to follow them, as we were all engaged in packing up for removal. We reached the_ prairie~ on the eastern side of the mountain, after a toilsome JOUrney, and found good camping-ground on Box Elder Creek. The morning following our arrival we started on a surround, in parties of fifty and upward, as our whole population was without meat. I rode a pack-~orse, and three of my wives were with me, each leading a saddle-horse. I had not proceeded far before I heard |