MUDDY CREEK — TRAPPERS' TALE. 239 



miles above its confluence with Little Snake River. This stream, 

 which rises in the Park Mountains, here makes a valley of four 

 miles wide, and the descent to the bottom of the creek is from a 

 hundred to a hundred and fifty feet down a washed and broken 

 bluif of sand and clay, much worn into gullies and ravines. The 

 descent is too steep, where we struck the bluff, for a good wagon- 

 road ; but, by a detour from the " Gate" of two miles to the south, 

 the descent will be very much more gradual, and the greater part 

 of the high, broad ridge over which we passed will be avoided. 



Upon the top of this ridge I found, scattered over the surface, 

 a large number of silicefied petrifications of shells. Passing two 

 remarkable little sandstone buttes, on our^ right, one of which was 

 covered with cedars, (the first trees we had seen since leaving 

 Green River,) and on om- left two flat-topped whitish clay or 

 marly mounds, connected by an escarpment, we encamped in a 

 deep bend of the Muddy, which was fringed with willows, having 

 selected the spot with the view of more securely guarding our 

 animals from the nocturnal attacks of any wandering bands of 

 Indians. 



We are now upon the war-ground of several hostile tribes, who 

 make this region the field of mutual encounter, and increased vigi- 

 lance is consequently necessary to guard against a surprise — an 

 occurrence which, as one of its least unpleasant consequences, 

 might leave us on foot in the midst of the wilderness. All firing 

 of guns, without express permission, except in case of the most 

 urgent necessity, has been strictly forbidden, and every man slept 

 with his arms by his side. 



As we were reposing our weary limbs before the camp-fire, re- 

 galing ourselves with a pipe, now our only luxury, Major Bridger 

 entertained us with one of those trappers' legends which abound 

 as much among these adventurous men as the "yarns" so long 

 famous among their counterpart, the sailors, on a rival element. 

 A partner of his, Mr. Henry Frappe, had a party of what, in the 

 language of the country, are called "freemen," that is, inde- 

 pendent traders, who, some nine years before, were encamped 

 about two miles from where we then were, with their squaw part- 

 ners and a party of Indians. Most of the men being absent 

 hunting buffalo, a band of five hundred Sioux, Cheyennes, and 

 Arapahoes suddenly charged upon their camp, killed a white man, 

 an Indian, and two women, drove off a hundred and sixty head of 

 cattle, and, chasing the hunters, killed several of them in their 



