282 MULE-HUNTING EXPEDITION. 



Blowing nearly a gale of wind. Found all right 

 in the morning. At daybreak get the mules toge- 

 ther, and begin saddling. Two mules managed 

 to slip off about fifty yards from us, when a 

 sudden yell told me they were gone. The Indians 

 had followed, and been concealed close to me 

 in the bush all night, afraid to make an attack, 

 but waiting a chance to stampede the band; 

 this, from my having lighted fires, and kept 

 watch, they were prevented from doing ; however, 

 they made good the two that strayed. I started 

 after them, but deemed it prudent not to go too 

 far. They also managed to steal a coat from my 

 packmaster, with $100 in the pocket. 



From the high water the trail through the 

 swamp is impassable, so I have to go round it, 

 keeping along on the small ridges, where birch 

 and alder grow; continuing this for about eighteen 

 miles, and crossing several deep creeks and 

 swamps, through which the poor mules are liter- 

 ally dragged, get on to higher and comparatively 

 dry land, two miles of which brings me to the 

 entrance of what my guide calls the desert. The 

 distance across it, he says, is forty miles, with but 

 one chance of water. Into this barren waste I did 

 not think the Indians would follow, so make up my 

 mind to push on, although my men and mules are 



