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Show MUDDY CREEK- TRAPPERS* TALE. 239 miles above its confluence with Little. Snake River. This stream, which rises in the Park Mountains, here makes a valley of four miles wide, and the descent to the bottom of the creek is from a hundred to a hundred and fifty feet down a washed and broken bluff of sand and clay, much worn into gullies and ravines. The deseent is too steep, where we struck the bluff, for a good wagon-road; but, by a detour from the « Gate" of two miles to the. south, the descent will be ve* y much more gradual, and the greater part of the high, broad ridge over which we passed will be avoided. Upon the top of this ridge I found, scattered over the surface, a large number of silicefied petrifications of shells. Passing two remarkable little sandstone buttes, on our right, one of which Was covered with cedars, ( the first trees we had seen since leaving Green River,) and on. our left two flat- topped whitish clay or marly mounds, connected by an escarpment, we encamped in a deep bend of the Muddy, which was fringed with willows, having selected the spot with the view of more securely guarding our animals from the nocturnal attacks of any wandering bands of Indians. We are now upon the war- ground of several hostile tribes, who make this region the field of mutual encounter, and increased vigilance is consequently necessary to guard against a surprise- an occurrence which, as one of its least unpleasant consequences, might leave us on foot in the midst of the wilderness'. All firing of guns, without express permission, except in case of the inost . urgent necessity, has been strictly forbidden, and every man slept with- his arms by his side. . . As- wo were reposing our weary limbs before the camp- fire, regaling ourselves with a pipe, now our only luxury, Major Bridger entertained us with one of those trappers' legends which abound as much among these adventurous men as the " yarns" so long famous among their counterpart, the sailors, on a rival element. A partner of his, Mr. Henry Frappe, had a party of what, in the language of the country; are called " free men," that is, independent traders, who, some nine years before, were encamped about two- miles from where wef then were, with their squaw partners' and a party of Indians. Most of the men being absent hunting buffalo, a band of five hundred Sioux, Cheyennes, . and Arapahoes suddenly charged upon their camp, killed a white man', an Indian, and two women, drove off a hundred and sixty head of cattle, and, chasing the hunters, killed several of them in their |