Memories of a Bear Hunter 



through the Yellowstone National Park in the early 

 autumn, but in this I was disappointed. I therefore 

 prepared to make the trip alone. 



I had not yet discovered the luxury of traveling 

 with a pack outfit, and was using a light, two-horse 

 spring wagon, driven by Levi, a Missouri colored 

 man, who also acted as cook. The route lay 

 through the Judith Basin, thence around the great 

 hills of the Crazy Woman Mountains to the Yel- 

 lowstone River, and up that stream. The Judith! 

 Basin, formed by the Highwood Mountains and 

 Belt Mountains on the north and west and the 

 Snowy and Moccasin ranges on the south and east, 

 was rich in grass, and at that season of the year 

 was usually the resort of immense herds of buffalo. 

 Buffalo were usually followed up by the Indians. I 

 was advised by many old-timers and frontiersmen 

 that it was very dangerous to make the trip through 

 that basin at this time of the year. The only white 

 men on the route were a ranchman at a trading 

 store on the Musselshell, and another ranch on the 

 Yellowstone River, five miles above the mouth of 

 Big Timber Creek. As the abandonment of this 

 route would oblige me to give up my trip through 

 the Yellowstone for that year, I determined to go 

 on. Levi, who had seen a good deal of the In- 

 dians, was willing to go with me. 



47 



