96 NARRATIVE OF A JOURNEY 



I thought I never had eaten any thing so delicious. Hitherto we 

 have had only the bulls which are at this season poor and rather 

 unsavory, but now we are feasting upon the best food in the 

 world. 



It is true we have nothing but meat and good cold water, but 

 this is all we desire : we have excellent appetites, no dyspepsia, 

 clear heads, sharp ears, and high spirits, and what more does a 

 man require to make him happy ? 



We rise in the morning with the sun, stir up our fires, and 

 roast our breakfast, eating usually from one to two pounds of 

 meat at a morning meal. At ten o'clock we lunch, dine at two, 

 sup at five, and lunch at eight, and during the night-watch com- 

 monly provide ourselves with two or three " hump-ribs" and a 

 marrow bone, to furnish employment and keep the drowsy god at 

 a distance. 



Our present camp is a beautiful one. A rich and open plain 

 of luxuriant grass, dotted with buffalo in all directions, a high 

 picturesque hill in front, and a lovely stream of cold mountain 

 v/ater flowing at our feet. On the borders of this stream, as 

 usual, is a dense belt of willows, and under the shade of these we 

 sit and work by day, and sleep soundly at night. Our meat is 

 now dried upon scaffolds constructed of old timber which we 

 find in great abundance upon the neighboring hill. We keep a 

 fire going constantly, and when the meat is sufficiently dried, it 

 is piled on the ground, preparatory to being baled. 



21, s/. — The buffalo appear even more numerous than when 

 we came, and much less suspicious than common. The bulls fre- 

 quently pass slowly along within a hundred yards of us, and toss 

 their shaggy and frightful looking heads as though to warn us- 

 against attacking or approaching them. 



Towards evening, to-day, I walked out with my gun, in the 

 direction of one of these prowling monsters, and the ground in 

 his vicinity being covered densely with bushes, I determined to 



