with great quantities of the sweet cotton-wood, and interrupted occasionally by "bluffs" ofsandstone.
The current occasionally brings down fragments of granite and porphyry.
In the course of the day, they saw something moving on the bank among the trees, whichthey
mistook for game of some kind; and, being in want of provisions, pulled toward shore. Theydiscovered, just in time, a party of Blackfeet, lurking in the thickets, and sheered, with all speed,to
the opposite side of the river.
After a time, they came in sight of a gang of elk. Wyeth was immediately for pursuing them,rifle
in hand, but saw evident signs of dissatisfaction in his half-breed hunters; who considered him astrenching upon their province, and meddling with things quite above his capacity; for theseveterans
of the wilderness are exceedingly pragmatical, on points of venery and woodcraft, and tenaciousof
their superiority; looking down with infinite contempt upon all raw beginners. The two worthies,therefore, sallied forth themselves, but after a time returned empty-handed. They laid the blame,however, entirely on their guns; two miserable old pieces with flint locks, which, with all theirpicking and hammering, were continually apt to miss fire. These great boasters of the wilderness,however, are very often exceeding bad shots, and fortunate it is for them when they have old flintguns to bear the blame.
The next day they passed where a great herd of buffalo was bellowing on a prairie. Againthe Castor
and Pollux of the wilderness sallied forth, and again their flint guns were at fault, and missed fire,and nothing went off but the buffalo. Wyeth now found there was danger of losing his dinner ifhe
depended upon his hunters; he took rifle in hand, therefore, and went forth himself. In the courseof
an hour he returned laden with buffalo meat, to the great mortification of the two regular hunters,who were annoyed at being eclipsed by a greenhorn.
All hands now set to work to prepare the midday repast. A fire was made under an immensecotton-wood tree, that overshadowed a beautiful piece of meadow land; rich morsels of buffalohump were
soon roasting before it; in a hearty and prolonged repast, the two unsuccessful hunters graduallyrecovered from their mortification; threatened to discard their old flint guns as soon as theyshould
reach the settlements, and boasted more than ever of the wonderful shots they had made, whenthey
had guns that never missed fire.
Having hauled up their boat to dry in the sun, previous to making their repast, the voyagersnow set
it once more afloat, and proceeded on their way. They had constructed a sail out of their old tent,which they hoisted whenever the wind was favorable, and thus skimmed along down the stream.
Their voyage was pleasant, notwithstanding the perils by sea and land, with which they wereenvironed. Whenever they could they encamped on islands for the greater security. If on themainland, and in a dangerous neighborhood, they would shift their camp after dark, leaving theirfire
burning, dropping down the river some distance, and making no fire at their second encampment.
Sometimes they would float all night with the current; one keeping watch and steering while therest
slept. in such case, they would haul their boat on shore, at noon of the following day to dry; fornotwithstanding every precaution, she was gradually getting water-soaked and rotten.
There was something pleasingly solemn and mysterious in thus floating down these wildrivers at
night. The purity of the atmosphere in these elevated regions gave additional splendor to thestars,
and heightened the magnificence of the firmament. The occasional rush and laving of the waters;the
vague sounds from the surrounding wilderness; the dreary howl, or rather whine of wolves fromthe
plains; the low grunting and bellowing of the buffalo, and the shrill neighing of the elk, struckthe
ear with an effect unknown in the daytime.
The two knowing hunters had scarcely recovered from one mortification when they werefated to
experience another. As the boat was gliding swiftly round a low promontory, thinly covered withtrees, one of them gave the alarm of Indians. The boat was instantly shoved from shore and everyone caught up his rifle. "Where are they?" cried Wyeth.
"There -- there! riding on horseback!" cried one of the hunters.
"Yes; with white scarfs on!" cried the other.
Wyeth looked in the direction they pointed, but descried nothing but two bald eagles,perched on a
low dry branch beyond the thickets, and seeming, from the rapid motion of the boat, to bemoving
swiftly in an opposite direction. The detection of this blunder in the two veterans, who pridedthemselves on the sureness and quickness of their sight, produced a hearty laugh at their expense,and put
an end to their vauntings.
The Yellowstone, above the confluence of the Bighorn, is a clear stream; its waters werenow
gradually growing turbid, and assuming the yellow clay color of the Missouri. The current wasabout
four miles an hour, with occasional rapids; some of them dangerous, but the voyagers passedthem
all without accident. The banks of the river were in many places precipitous with strata ofbituminous coal.
They now entered a region abounding with buffalo -- that ever-journeying animal, whichmoves in
countless droves from point to point of the vast wilderness; traversing plains, pouring through theintricate defiles of mountains, swimming rivers, ever on the move, guided on its boundlessmigrations by some traditionary knowledge, like the finny tribes of the ocean, which, at certainseasons, find their mysterious paths across the deep and revisit the remotest shores.
These great migratory herds of buffalo have their hereditary paths and highways, worn deepthrough
the country, and making for the surest passes of the mountains, and the most practicable fords ofthe
