rivers. When once a great column is in full career, it goes straight forward, regardless of allobstacles; those in front being impelled by the moving mass behind. At such times they will break through a camp, trampling down everything in their course.
It was the lot of the voyagers, one night, to encamp at one of these buffalo landing places,and
exactly on the trail. They had not been long asleep, when they were awakened by a greatbellowing,
and tramping, and the rush, and splash, and snorting of animals in the river. They had just time toascertain that a buffalo army was entering the river on the opposite side, and making toward thelanding place. With all haste they moved their boat and shifted their camp, by which time thehead
of the column had reached the shore, and came pressing up the bank.
It was a singular spectacle, by the uncertain moonlight, to behold this countless throngmaking their
way across the river, blowing, and bellowing, and splashing. Sometimes they pass in such denseand
continuous column as to form a temporary dam across the river, the waters of which rise and rushover their backs, or between their squadrons. The roaring and rushing sound of one of these vast1
The voyagers now had game in profusion. They could kill as many buffaloes as theypleased, and, occasionally, were wanton in their havoc; especially among scatteredherds, that came swimming near the boat. On one occasion, an old buffalo bull approached sonear that the half-breeds must fain try to noose him as they would a wildhorse. The noose was successfully thrown around his head, and secured him by thehorns, and they now promised themselves ample sport. The buffalo made prodigiousturmoil in the water, bellowing, and blowing, and floundering; and they all floateddown the stream together. At length he found foothold on a sandbar, and taking to hisheels, whirled the boat after him like a whale when harpooned; so that the hunterswere obliged to cast off their rope, with which strange head-gear the venerable bullmade off to the prairies.
On the 24th of August, the bull boat emerged, with its adventurous crew, into the broadbosom of
the mighty Missouri. Here, about six miles above the mouth of the Yellowstone, the voyagerslanded
at Fort Union, the distributing post of the American Fur Company in the western country. It wasa
stockaded fortress, about two hundred and twenty feet square, pleasantly situated on a high bank.
Here they were hospitably entertained by Mr. M'Kenzie, the superintendent, and remained withhim
three days, enjoying the unusual luxuries of bread, butter, milk, and cheese, for the fort was wellsupplied with domestic cattle, though it had no garden. The atmosphere of these elevated regionsis
said to be too dry for the culture of vegetables; yet the voyagers, in coming down theYellowstone,
had met with plums, grapes, cherries, and currants, and had observed ash and elm trees. Wherethese
grow the climate cannot be incompatible with gardening.
At Fort Union, Wyeth met with a melancholy memento of one of his men. This was apowder-flask,
which a clerk had purchased from a Blackfoot warrior. It bore the initials of poor More, theunfortunate youth murdered the year previously, at Jackson's Hole, by the Blackfeet, and whosebones had been subsequently found by Captain Bonneville. This flask had either been passedfrom
hand to hand of the youth, or, perhaps, had been brought to the fort by the very savage who slewhim.
As the bull boat was now nearly worn out, and altogether unfit for the broader and moreturbulent
stream of the Missouri, it was given up, and a canoe of cottonwood, about twenty feet long,fabricated by the Blackfeet, was purchased to supply its place. In this Wyeth hoisted his sail, andbidding adieu to the hospitable superintendent of Fort Union, turned his prow to the east, and setoff
down the Missouri.
He had not proceeded many hours, before, in the evening, he came to a large keel boat atanchor. It
proved to be the boat of Captain William Sublette, freighted with munitions for carrying on apowerful opposition to the American Fur Company. The voyagers went on board, where theywere
treated with the hearty hospitality of the wilderness, and passed a social evening, talking overpast
scenes and adventures, and especially the memorable fight at Pierre's Hole.
Here Milton Sublette determined to give up further voyaging in the canoe, and remain withhis
brother; accordingly, in the morning, the fellow-voyagers took kind leave of each other. andWyeth
continued on his course. There was now no one on board of his boat that had ever voyaged on theMissouri; it was, however, all plain sailing down the stream, without any chance of missing theway.
All day the voyagers pulled gently along, and landed in the evening and supped; thenre-embarking,
they suffered the canoe to float down with the current; taking turns to watch and sleep. The nightwas
calm and serene; the elk kept up a continual whinnying or squealing, being the commencementof
the season when they are in heat. In the midst of the night the canoe struck on a sand-bar, and allhands were roused by the rush and roar of the wild waters, which broke around her. They wereall
obliged to jump overboard, and work hard to get her off, which was accomplished with muchdifficulty.
In the course of the following day they saw three grizzly bears at different times along thebank. The
last one was on a point of land, and was evidently making for the river, to swim across. The twohalf-breed hunters were now eager to repeat the manoeuvre of the noose; promising to entrapBruin, and
have rare sport in strangling and drowning him. Their only fear was, that he might take fright andreturn to land before they could get between him and the shore. Holding back, therefore, until hewas fairly committed in the centre of the stream, they then pulled forward with might and main,so
as to cut off his retreat, and take him in the rear. One of the worthies stationed himself in thebow,
