EARLY DAY STORIES. 45 



steep precipice and gaze down at me. Finally I determined 

 to climb the bluff on which there was a flock of six or eight, 

 and try and outwit them and get a shot. Going away off 

 some distance to the west among the low rolls at the foot 

 of the bluff, and keeping out of sight as I supposed, I ap- 

 proached the hills again from another side where it was 

 not so steep, and carefully climbing up probably eight or 

 nine hundred feet, reached the summit after a good deal of 

 hard work, to find that the game had gone down on the 

 other side, crossed a deep, rough valley and now stood gaz- 

 ing at me from the top of another bluff of equal height, 

 about a quarter of a mile away. Making up my mind that 

 I was not a mountain sheep hunter — a thing I ought to have 

 known before — I gave it up and started for camp. Just as 

 I got to the foot of the bluff I saw an Indian at some dis- 

 tance away who had no doubt been watching my perform- 

 ances and laughing to himself about them, and who beck- 

 oned me to wait. I sat down on a rock until he came up. 

 He was armed with a very poor kind of light, single shot 

 gun, called a fusee. We shook hands and sat down to talk 

 and get acquainted. He told me he was a Sioux— that there 

 were lots of Sioux near by, pointing to the west and north- 

 west, and making signs that they were in camp with their 

 families and teepees. The only word spoken that I could 

 understand was Sioux, but he made his talk plain by signs. 

 We had quite a long friendly chat together, and as he said 

 he was out of powder, I gave him on parting several charges 

 of powder and some bullets, and we shook hands and parted 

 good friends. On reaching camp I found my friends very 

 uneasy for my safety, as there had been several mounted 

 Indians at the camp, and others were seen at a distance. 

 We camped a day on the north side of the river about a 

 mile from the fort. The Indians were all on the opposite 

 side of the river but many of them came over, bringing 

 buffalo robes, dressed deer skins and moccasins to trade. 



