290 JOURNEY TO BISMARCK. 



The next day I hunted on foot, following the bluffs above 

 the river, and jumped a good many deer, shooting one fine 

 black-tail only, as I had then as much as I could carry back to 

 camp. That night I was awoke by what sounded like an 

 Indian's yell, which brought me out on my hands and knees, 

 as I made certain I was in for a fight ; but I heard nothing 

 further, and it might have been a puma, though, as a measure 

 of precaution, I took my blankets and slept in the bushes, 

 where I could see the tent. We have often left a light in our 

 tent when in a dangerous country, and then gone and slept in 

 the bushes round it, as it gave us a capital chance of shooting 

 any Indians who came between us and it. I was not disturbed 

 again, and the next morning, after trying for pumas near where 

 I had jumped one the day before, and seeing nothing but two 

 deer, I packed my two bucks on my pony, and finding that 

 he objected to carry me as well, I started on the back trail 

 leading him. Now I found the folly of coming on even so 

 short a hunt as this without a pack animal, as I was about 

 fifty miles from Bismarck, and had three days to do it in, 

 leading a pony who needed to be dragged along. I tramped 

 down the river, making about three miles an hour, and did 

 about twenty miles that day, reaching my first camp-out about 

 lunch-time on the second day, and Bismarck about midday 

 on the third. I saw only a small bear and some deer on the 

 way. The bear got in among some huge rocks where I could 

 not follow him, and having so little time I had to leave him 

 there. On getting in I found that I need not have hurried, 



as the steamer would not be up the river till late the next 



day. 



Going up the Missouri from Bismarck was even in 1878 a 



