168 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 



shining in the sun, at a little distance from the river- 

 banks their horses feeding in the plain beyond. 



The appearance of the fort is very striking, standing as 

 it does hundreds of miles from any settlement, on the 

 vast and lifeless prairie, surrounded by hordes of hostile 

 Indians, and far out of reach of intercourse with civilised 

 man ; its mud-built walls enclosing a little garrison of a 

 dozen hardy men, sufficient to hold in check the numerous 

 tribes of savages ever thirsting for their blood. Yet the 

 solitary stranger passing this lone fort feels proudly secure 

 when he comes within sight of the "stars and stripes" 

 which float above the walls. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



AGAIN we must take a jump with La Bont6 over a space 

 of several months, when we find him in company of half-a- 

 dozen trappers, amongst them his inseparable companero 

 Killbuck, camped on the Greenhorn Creek, en route to the 

 settlements of New Mexico. They have a few mules 

 packed with beaver for the Taos market ; but this expe- 

 dition has been planned more for pleasure than profit a 

 journey to Taos valley being the only civilised relaxation 

 coveted by the mountaineers. Not a few of the present 

 band are bound thither with matrimonial intentions ; the 

 belles of Nuevo Mejico being to them the ne plus ultra of 

 female perfection, uniting most conspicuous personal charms 

 (although coated with cosmetic alegriaan. herb, with the 

 juice of which the women of Mexico hideously bedaub 

 their faces) with all the hard-working industry of Indian 

 squaws. The ladies, on their part, do not hesitate to leave 

 the paternal abodes, and eternal tortilla-making, to share 

 the perils and privations of the American mountaineers in 



