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 
