CHAPTER XVII. 



TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND BUFFALOES. 



SMALL HERDS OF BUFFALOES THE GREAT HERD AN EARLY MORNING 

 HUNT " OLD RELIABLE " CHARGES A BUFFALO MY FIRST BUFFALO 

 LIES DEAD AT MY FEET BACK TO CAMP CORPORAL BROWN 

 COUNSELS CAUTION STARTLED BY WHITE MEN MY BUFFALO 

 WEIGHS FOURTEEN HUNDRED POUNDS. 



JUST before reaching the creek we struck the Keough stage 

 trail, a tolerably fair road leading from Bismarck to Fort 

 Keough. There is a line of stages, so called, buckboards in 

 fact, running between these two points, which carry the mail, 

 express matter, and any passengers who have courage enough 

 to risk their scalps in making the trip. They run every day so 

 that Fort Keough, Miles City, and other towns situated from 

 three to five hundred miles west of Bismarck, get daily mails 

 when the weather or Indians don't interfere. During the 

 winter, however, the line is frequently impassable for weeks 

 at a time, and at other seasons of the year much trouble is 

 experienced from the Indians. Since the opening of the line 

 several drivers and station keepers and a few passengers have 

 been killed and a good deal of stock stolen. 



There are feeding stations every seventeen miles and 

 relay stations every thirty-four miles along the line where 

 fresh ponies are supplied. These stations consist merely of a 

 log cabin, or " shack," a stable and a stack of hay. The 

 garrison consists of one, and in some cases two men, and the 

 armament consists of a rifle for each man. The passenger 

 tariff on this line is fifteen cents a mile and the passenger 

 runs his own risk of being scalped. We went west on this 



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