Memories of a Bear Hunter 



I noticed then, for the first time, a peculiarity in 

 which the buffalo differs from other split-hoofed 

 animals. Cattle in rising from a prone position 

 lift the hind part first and then the fore part, as 

 do also the deer family. A white-tail deer, or ante- 

 lope, if alarmed, will spring from the ground hind 

 and fore parts at once, apparently. My observation 

 that day with wild buffalo was that they rose with 

 the fore feet first, and then the hind feet. A horse 

 rises in the came way. On that lazy spring fever 

 day there were quite a number of old bulls sitting; 

 up, something like a dog, lolling about and enjoy- 

 ing the sunshine, and from this peculiarity of the 

 buffalo doubtless old Sitting Bull derived his name. 



At 1 1 o'clock at night a courier passed our camp 

 with dispatches for the Seventh Cavalry, Colonel 

 Sturgis, with orders to repair at once to Fort Ellis 

 in consequence of the setback received on the Big 

 Hole River by General Gibbon in his attack on the 

 Nez Perces Indians, who, after repulsing the onset 

 of the soldiers, continued their march toward the 

 Yellowstone and the buffalo country. 



We reached the trading post of Mr. Fettig at 

 the forks of the Musselshell on the 2Oth, and 

 spent a day at the camp getting information from 

 Mr. Gordon and other ranchmen of that vicinity 

 as to the best route for wheels to the Yellowstone 



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