s Gap. On the 13th I rode on ahead with George
Houston, and had an unsuccessful buffalo-hunt. We saw about forty head,
but by no device could we get near enough for effective shooting. I had,
however, the luck to kill a buck antelope and two does. Rejoining the
command in great triumph, I found Jump, to my amusement, waving over his
head a red cotton umbrella which some wandering Crow had dropped on the
trail. The umbrella being, from the Crow point of view, a highly-prized
ornament, it was not strange to find it on our trail. In an evil moment
I asked Jump to hand it to me. As he did so it fell, open, over the nose
of my cayoose. As to what happened I decline to explain: there have been
many calumnies concerning what Mr. Jump called "that 'ere horse-show."

On this day we rode through the last range of considerable hills, past a
vast rock which meant "medicine" of some kind for the Indian, as its
clefts were dotted with sacrificial beads, arrows and bits of calico. A
brief scramble and a long descent carried us through Pryor's Gap, and
out again on to boundless plains, thick with the fresh dung of the
buffaloes, which must have been here within two days and been hurried
southward by Crow hunting-parties. This to our utter disgust, as we had
been promised abundance of buffalo beyond Pryor's Gap.

A thirty-mile march brought us to a poor camp by a marshy stream. Man
and beast showed the effects of the alkaline waters, which seemed to me
more nasty every day. There is no doubt, however, that it is possible to
become accustomed to their use, and no lands are more capable of
cultivation than these if the water be sufficient for irrigation. The
camp was enlivened by an adventure of the major's, which revenged for us
his atrocious habit of rising at 3 A. M. and saying "Now, gentlemen!" as
he stood relentless at the tent-doors. C. and I had found a canyon near
by about one hundred feet deep and having a good bathing stream. As we
returned toward it at evening we saw the gallant major standing
barelegged on the edge of the canyon, gesticulating wildly, his
saddle-bags and toilette matters far below beside the creek. Still
suffering with the sunburn, he had been cooling his feet in the water
preparatory to a bath, when, lo! a bear standing on his hind legs eating
berries at a distance of only about fifteen feet! The major promptly
availed himself of the shelter offered by the bank of the stream; but
once there, how was he to esc