434 The Wilderness Hunter. 



and such of the dead as did not lie in too exposed posi- 

 tions were promptly taken away by their comrades ; but 

 seven bodies fell into the hands of the three hunters. I 

 asked Woody how many he himself had killed. He said 

 he could only be sure of two that he got ; one he shot in 

 the head as he peeped over a bush, and the other he shot 

 through the smoke as he attempted to rush in. " My, 

 how that Indian did yell," said Woody, retrospectively ; 

 "he was no great of a Stoic." After two or three hours 

 of this deadly skirmishing, which resulted in nothing more 

 serious to the whites than in two of them being slightly 

 wounded, the Sioux became disheartened by the loss they 

 were suffering and withdrew, confining themselves there- 

 after to a long range and harmless fusillade. When it was 

 dark the three men crept out to the river bed, and taking 

 advantage of the pitchy night broke through the circle of 

 their foes ; they managed to reach the settlements with- 

 out further molestation, having lost everything except 

 their rifles. 



For many years one of the most important of the 

 wilderness dwellers was the West Point officer, and no 

 man has played a greater part than he in the wild warfare 

 which opened the regions beyond the Mississippi to white 

 settlement. Since 1879, there has been but little regular 

 Indian fighting in the North, though there have been one 

 or two very tedious and wearisome campaigns waged 

 against the Apaches in the South. Even in the North, 

 however, there have been occasional uprisings which had 

 to be quelled by the regular troops. 



After my elk hunt in September, 1891, I came out 

 through the Yellowstone Park, as I have elsewhere re- 



