: . 
‘ in every direction. A small drove of wild horses made their appearance on 
; the low river bottoms, a mile or two to the left, and 1 sent off one of the In- 
dians (who seemed very eager to catch one) on my led horse, a — and 
fleet animal. The savage maneuvred a little to get the wind of the horses, 
in which ia Pieper tS within a hundred yards without be- 
ing discovered. e chase for a few minutes was animated and interest- 
ing. My x unter easily overtook and passed the hindmost of the wild drove, 
; which the Indian did not attempt to /asso; all his efforts being directed to 
: the capture of the leader. But the strength of the horse, weakened by the 
insufficient nourishment of grass, failed in a race, and all ‘the drove escaped. 
We halted at noon on the bank of the river, the barometer at that time be- 
ing 26.192, and the eee 103°, with a light air from the: eoath ead 
clear weather: 
In. flies course of the afternoon, dust rising among the hills at a particular 
attracted our attention; and, riding up, we found a band of eighteen 
or twenty buffalo bulls engaged in a desperate fight. ‘Though butting and 
gori ng were bestowed liberally, and without distinction, yet their efforts 
were evidently directed against one—a huge gaunt — bull, very lean, 
while his adversaries were all fat and in good order. He appestred very 
weak, and had already received some wounds, and, while we were look- 
ing on, was several times knocked down and badly hurt, anda very few 
moments would have put an end to him. Of course, we took the side of 
the weaker party, and attacked the herd; but they were = —— with 
rage, that they fought on, utterly rega ardless of our presence, although -on 
oot and on horseback we were firing in open view within. ae yards 
ofthem. But this did not last long. Ina very few seconds, we created 
A ete among them. One or two, which were knocked over by the 
umped up and ran off into the hills; and they began to retreat 
shee along a broad ravine to the river, fighting furiously as they went. 
By the time they had reached the bottom, we had pretty well dispersed 
them, and the old bull hobbled off, to lie down somewhere. One of his en- 
emies remained on the ground where we had first fired upon them, and we 
stopped there for a short time to cut from him some meat for our supper. 
We had neglected to secure our horses, thinking it an unnecessary precau- 
tion in their fatigued condition; but our mule took it into his head to start, 
ot shay he went, followed at full speed by the pack horse, with all the 
gage and instruments on his back. They were recovered and pees 
ic i aher = chase ofa mile. Fortunately, Shery thing was w well sec 
s0 5 that nothing, not even the barometer, was in the least i 
The sun was getting low, and some vatcne lines of sinter four: orfive 
es distant promised us a pleasant camp, —— with plenty of ee 
and comfortable shelter: and rich grass for our animals, we sho 
cool springs, instead of the warm scisel of the Platte: He 
re found the bed of a stream fifty to one hundred feet wide, sunk 
feet below the level of the prairie, with perpendicular. banks, 
ny of green cottonwood, but not a drop ae water. . There 
Were sev 1 forks to the stream , all in the same condition. With 
the exception of the Platte bottom, the country seemed to be of a clay form- 
Pe ; of any moisture, and baked hard saa, 
ee 
: 
es 
ae 
os 
= 
a 
= 
= 
tree, with thiek foliage ; 
At sunset, the barometer was at 25.950, 
