370 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. 4, 1909. 
call on his trumpet. Various rhymesters have 
adapted words to fit the duty calls on the trum¬ 
pet. The jingle for stable call runs something 
as follows: 
Go to the stables all ye that are able, 
And give your poor horses some water and corn. 
If you don’t do it, the captain will know it, 
And then you will rue it as sure as you’re born. 
Each man takes his horse, leads him to water, 
then brings him back, ties him on his rope again, 
puts on his nosebag and grooms his horse while 
it eats. The first sergeant carefully superin¬ 
tends the whole duty while the captain has a 
watchful eye for sore backs and other possible 
troubles. 
Evening stables over and the horses moved to 
fresh grazing, the cook is heard inviting his 
comrades to supper. Throughout the army this 
invitation is usually extended in these words, 
“Come and get it,” frequently accompanied by 
a rattling noise made with a knife on a tin cup. 
The men are not slow to heed that call, and 
each one seizes his tin cup and meat can and 
hastens to the cook fire, where they form in 
line, and the cooks fill each man’s cup with 
coffee and places in his meat can a supply of 
food which, if not sumptuous, is usually good, 
abundant and well cooked, and the trooper’s ap¬ 
petite supplies all else. The men then seek com¬ 
fortable places, sit down and eat their supper. 
Sometimes the cook informs them he has “sec¬ 
onds” on some part of his menu. The men’s 
appetite usually rises to the occasion and they 
again assemble while the cook for the second 
time fills their plates. When all are done the 
cook sets out a kettle of hot water and each 
man washes his cup, knife, fork, etc., wipes them 
dry with a piece of grain sack and puts them 
away in the saddle bag until the next morning. 
On the march we eat but two meals a day. 
After breakfast the cooks give each man a 
liberal sandwich of bacon and bread. This the 
man incloses in his meat can and when he gets 
hungry, eats it; this constitutes his midday meal. 
Supper over, a guard is posted to look out for 
the safety of the camp, and the other men usually 
collect fuel, build a rousing fire, gather round 
it and amuse themselves by singing, telling yarns 
and cracking jokes upon each other till bed 
time, which comes pretty early with men on the 
march. The officers fill in the time in about 
the same manner. On this occasion our mess 
was much more elaborate. We had folding 
tables, white oilcloth covers, white enameled 
tableware, stools to sit on, a sumptuous bill of 
fare, waiters to serve us and sundry other 
luxuries. After supper we had our own camp¬ 
fire and we were usually early to bed. On our 
first camp out from the post the harvest moon 
had sufficient size to add to the beauty of the 
scene and each night for a week or more we 
enjoyed its radiance. The first day’s march had 
been hot, but that night the weather changed 
and from then on we had cool, delightful weather. 
On the march one always has to rise early. 
There are so many things to be done in order 
to get the cavalcade fairly on the road that early 
rising is essential. The guard rouses the cooks 
long before daylight and by the time the horses 
are fed and brushed off the cook announces 
breakfast. After breakfast the tents are taken 
down, wagons packed, the horses saddled and 
the column is once more on the march. With 
our elaborate headquarters mess and numerous 
pieces of baggage and furniture, we were sel¬ 
dom on the march much before 8 a. m., though 
on ordinary marches troops are off shortly after 
six. Starting about eight we reached our next 
camp about 2 or 3 o’clock in the afternoon, which 
answered our purposes well enough. Our second 
day’s march continued up the Wind River, and 
between 2 and 3 o’clock we reached the Din- 
widdie and camped on its banks. It is a fine 
stream, well filled with both trout and whitefish, 
and the men caught a good number of each, 
some of them weighing as much as two pounds. 
The picture of Sergeant Carroll above men¬ 
tioned was taken while he was fishing in this 
stream. The waters of the Dinwiddie have a 
peculiar bluish tint, said to be due to the stream 
having a glacial head. Mr. Wister has not per¬ 
mitted the Dinwiddie to remain in oblivion. In 
one of his rhymes he tells about hunting a bear 
hither and yon for a long time, but finally they 
discovered it, 
“And on Dinwiddle’s canon rim 
We handed our respects to him.” 
Everyone was in good spirits, the moonlight 
was beautiful, our camp-fire was cheery, and all 
was happiness and good nature. The next morn¬ 
ing we were again on the march with the weather 
fine and the scenery improving as we gradually 
ascended the river. About 10 o’clock we crossed 
the boundary line and were finally off the Sho¬ 
shone Indian reservation. Ranches were now 
seen and the country no longer looked deserted. 
The valley had by this time become quite nar¬ 
row, scarcely a half mile wide, and the moun¬ 
tain range on our left had gotten very near. 
About noon we reached Torrey’s Creek and went 
into camp on it. This is a perfect trout stream, 
filled with fine trout and abounding in beauti¬ 
ful pools. 
The pleasant days passed by, trout were caught 
and one of the general’s party shot half a dozen 
mallards to his great satisfaction. We were 
climbing all the while, and Wind River was 
no longer a formidable stream. At the little 
postoffice of Neversweat, where we waited for 
the wagons, a messenger overtook us to report 
that the six-mule wagon had upset on a bad 
hillside. The whole troop returned, and after 
much labor righted the wagon, brought it back 
to the road again, and reloaded it. 
From Mr. Clark, owner of the ranch where 
we camped, and resident there for thirty-one 
years, we heard much about the trip made to 
the park by President Arthur and General Sheri¬ 
dan many years ago. Next day we passed the 
cabin of Harvey Burlingham. He has the repu¬ 
tation of being a great bear hunter. The story 
goes that on one occasion having found a bear’s 
cave when he had but three cartridges remain¬ 
ing, he crawled into the cave, and finding four 
silvertips inside, killed three of them with his 
three cartridges, and then hurried home to get 
ammunition to come back and kill the fourth 
one. I do not ask anyone to believe this story, 
but tell it as I heard it. Harvey was not much 
given to talking about his exploits and merely 
said that at one time and another he had killed 
some bears. John Burlingham lived further 
along and was an odd character who for forty 
years had been retreating before civilization. 
Here it began to rain and the roads became 
so slippery that in climbing the hills toward the 
Continental Divide, we had to double up teams 
and take one wagon up at a time, the men help¬ 
ing. The Geological Survey bench mark at the 
summit read 9,685 feet. As we went down the 
hill the weather cleared and the footing became 
good. We went down Buffalo Fork to Snake 
River and to Jackson’s Lake, where we camped. 
The Tetons were immediately in front of us 
just across the lake, a grand sight. 
The next day, going up the river, we crossed 
it and entered the park, where we found F troop 
of my regiment waiting to receive and escort 
the general and his party to Fort Yellowstone. 
Our march through the park was attractive and 
full of interest, but the wonders there have been 
often described. At one point where we camped 
not far from a hotel, it was amusing to see the 
mules, which were not picketed, come dashing 
into camp to join the horses. When this hap¬ 
pened we knew that the mules had seen a bear. 
Then the soldiers would catch up clubs and run 
out where the mules had come from, and very 
likely find the bear and chase him away. Pres¬ 
ently the mules would again graze away into the 
timber, and then come back snorting with fright, 
and the performance would be repeated. From 
the jokes and jeers to which some of the men 
w'ere subjected by their comrades, it was sus¬ 
pected that these men had found the bear who 
chose to pursue rather than to run. 
On the lake and river were extraordinary 
numbers of wild fowl, ducks, geese, etc., not 
shy, but almost as indifferent to man as domes¬ 
tic fowls. These I took to be migrants and 
could not understand how they could so soon 
have learned of the rule against shooting in 
the park. 
One afternoon in camp the mules gave us an¬ 
other somewhat amusing exhibition. As usual 
they were loose, grazing about among the teth¬ 
ered horses. Suddenly an antelope came trot¬ 
ting over the hill nearby, and came right into 
the camp among the grazing animals. The 
horses paid no attention to it—did not even look 
at it—but the mules exhibited the greatest curi¬ 
osity. All stopped grazing and came trotting 
over to the antelope, their ears thrust forward 
and wonder fairly depicted on each countenance. 
It was evident that the mules had found some¬ 
thing they had never seen before. The antelope 
wandered unconcernedly through the camp, 
while the eighteen mules followed him, keeping 
as close as they could. When the antelope dis¬ 
appeared over the hills I became a little con¬ 
cerned, as the mules continued to follow after, 
lest they might leave the camp, but they soon 
came back. 
The next day we reached Fort Yellowstone 
and the journey was over. I was obliged to go 
to Fort Leavenworth, while Lieutenant W. took 
the troop back to Washakie, and on the road shot 
a bear. There are jokes about that bear, but I 
do not know what they are. I have a picture, 
however, of the bear packed on old John Bur- 
lingham’s mare. 
On the 9th of October Lieutenant W. and his 
command marched in at the north gate of old 
Fort Washakie and then about the parade ground 
and halted before the men’s quarters. One of 
the men who had remained behind called out 
to those who had just arrived, “Well, what was 
the best thing you saw on the march?” With 
one accord the returned troopers yelled, “Fort 
Washakie.” 
