Here And There A Tuft Of Grass Would Peer Above The
Snow; But They Were In General Driven To Browse The Twigs And
Tender Branches Of The Trees.
When they were turned out in the
morning, the first moments of freedom from the confinement of the
pen were spent in frisking and gambolling.
This done, they went
soberly and sadly to work, to glean their scanty subsistence for
the day. In the meantime the men stripped the bark of the
cotton-wood tree for the evening fodder. As the poor horses would
return toward night, with sluggish and dispirited air, the moment
they saw their owners approaching them with blankets filled with
cotton-wood bark, their whole demeanor underwent a change. A
universal neighing and capering took place; they would rush
forward, smell to the blankets, paw the earth, snort, whinny and
prance round with head and tail erect, until the blankets were
opened, and the welcome provender spread before them. These
evidences of intelligence and gladness were frequently recounted
by the trappers as proving the sagacity of the animal.
These veteran rovers of the mountains look upon their horses as
in some respects gifted with almost human intellect. An old and
experienced trapper, when mounting guard upon the camp in dark
nights and times of peril, gives heedful attention to all the
sounds and signs of the horses. No enemy enters nor approaches
the camp without attracting their notice, and their movements not
only give a vague alarm, but it is said, will even indicate to
the knowing trapper the very quarter whence the danger threatens.
In the daytime, too, while a hunter is engaged on the prairie,
cutting up the deer or buffalo he has slain, he depends upon his
faithful horse as a sentinel. The sagacious animal sees and
smells all round him, and by his starting and whinnying, gives
notice of the approach of strangers. There seems to be a dumb
communion and fellowship, a sort of fraternal sympathy between
the hunter and his horse. They mutually rely upon each other for
company and protection; and nothing is more difficult, it is
said, than to surprise an experienced hunter on the prairie while
his old and favorite steed is at his side.
Montero had not long removed his camp from the vicinity of the
Crows, and fixed himself in his new quarters, when the Blackfeet
marauders discovered his cantonment, and began to haunt the
vicinity, He kept up a vigilant watch, however, and foiled every
attempt of the enemy, who, at length, seemed to have given up in
despair, and abandoned the neighborhood. The trappers relaxed
their vigilance, therefore, and one night, after a day of severe
labor, no guards were posted, and the whole camp was soon asleep.
Toward midnight, however, the lightest sleepers were roused by
the trampling of hoofs; and, giving the alarm, the whole party
were immediately on their legs and hastened to the pens. The bars
were down; but no enemy was to he seen or heard, and the horses
being all found hard by, it was supposed the bars had been left
down through negligence. All were once more asleep, when, in
about an hour there was a second alarm, and it was discovered
that several horses were missing. The rest were mounted, and so
spirited a pursuit took place, that eighteen of the number
carried off were regained, and but three remained in possession
of the enemy. Traps for wolves, had been set about the camp the
preceding day. In the morning it was discovered that a Blackfoot
was entrapped by one of them, but had succeeded in dragging it
off. His trail was followed for a long distance which he must
have limped alone. At length he appeared to have fallen in with
some of his comrades, who had relieved him from his painful
encumbrance.
These were the leading incidents of Montero's campaign in the
Crow country. The united parties now celebrated the 4th of July,
in rough hunters' style, with hearty conviviality; after which
Captain Bonneville made his final arrangements. Leaving Montero
with a brigade of trappers to open another campaign, he put
himself at the head of the residue of his men, and set off on his
return to civilized life. We shall not detail his journey along
the course of the Nebraska, and so, from point to point of the
wilderness, until he and his band reached the frontier
settlements on the 22d of August.
Here, according to his own account, his cavalcade might have been
taken for a procession of tatterdemalion savages; for the men
were ragged almost to nakedness, and had contracted a wildness of
aspect during three years of wandering in the wilderness. A few
hours in a populous town, however, produced a magical
metamorphosis. Hats of the most ample brim and longest nap;
coats with buttons that shone like mirrors, and pantaloons of the
most ample plenitude, took place of the well-worn trapper's
equipments; and the happy wearers might be seen strolling about
in all directions, scattering their silver like sailors just from
a cruise.
The worthy captain, however, seems by no means to have shared the
excitement of his men, on finding himself once more in the
thronged resorts of civilized life, but, on the contrary, to have
looked back to the wilderness with regret. "Though the prospect,"
says he, "of once more tasting the blessings of peaceful society,
and passing days and nights under the calm guardianship of the
laws, was not without its attractions; yet to those of us whose
whole lives had been spent in the stirring excitement and
perpetual watchfulness of adventures in the wilderness, the
change was far from promising an increase of that contentment and
inward satisfaction most conducive to happiness. He who, like
myself, has roved almost from boyhood among the children of the
forest, and over the unfurrowed plains and rugged heights of the
western wastes, will not be startled to learn, that
notwithstanding all the fascinations of the world on this
civilized side of the mountains, I would fain make my bow to the
splendors and gayeties of the metropolis, and plunge again amidst
the hardships and perils of the wilderness."
We have only to add that the affairs of the captain have been
satisfactorily arranged with the War Department, and that he is
actually in service at Fort Gibson, on our western frontier,
where we hope he may meet with further opportunities of indulging
his peculiar tastes, and of collecting graphic and characteristic
details of the great western wilds and their motley inhabitants.
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