Hunting at High Altitudes 



was a scouting party of eight or ten citizens occu- 

 pying the one room-cabin, and bent on getting a lot 

 of Indian ponies. 



The Nez Perces scouting party pushed on to 

 Mammoth Hot Springs on the 2d of September, 

 killing one man, the companion of the man with 

 McCartney; two others one a colored man 

 escaping to the brush. They pushed on toward the 

 Yellowstone at once. It was Sunday morning, a 

 warm, pleasant day, and the "boys," having noth- 

 ing else to do, determined to go a-fishing in the 

 Yellowstone River, about three hundred yards 

 away. Their horses Were picketed near the cabin, 

 their rifles and camping outfit were for the most 

 part in the cabin. About the time the fish began 

 to bite freely, the Indian scouting party, having 

 made a quick reconnaissance, dashed into the camp, 

 swooped up the horses, set fire to> the cabin, and 

 were away on the back trail in a very short time. 



In the meantime, McCartney and companion, 

 en their return, had almost reached the head of the 

 trail, coming up a fork of Gardner's River, about 

 three miles from the Hot Springs. McCartney 

 told me that when about fifty yards from the point 

 where the trail dropped into the gorge of that 

 stream, he was met by a band of loose horses, evi- 

 dently driven. As they came over the hill in sight 



58 



