TIIK HOCKV M(^rNTAlNS 75 



canvas. At .sunset a respite from tins l)()ne-shaking' process 

 was oiven us. On the wnv we Imd horrowed tlie driver's 

 old muzzle-loader — and. from llir box seat, had annexed 

 certain over-confident '■ sage-liens,"' or rather poults, for the 

 old ones are almost uneatable, and these iiia(h' a welcome 

 addition to our supper, after which for two blessed hours 

 we streteh('(l diir cramped lindts under the stars, 



Anglo- American friends had been very sceptical about 

 our accomplishing the distance to the confines of civilisation 

 in the fourtei^n (hivs which 1 had allowed, but we reached 

 Fort Washakie in a fortnight, almost to the minute, from 

 Liverpool. \\ llie [iresent time tliis record could doubtless 

 be easily beaten. 



Tn the last stao-e of groaning stiffness and dislocation, 

 Itut othei-wise ready for whatever might turn up, we were 

 driven up to the strange settlement — halt traders" canij), half 

 military compound — where the U.S. Government, with a 

 handful of s(^ldicrs. overawes, or m<~'rcifull\' controls, the Ked 

 man, and administers its well-intended system of out-door 

 i-elief. The theory of it is that the jirecaiious ]i\ing whiidi 

 the Indians gain bv hunting is sui)|)lemented bv Govern- 

 ment rations, and that in the meanwhih' the savage, 

 restrained wiihin his reservations, will (diange his nomadic 

 nature, and learn the steady arts of peace. In practice the 

 meat-hunter is accom]>lishin'_;' his work more ra]>idl\- than 

 the schoolmaster. Tlic game is dying out. ami all that thi- 

 Indian is learning is to ivlv on eleemosx iiai\- aiil. while the 

 steam ploughs and other expensive implements, wit h whic h 

 it is in vain sought to tempt him to scratch the teeminf 

 soil, are broken uji for lirewood mi the lir.-t cold winter. 

 This at least was, as i gathered, the result with the 



