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Show -- 0 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 0 ~ .o1 § \. , ~ ~ rD. .o1 ~ ell ~ g rD. ~ ~ 0 ~ ~ ~ • ' " JAMES P. BECKWOURTH. 57 es over the maTgins of the small hills, through whicL the buffalo had made trails just wide enough to admit one at a time. These snow-trails had become quite deep-like all snow-trails in the spring of the yearthus affording us a fine opportunity for lurking in one trail, and shooting a buffalo in another. The general had wounded a bull, which, smarting with pain, made a furious plunge at ·his assailant, burying him in the snow · with a thrust from his savage-looking head and horns. I, seeing the danger in which he was placed, sent a ball into the beast just behind the shoulder, instantly dropping him dead. The general was rescued from almost certain death, having received only a few scratches in the adventure. After remaining in camp four or five days, the general resolved :upon dividing our party into detachments of four or five men each, and sending them upon different routes, in order the better to accomplish the object of our perilous journey, which was the collecting all the beaver-skins possible while the fur was yet valuable. Accordingly, we constructed several boats of buffalo hides for the purpose of descending the river and proceeding along any of its tributaries that might lie in our way. One of our boats being finished and launched, the general sprang into it to test its capacity. The boat was made fast by a slender string, which sna,pping with the sudden jerk, the boat was drawn into the current and drifted away, general and all, in the direction of the opposite shore. It will be necessary, before I proceed arther, to give the reader a description, in as concise a manner / as possible, of this "Green River Suck." We were encamped, as we had discovered during 02 |