

LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 59 



stretched arms and a loud yell, causing it to start suddenly, 

 and swerve from its course. The Indian lost his foot-hold, 

 and, after a fruitless struggle to regain his position, fell to 

 the ground ; but instantly rose upon his feet and gallantly 

 confronted the mountaineer, striking his hand upon his 

 brawny chest and shouting a loud whoop of defiance. In 

 another instant the rifle of La Bonte had poured forth its 

 contents ; and the brave savage, springing into the air, fell 

 dead to the ground, just as the other trappers, who had 

 heard the firing, galloped up to the spot. At sight of 

 them the Pawnees, with yells of disappointed vengeance, 

 hastily retreated. 



That night La Bonte" first lifted hair ! 



A few days later, the mountaineers reached the point 

 where the Platte divides into two great forks : the north- 

 ern one, stretching to the north-west, skirts the eastern 

 base of the Black Hills, and, sweeping round to the south, 

 rises in the vicinity of the mountain valley called the 

 New Park, receiving the Laramie, Medicine Bow, and 

 Sweet- Water creeks. The other, or " South Fork," strikes 

 towards the mountains in a south-westerly direction, hug- 

 ging the base of the main chain of the Rocky Mountains ; 

 and, fed by several small creeks, rises in the uplands of the 

 Bayou Salade, near which is also the source of the Arkansa. 

 To the forks of the Platte the valley of that river extends 

 from three to five miles on each side, enclosed by steep 

 sandy bluffs, from the summits of which the prairies stretch 

 away in broad undulating expanse to the north and south 

 The " bottom," as it is termed, is but thinly covered with 

 timber, the cotton-woods being scattered only here and 

 there ; but some of the islands in the broad bed of the 

 stream are well wooded, leading to the inference that the 

 trees on the banks have been felled by Indians who for- 

 merly frequented the neighbourhood of this river as a 

 chosen hunting-ground. As, during the long winters, the 

 pasture in the vicinity is scarce and withered, the Indians 

 feed their horses on the bark of the sweet cotton- wood, 

 upon which they subsist, and even fatten. Thus, wher- 

 ever a village has encamped, the trunks of these trees strew 



