SPORT ON B1G-HEAET KIVER. 289 



up it, though there was a report that some Sioux Indians had 

 been seen there lately. Before starting I went across the 

 Missouri and saw the principal Indian scout at Fort Abraham 

 Lincoln, as to the probability of this report being true. He 

 told me that one of his men had seen two strange Indians in 

 the distance when some miles up the river several months 

 before, and this was all the foundation there was for the rumours 

 I had heard. I had bought a tent, not unlike the French 

 soldier's tent d'abri, weighing only three pounds, and a very 

 small outfit, and this I rolled in my blankets and fastened 

 behind the saddle and then started, going up the valley of the 

 Big-heart River. 



The first day I only saw one buck in the distance, and as I 

 did not mean to hunt so near the Fort, where the country was 

 always being disturbed, I did not follow him, camping that 

 night under a large rock, with the beautifully clear river 

 running within six feet of my tent door. One solitary wolf 

 came and serenaded me for hours during the night, asking me 

 probably to kill him something to eat, hunters having been 

 very scarce lately ; and in the morning I was off early and rode 

 all day, making I should think thirty miles, and got into a 

 very pretty hunting-country small wooded hills, separated by 

 narrow winding valleys, where I found plenty of deer sign. On 

 my way I had jumped three deer, and going out on the 

 evening of my arrival I shot a fine buck, getting a grand 

 chance at him as he crossed a small prairie not a hundred 

 yards from me. He ran about fifty yards before he fell, and 

 on going after him into some bushes I put up what I think 

 was a puma, but I only got a glimpse, and the light was too 



bad to make certain. 



u 



