A Mountain Fraud 



In consequence of these misfortunes, our 

 progress was so slow that we made camp 

 that night only six miles from our starting- 

 point. The next night we reached Big Butte 

 Ferry, the trouble about the packs keeping up, 

 and Emigrant growing more and more averse 

 to the exertions required from him. At this 

 point we ** cached" the stove, stovepipe, and 

 half a dozen of our most useless pots and 

 pan-s despite the remonstrances of our cook, 

 and e'.igaged a young man named Joe, who 

 had been out for a month prospecting for 

 coaX but was quite willing to turn back with 

 us. Reaching the village of Kaintuck at 

 noon, we camped in the corral of the livery- 

 stable, and in less than half an hour our cook 

 betook himself to one of the neighboring 

 saloons, where we shortly found him so 

 drunk as to be incapable of speech or motion, 

 but — as we judged from never seeing him 

 again — still able to understand that he was 

 discharged. 



During the afternoon we fell into conver- 

 sation with a bright, active-looking fellow who 

 came to call on us ; and, finding that he was 

 familiar with the Teton country, had hunted 

 275 



