342 IN THE OLD WEST 



fully united in the township church of Brandville, 

 Memphis County, State of Tennessee. We cannot 

 say, in the concluding words of nine hundred and 

 ninety-nine thousand novels, that " numerous 

 pledges of mutual love surrounded and cheered 

 them in their declining years," &c., &c. ; because 

 it was only on the 24th of July, in the year of our 

 Lord 1847, that La Bonte and Mary Brand were 

 finally made one, after fifteen long years of separa- 

 tion. 



The fate of one of the humble characters who 

 have figured in these pages we must yet tarry a 

 little longer to describe. 



During the past winter, a party of mountaineers, 

 flying from overpowering numbers of hostile Sioux, 

 found themselves, one stormy evening, in a wild and 

 dismal canon near the elevated mountain valley 

 called the New Park. 



The rocky bed of a dry mountain torrent, whose 

 waters were now locked up at their spring-heads 

 by icy fetters, was the only road up which they 

 could make their difficult way ; for the rugged sides 

 of the gorge rose precipitously from the creek, 

 scarcely affording a foot-hold to even the active 

 bighorn, which occasionally looked down upon the 

 travelers from the lofty summit. Logs of pine up- 

 rooted by the hurricanes which sweep incessantly 

 through the mountain defiles, and tossed headlong 

 from the surrounding ridges, continually ob- 

 structed their way ; and huge rocks and boulders, 



