Memories of a Bear Hunter 



southwest, where they killed 370 buffalo. Deer 

 and elk were reported plenty. 



My room mate was Major Mitchell, 12 of 

 Quincy, 111. He was the Indian agent for all the 

 Crow, Blackfoot, Gros Ventres and Sioux Indians 

 living between the Missouri River and the British 

 line, and from Fort Union w'est to the Marias 

 River. He was a pleasant fellow and seemed to 

 like me, and when he invited me to stop with him 

 at Fort Peck and make a hunt for buffalo* I deter- 

 mined to accept. It was to this agency that Sitting 

 Bull and a part of the Sioux belonged, who were 

 now fighting the troops on the Little Big Horn 

 River. 



When we reached Fort Peck in the evening, I 

 found a stockade of two or three acres in extent. 

 It was made of cotton wood trees twelve feet long 

 and ten inches in diameter, set on end, which would 

 make a very good defense against rifles, but im- 

 mediately in the rear of the fort was a range of 

 hills two hundred feet high, and this commanded 

 the post. Within the stockade stood comfortable 

 log huts, with sod roofs, yet there were only ten 

 or twelve men to man the fort, and any reasonably 

 large force could capture it in a short time. 



For a day or two now it had been very hot, a dry 

 parching wind blowing from the south. I had been 



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