fficient protection, head to foot,
in the severest weather.

[Illustration: "Wo-haw-Buck"]

The Indians of these tribes that we met were friendly, even to
familiarity. One of them would approach an emigrant with a
"glad-to-meet-you" air, extending a hand in what was intended to be
"white-man" fashion. But "Mr. Lo" was a novice in the art of
handshaking, and his awkwardness and mimicking attempts in the effort
were as amusing to us as satisfactory, apparently, to him. His vocal
greeting, with slight variation from time to time, was in such
words--with little regard for their meaning--as he had caught from the
ox-driving dialect of the passing emigrants: "Wo-haw-buck," "Hello,
John, got tobac?" If he added "Gimme biskit," and "Pappoose heap
sick," he had about reached the limit of his English vocabulary.

Large game was common along some parts of the way: buffalo, elk,
antelope, deer, on the plains and hills; bear, mountain lions,
wildcats and other species in the mountainous sections. They were shy
and not easy to take, but we captured a few of some varieties. Some
members of the party demonstrated that fishing was good in the Rocky
Mountain streams. Naturally the men were hopeful of securing specimens
of the larger game, but our lack of experience and scarcity of proper
equipment for the purpose were against the chance, though not to the
extent of our entire disappointment.

Only persons of much experience on the plains could form even an
approximate estimate of the great number of buffaloes sometimes seen
together. It has been stated that there were herds numbering more than
fifty thousand. Such an aggregation would consume days in passing a
given point, and in case of a stampede, all other animals in its path
were doomed to destruction. A herd of buffaloes quietly grazing was
sometimes difficult to distinguish, when viewed from a considerable
distance, from a low forest; their rounded bodies and the neutral tint
of their shaggy coats giving them the appearance of bushes.

When the train was nearing the fork of the Platte River a herd of
buffaloes was seen, quietly grazing on the plain, a mile or more to
the right, beyond a small water-course.

Deciding we would try our prowess, Captain Maxwell and this narrator
rode to the creek, at a point some distance below the position of the
herd, where we tied our horses, then crept along, under cover of the
creek bank, till we had gone as near as possible, without being