132 TEN DAYS IN MONTANA. 



was killed in a fight with Indians near the butte, was buried 

 on its summit, and about a year later, when his friends from 

 the East came to exhume his body and take it home for 

 burial, it was found to be completely petrified. Before his 

 death he weighed but one hundred and sixty pounds, and 

 when taken up weighed three hundred and ninety pounds. 

 About two miles to the northwest we were shown another tall 

 butte, the tallest in all this section of country, called " Cus- 

 ter's Lookout." It is said that the lamented commander used, 

 frequently, during his Indian campaigns, to ascend this peak, 

 and with the aid of his field-glass scan the surrounding coun- 

 try in search of hostile Indians. 



We reached Green River, one hundred miles west of Bis- 

 marck, at two o'clock P.M., and had to wait there for a new 

 train to be made up to take us to the front. 



On Saturday, the i8th, our party having some business to 

 transact at Houston, that would take up the greater part of 

 the day, I took my rifle and walked out four or five miles from 

 camp to try and flag an antelope. I saw three during the day, 

 but they had been hunted so much near camp that they knew 

 what a red flag meant, and would not come near it, so I did 

 not get a shot. I saw two carcasses of antelopes that had been 

 killed by hunters, but had gone so far after being hit that they 

 had not been recovered. The coyotes had eaten all the flesh 

 from their bones. On my return to camp I passed a large 

 prairie-dog town. While I was yet half a mile away the dogs 

 set up a lively barking, and kept it up until I was in the 

 midst of their village. I undertook to shoot some of them, 

 as every tenderfoot does who goes to the plains. I had read 

 and been told often that they would always drop into their 

 holes when shot, but thought that possibly a large caliber 

 rifle-Wll with a high velocity might possibly knock them away 

 fiom the hole, and that I might thus be able to secure a speci- 



