236 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 



our party fell in with a village of Yuta Indians, at that 

 time hostile to the whites. Both parties were prepar- 

 ing for battle, when Killbuck, who spoke the language, 

 went forward with signs of peace, and after a talk with 

 several chiefs, entered into an armistice, each party 

 agreeing not to molest the other. After trading for a 

 few deer-skins, which the Yutas are celebrated for 

 dressing delicately fine, the trappers moved hastily on 

 out of such dangerous company, and camped under the 

 mountain on Oak Creek, where they forted in a strong 

 position, and constructed a corral in which to secure 

 their animals at night. At this point is a tolerable 

 pass through the mountains, where a break occurs in a 

 range, whence they gradually decrease in magnitude 

 until they meet the sierras of Mexico, which connect 

 the two mighty chains of the Andes and the Rocky 

 Mountains. From the summit of the dividing ridge, to 

 the eastward, a view is had of the vast sea of prairie 

 which stretches away from the base of the mountains, 

 in dreary barrenness, for nearly a thousand miles, until 

 it meets the fertile valley of the great Missouri. Over 

 this boundless expanse, nothing breaks the uninter- 

 rupted solitude of the view. Not a tree or atom of 

 foliage relieves the eye ; for the lines of scattered timber 

 which belt the streams running from the mountains, are 

 lost in the shadow of their stupendous height, and be- 

 yond this nothing is seen but the bare surface of the 

 rolling prairie. In no other part of the chain are the 

 grand characteristics of the Far West more strikingly 

 displayed than from this pass. The mountains here 



