104 NARRATIVE OF A JOURNEY 



their little hunting party had been attacked by a band of roving 

 Blackfeet, and they made themselves ready for the rescue in a 

 space of time that did them great credit. 



It was perhaps " bad medicine," (to use the mountain phrase,) 

 to fire a salute at all, inasmuch as it excited some unnecessary 

 alarm, but it had the good effect to remind them that danger 

 might be near when they least expected it, and afforded them an 

 opportunity of showing the promptness and alacrity with which 

 they could meet and brave it. 



Our people were all delighted to see us arrive, and I could 

 perceive many a longing and eager gaze cast upon the well 

 filled bales, as our mules swung their little bodies through the 

 camp. My companion, Mr. N., had become so exceedingly thin 

 that I should scarcely have known him ; and upon my expressing 

 surprise at the great change in his appearance, he heaved a sigh 

 of inanity, and remarked that I " would have been as thin as he 

 if I had lived on old Epkraim for two weeks, and short allowance 

 of that." I found, in truth, that the whole camp had been sub- 

 sisting, during our absence, on little else than two or three 

 grizzly bears which had been killed in the neighborhood ; and 

 with a complacent glance at my own rotund and cow-fed 

 person, I wished my poor friend better luck for the future. 



We found Mr. McKay's company encamped on the bank of 

 the river within a few hundred yards of our tents. It consists of 

 thirty men, thirteen of whom are Indians, Nez Perces, Chinooks 

 and Kayouse, with a few squaws. The remainder are French- 

 Canadians, and half-breeds. Their lodges, — of which there are 

 several, — are of a conical form, composed of ten long poles, the 

 lower ends of which are pointed and driven into the ground ; the 

 upper blunt, and drawn together at the top by thongs. Around 

 these poles, several dressed buffalo skins, sewed together, are 

 stretched, a hole being left on one side for entrance. 



These are the kind of lodges universally used by the mountain 



