Hunting at High Altitudes 



Fort Benton was then a place of about eight 

 hundred people, and contained three trading stores 

 I. G. Baker & Co., T. C. Power & Co., and 

 Murphy, Neill & Co. Here I met W. G. Conrad, 

 manager of I. G. Baker & Co., and his brother 

 Charles, who were from Virginia, and had served 

 as Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. I 

 met also Colonel Donelly, who had served in the 

 Federal Army, and who later was conspicuous in 

 the Fenian troubles on the Canadian border. For 

 ten days I hunted with Colonel Donelly in the foot- 

 hills of the Highwood Mountains, and later made 

 an arrangement with two sons of Mr. Hackshaw, 

 living on Highwood Creek, to make a hunt lasting 

 for a month. Their object was to get a supply of 

 winter's meat for Mr. Hackshaw, while I was 

 anxious for sport. 



We left the Hackshaw ranch October 20 for 

 the Judith Basin, about fifty miles to the south, 

 where buffalo were reported abundant. My hunt- 

 ing companions were Cornelius, twenty-one years 

 of age, and John, sixteen, both wide-awake boys 

 and good shots. I took with me my riding horse 

 and pack mule, and my rifle was a long-range 

 Sharp, carrying a 90-450 or a 90-520 shell. Our 

 route lay by the ranch of Oscar Olinger on Belt 

 Creek, and we consulted with him and his partner, 



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