IN THE OLD WEST 287 



clean-shaven face. No name, however, was better 

 known in the mountains — from Yellow Stone to 

 Spanish Peaks, from Missouri to Columbia River 

 — than that of Kit Carson, raised in Boonlick, 

 Missouri State, and a credit to the " diggins " that 

 gave him birth. 



On Huerfano or Orphan Creek, so called from 

 an isolated hutte which stands on a prairie near 

 the stream, our party fell in with a village of Yuta 

 Indians, at that time hostile to the whites. Both 

 parties were preparing for battle, when Killbuck, 

 who spoke the language, went forward with signs 

 of peace, and after a talk with several chiefs, en- 

 tered into an armistice, each party agreeing not to 

 molest the other. After trading for a few deer- 

 skins, which the Yutas are celebrated for dressing 

 delicately fine, the trappers moved hastily on out 

 of such dangerous company, and camped under the 

 mountain on Oak Creek, where they forted in a 

 strong position, and constructed a corral in which 

 to secure their animals at night. At this point is 

 a tolerable pass through the mountains, where a 

 break occurs in a range, whence they gradually de- 

 crease in magnitude until they meet the sierras of 

 Mexico, which connect the two mighty chains of 

 the Andes and the Rocky Mountains. From the 

 summit of the dividing ridge, to the eastward, a. 

 view is had of the vast sea of prairie which 

 stretches away from the base of the mountains, in 

 dreary barrenness, for nearly a thousand miles, un- 



