LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 149 



vations, and learned that they now, without ammunition and 

 scarcely clothed, were on their way to Platte Fort, to hire them- 

 selves to the Indian traders in order to earn another outfit, where- 

 with once more to betake themselves to their perilous employment 

 of trapping. What was their astonishment to see their entertainer 

 presently lay out upon the ground two piles of goods, each con- 

 sisting of a four-point Mackinaw, two tin canisters of powder, 

 with corresponding lead and flints, a pair of moccasins, a shirt, 

 and sufficient buckskin to make a pair of pantaloons ; and how 

 much the more was the wonder increased Avhen two excellent 

 Indian horses were presently lassoed from the cavallada, and with 

 r|K)untain saddle, bridle, and lariats complete, together with the 

 two piles of goods described, presented to them "on the prairie" 

 or "gift-free," by the kind-hearted stranger, who would not even 

 listen to thanks for the most timely and invaluable present. 



Once more equipped, our two hunters, filled with good brandy 

 and fat buffalo meat, again wended on their way ; their late 

 entertainers continuing their pleasure trip across the gap of the 

 South Pass, intending to visit the Great Salt Lake, or Timpono- 

 gos, of the West. The former were bound for the North Fork 

 of the Platte, with the intention of joining one of the numerous 

 trapping parties which rendezvous at the American Fur Conj- 

 pany's post on that branch of the river. On a fork of Sweet 

 Water, however, not two days after the meeting with the Scotch- 

 man's wagons, they encountered a band of a dozen mountaineers, 

 mounted on fine horses, and well armed and equipped, traveling 

 along without the usual accompaniment of a mulada of pack- 

 animals, two or three mules alone being packed with meat and 

 spare ammunition. The band was proceeding at a smart rate, 

 the horses moving with the gait peculiar to American animals, 

 known as '■''pacing'' or '' racking,''' in Indian file — each of the 

 mountaineers with a long, heavy rifle resting across the horn of 

 his saddle. Among them our two friends recognized Markhead, 



