176 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 



soon elicited from the lips of the hunters the narrative 

 of their losses and privations, and learned that they now, 

 without ammunition and scarcely clothed, were on their 

 way to Platte Fort, to hire themselves to the Indian 

 traders in order to earn another outfit, wherewith once 

 more to betake themselves to their perilous employment 

 of trapping. What was their astonishment to see their 

 entertainer presently lay out upon the ground two piles 

 of goods, each consisting of a four-point Mackinaw, two 

 tin canisters of powder, with corresponding lead and 

 flints, a pair of mocassins, a shirt, and sufficient buck- 

 skin to make a pair of pantaloons ; and how much the 

 more was the wonder increased when two excellent 

 Indian horses were presently lassoed from the cavallada, 

 and with mountain saddle, bridle, and lariats complete, 

 together with the two piles of goods described, presented 

 to them " on the prairie" or " gift-free," by the kind- 

 hearted stranger, who would not even listen to thanks 

 for the most timely and invaluable present. 



Once more equipped, our two hunters, filled with 

 good brandy and fat buffalo meat, again wended on 

 their way ; their late entertainers continuing their plea- 

 sure trip across the gap of the South Pass, intending to 

 visit the Great Salt Lake, or Timponogos, of the West. 

 The former were bound for the North Fork of the 

 Platte, with the intention of joining one of the nume- 

 rous trapping parties which rendezvous at the American 

 Fur Company's post on that branch of the river. On 

 a fork of Sweet Water, however, not two days after 

 the meeting witii the Scotchman's waggons, they en- 



