Feb. i, 1908.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
171 
)n one side is the square area surrounded by 
he storerooms, offices and apartments for in- 
nates. On the ’other is the corral, a narrow 
■lace encompassed by the high clay walls, where 
t night or in the presence of dangerous Indians 
he horses and mules of the fort are crowded 
or safe keeping. The main entrance has two 
ates with an arched passage intervening. A 
ttle square window quite high above the ground 
pens laterally from an adjoining chamber into 
his passage, so that when the inner gate is 
losed and barred a person without may still 
old communication with those within through 
lis narrow aperture. This bbviates the neces- 
ity of admitting suspicious Indians for pur¬ 
ges of trading into the body of the fort, for 
hen danger is apprehended the inner gate is 
lut fast and all traffic is carried on by means 
i little window. This precaution, though 
ghly necessary at some of the company’s posts, 
now seldom resorted to at Fort Laramie where, 
low, were now being driven into the corral for 
the night. A little gate opened into this inclos¬ 
ure. By the side of it stood one of the guards, 
an old Canadian with gray bushy eyebrows, and 
a dragoon pistol stuck into his belt, while his 
comrade mounted on horseback, his rifle laid 
across the saddle in front of him and his long 
hair blowing before his swarthy face, rode at 
the rear of the disorderly troop urging them up 
the ascent. In a moment the narrow corral was 
thronged with the half wild horses, kicking, bit¬ 
ing and crowding restlessly together. 
“The discordant tingling of a bell rung by a 
Canadian in the area summoned us to supper. 
This sumptuous repast was served on a rough 
table in one of the lower apartments of the fort 
and consisted of cakes of bread and dried buf¬ 
falo meat, an excellent thing for strengthening 
the teeth. At this meal were seated the bour¬ 
geois and superior dignities of the establishment, 
among them Henry Chatillon was worthily in¬ 
basket also is well filled with domestic utensils 
or quite as often with a litter of puppies, even 
with small children or a superannuated old man. 
Numbers of these curious vehicles, called in the 
bastard language of the country travaux, were 
now splashing together through the stream. 
Among them swam countless dogs, often bur¬ 
dened with miniature travaux, and dashing for¬ 
ward on horseback through the throng came the 
superbly formed warriors, the slender figure of 
some lynx-eyed boy clinging fast behind them. 
The women sat perched on the pack saddle, add¬ 
ing not a little to the load of the already over¬ 
burdened horses. The confusion was prodigious. 
The dogs yelled and howled in chorus, the pup¬ 
pies in the travaux set up a dismal whine as the 
water invaded their comfortable retreat; the 
little black-eyed children from one year of age 
upward clung fast with both hands to the edge 
of their basket and looked over in alarm at the 
water rushing so near them, sputtering and mak- 
FORT JOHN. 
From a drawing made by Alexander H. Murray, July 26, 1844. 
>ugh men are frequently killed in its neigh- 
hood, no apprehensions are now entertained 
any general designs of hostility from the In¬ 
ns. * * * 
As we were looking at the sunset from the 
11, upon the wild and desolate plains that sur- 
mded the fort, we observed a cluster of 
inge objects like scaffolds rising in the dis- 
ce against the red western sky. They bore 
ft some singular looking burdens and at their 
t glimmered something white like bones. This 
5 the place of sepulture of some Dahcotah 
efs, whose remains their people are fond of 
:mg in the vicinity of the fort in the hope 
t they may thus be protected from violation 
ffie hands of their enemies. * * The white 
ects upon the ground were buffalo skulls, ar¬ 
sed in the mystic circle commonly seen in 
ian places of sepulture upon the prairie. 
We soon discovered in the twilight a band 
fifty or sixty horses approaching the fort, 
se were the animals belonging to the estab- 
nent, who having been sent out to feed under 
care of armed guards in the meadows be- 
cluded. No sooner was it finished than the table 
was spread a second time (the luxury of bread 
being now, however, omitted) for the benefit of 
certain hunters and trappers of an inferior stand¬ 
ing, while the ordinary Canadian engages were 
regaled on dried meat in one of their lodging 
rooms.” 
Such is a picture of Fort Laramie as it was 
in 1846. 
Parkman paints a graphic picture of the cross¬ 
ing of the Laramie River by a camp of Indians 
which is worth quoting: 
“The stream is wide and was then between 
three and four feet deep with a very swift cur¬ 
rent. For several rods the water was alive with 
dogs, horses and Indians. The long poles used 
in erecting the lodges are carried by the horses, 
being fastened by the heavier end, two or three 
on each side, to a rude sort of pack saddle, 
while the other end drags on the ground. About 
a foot behind the horse a kind of large basket 
or pannier is suspended between the poles and 
firmly lashed in its place. On the back of the 
horses are piled various articles of luggage. The 
ing wry mouths as it splashed against their faces. 
Some of the dogs, encumbered by their loads, 
were carried do,wn by the current yelping pit¬ 
eously, and the old squaws would rush into the 
water, seize their favorite by the neck and drag 
them out. As each horse gained the bank he 
scrambled up as he could. Stray horses and 
colts came among the rest, often breaking away 
at full speed through the crowd, followed by 
the old hags screaming after their fashion on 
all occasions of excitement. Buxom young 
squaws blooming in all the charms of vermillion 
stood here and there on the bank holding aloft 
their leader’s lance as a signal to collect the 
scattered portions of his household. In a few 
moments the crowd melted away, each family 
with their horses and equipage, filing off to the 
plain at the rear of the fort; and here in the 
space of half an hour arose sixty or seventy 
of their tapering lodges. Their horses were 
feeding by hundreds over the surrounding prairie 
and their dogs were roaming everywhere. The 
fort was full of men, and the children were 
whooping and yelling incessantly under its walls,” 
