LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 87 



covered by the float-stick, a little distance down th^ stream, with 

 a large drowned beaver betM'een its teeth. 



The animals being carefully skinned, they returned to camp 

 with the choicest portions of the meat, and the tails, on which 

 they most luxuriously supped ; and La Bonte was fain to conless 

 that all his ideas of the super-excellence of buflalo were thrown iu 

 the shade by the delicious beaver tail, the rich meat of which he 

 was compelled to allow was "great eating," unsurpassed by 

 " tender-loin" or " boudin," or other meat of whatever kind he had 

 eaten of before. 



The country where La Bonte and his companions were trapping, 

 is very curiously situated in the extensive bend of the Platte which 

 incloses the Black Hill range on the north, and which bounds the 

 large expanse of broken tract known as the Laramie Plains, their 

 southern limit being the base of the Medicine Bow Mountains. 

 Fi'om thp northwestern corner of the bend, an inconsiderable 

 range extends to the westward, gradually decreasing in height 

 until it reaches an elevated plain, which forms a break in llic 

 stupendous chain of the Rocky Mountains, and aflbrds the easy 

 passage now known as the Great, or South Pass. So gradual is 

 the ascent of this portion of the mountain, that the traveler can 

 scarcely believe he is crossing the dividing ridge between the 

 M^aters which flow into the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and that 

 in a few minutes he can fling two sticks into two neighboring 

 streams, one to be carried thousands of miles, traversed by the 

 eastern waters in their course to the Gulf of Mexico, the other to 

 be borne a lesser distance to the Gulf of California. 



The country is frequented by the Crows and Snakes, who are 

 at perpetual war with the Shians and Sioux, following them ofien 

 far down the Platte, where many bloody battles have taken place. 

 The Crows are esteemed friendly to the whites ; but when on 

 war expeditions, and "hair" their object, it is always dangerous 

 to fall in with Indian war-parties, and particularly in the remote 



