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 be
moving swiftly in an opposite direction. The detection of this
blunder in the two veterans, who prided themselves 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 were now gradually growing turbid, and
assuming the yellow clay color of the Missouri. The current was
about four miles an hour, with occasional rapids; some of them
dangerous, but the voyagers passed them all without accident. The
banks of the river were in many places precipitous with strata of
bituminous coal.
They now entered a region abounding with buffalo - that
ever-journeying animal, which moves in countless droves from
point to point of the vast wilderness; traversing plains, pouring
through the intricate defiles of mountains, swimming rivers, ever
on the move, guided on its boundless migrations by some
traditionary knowledge, like the finny tribes of the ocean,
which, at certain seasons, 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 deep through the country, and making for
the surest passes of the mountains, and the most practicable
fords of the rivers. When once a great column is in full career,
it goes straight forward, regardless of all obstacles; 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 great
bellowing, and tramping, and the rush, and splash, and snorting
of animals in the river. They had just time to ascertain that a
buffalo army was entering the river on the opposite side, and
making toward the landing place. With all haste they moved their
boat and shifted their camp, by which time the head 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 throng making their way across the river,
blowing, and bellowing, and splashing. Sometimes they pass in
such dense and continuous column as to form a temporary dam
across the river, the waters of which rise and rush over their
backs, or between their squadrons. The roaring and rushing sound
of one of these vast herds crossing a river, may sometimes in a
still night be heard for miles.
The voyagers now had game in profusion. They could kill as many
buffaloes as they pleased, and, occasionally, were wanton in
their havoc; especially among scattered herds, that came swimming
near the boat. On one occasion, an old buffalo bull approached so
near that the half-breeds must fain try to noose him as they
would a wild horse. The noose was successfully thrown around his
head, and secured him by the horns, and they now promised
themselves ample sport. The buffalo made prodigious turmoil in
the water, bellowing, and blowing, and floundering; and they all
floated down the stream together. At length he found foothold on
a sandbar, and taking to his heels, whirled the boat after him
like a whale when harpooned; so that the hunters were obliged to
cast off their rope, with which strange head-gear the venerable
bull made off to the prairies.
On the 24th of August, the bull boat emerged, with its
adventurous crew, into the broad bosom of the mighty Missouri.
Here, about six miles above the mouth of the Yellowstone, the
voyagers landed at Fort Union, the distributing post of the
American Fur Company in the western country. It was a 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 with him three
days, enjoying the unusual luxuries of bread, butter, milk, and
cheese, for the fort was well supplied with domestic cattle,
though it had no garden. The atmosphere of these elevated regions
is said to be too dry for the culture of vegetables; yet the
voyagers, in coming down the Yellowstone, had met with plums,
grapes, cherries, and currants, and had observed ash and elm
trees. Where these grow the climate cannot be incompatible with
gardening.
At Fort Union, Wyeth met with a melancholy memento of one of his
men. This was a powder-flask, which a clerk had purchased from a
Blackfoot warrior. It bore the initials of poor More, the
unfortunate youth murdered the year previously, at Jackson's
Hole, by the Blackfeet, and whose bones had been subsequently
found by Captain Bonneville. This flask had either been passed
from hand to hand of the youth, or, perhaps, had been brought to
the fort by the very savage who slew him.
As the bull boat was now nearly worn out, and altogether unfit
for the broader and more turbulent 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, and bidding adieu to the
hospitable superintendent of Fort Union, turned his prow to the
east, and set off down the Missouri.
He had not proceeded many hours, before, in the evening, he came
to a large keel boat at anchor. It proved to be the boat of
Captain William Sublette, freighted with munitions for carrying
on a powerful opposition to the American Fur Company.
