THE MISSOURI RIVER JOURNALS 



89 



tures of unearthly compound. Hither and thither they 

 dashed, and when the whole party had crossed the ravine 

 below, they saw a fine Wolf and gave the whip to iheir 

 horses, and though the Wolf cut to right and left Owen 

 shot at him with an arrow and missed, but Mr. Culbertson 

 gave it chase, overtook it, his gun flashed, and the Wolf 

 lay dead. They then ascended the hills and away they 

 went, with our princess and her faithful attendant in the 

 van, and by and by the group returned to the camp, run- 

 ning full speed till they entered the fort, and all this in 

 the intense heat of this July afternoon. Mrs, Culbertson, 

 herself a wonderful rider, possessed of both strength and 

 grace in a marked degree, assured me that Squires was 

 equal to any man in the country as a rider, and I saw for 

 myself that he managed his horse as well as any of the 

 party, and I was pleased to see him in his dress, orna- 

 ments, etc., looking, however, I must confess, after Mrs. 

 Ciilbertson's painting his face, like a being from the 

 infernal regions. Mr. Culbertson presented Harris with a 

 superb dress of the Blackfoot Indians, and also with a 

 Buffalo bull's head, for which Harris had in turn presented 

 him with a gun-barrel of the short kind, and well fitted to 

 shoot Bufifaloes. Harris shot a very young one of Town- 

 send's Hare, Mr. Denig gave Bell a Mouse, which, although 

 it resembles Mtis leiicopus greatly, is much larger, and has 

 a short, thick, round tail, somewhat blunted. 



July lo, Saturday. We were all up pretty early, for 

 we propose going up the Yellowstone with a wagon, 

 and the skiff on a cart, should we wish to cross. After 

 breakfast all of us except Sprague, who did not wish to go, 

 were ready, and along with two extra men, the wagon, and 

 the cart, we crossed the Missouri at the fort, and at nine 

 were fairly under way — Harris, Bell, Mr. Culbertson, and 

 .myself in the wagon. Squires, Provost, and Owen on horse- 

 back. We travelled rather slowly, until we had crossed 

 [the point, and headed the ponds on the prairie that run at 



I «:" 



t-«f«""*i: 



