50 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 



services for an equipment of traps and animals. Thus La 

 Bonte picked up three excellent mules for a mere song, 

 with their accompanying pack-saddles, apishamores* and 

 lariats, and the next day, with Luke, " put out " for Platte. 



As they passed through the rendezvous, which was en- 

 camped on a little stream beyond the town, even our young 

 Mississippian was struck with the novelty of the scene. 

 Upwards of forty huge waggons, of Conostoga and Pittsburg 

 build, and covered with snow-white tilts, were ranged in a 

 semicircle, ,or rather a horse- shoe form, on the flat open 

 prairie, their long " tongues " (poles) pointing outwards ; 

 with the necessary harness for four pairs of mules, or eight 

 yoke of oxen, lying on the ground beside them, spread in 

 ready order for " hitching up." Round the waggons groups 

 of teamsters, tall, stalwart, young Missourians, were engaged 

 in busy preparation for the start, greasing the wheels, fitting 

 or repairing harness, smoothing ox-bows, or overhauling 

 their own moderate kits or "possibles." They were all 

 dressed in the same fashion : a pair of " homespun " panta- 

 loons, tucked into thick boots reaching nearly to the knee, 

 and confined round the waist by a broad leathern belt, 

 which supported a strong butcher-knife in a sheath. A 

 coarse checked shirt was their only other covering, with a 

 fur cap on the head. 



Numerous camp-fires surrounded the waggons, and near 

 them lounged wild -looking mountaineers, easily distin- 

 guished from the " greennorn " teamsters by their dresses 

 of buckskin and their weather-beaten faces. Without an 

 exception, these were under the influence of the rosy god ; 

 and one, who sat, the picture of misery, at a fire by him- 

 self staring into the blaze with vacant countenance, his 

 long matted hair hanging in unkempt masses over his face, 

 begrimed with the dirt of a week, and pallid with the effects 

 of ardent drink was suffering from the usual consequences 

 of having " kept it up " beyond the usual point, paying the 

 penalty in a fit of " horrors " as delirium tremens is most 

 aptly termed by sailors and the unprofessional. 



* Saddle-blanket made of buffalo-calf skin. 



