TWENTY YEARS IN THE ROCKIES. 8l 



Iowa, and a few portraits. Scattered around were rings ta- 

 ken from a bridle bit, and we immediately suspected a man 

 named Frank Roberts, who came to us when we were here 

 btefore for the loan of a cold chisel to cut the rings off his 

 bridle bit. We gathered all of the murdered man's effects 

 and sent them to Fort Custer with the details of the murder, 

 which was probably committed for money. Our being driv- 

 en to the Big Horn was the means of bringing a guilty man 

 to justice, for sometime afterward the murderer was hanged 

 in Virginia City. 



Rolling along toward Pryor's Pass, the mountains were 

 seen in all their grandeur. The loftiness of mountains, more 

 than any other feature, fills us with admiration and awe, for 

 the same reason that the human soul, raised above the dross 

 of this world, calls forth our deepest love. We were wind- 

 ing our way slowly around the base of the Big Horn range. 

 The Rockies in the distance towered upward until snow and 

 sky seemed mingling together. We pressed forward in our 

 saddles, peering on every side that nothing might escape 

 our notice. A great stretch of prairie lay before us. Off 

 to the right some dark specks were seen. They looked like 

 birds. As we drew nearer, I dismounted and with my field- 

 glasses soon made out that they were really live buffaloes. 

 This was my first glimpse of these masters of the plains, 

 and a long one it was. Then the desire to pursue them took 

 full possession of me. Filling the magazine of my Win- 

 chester and inserting one in the breech, I communicated my 

 discovery to two of the men, who were riding fresh horses, 

 and they agreed to ride up behind the buffaloes and drive 

 them toward the train. 



When the boys were partially beyond them, the buffa- 

 loes detected the scent, threw up their monstrous heads 

 with a shake, and, with tails standing straight up, came 



