through them. The stoves
have not been set up, so even one fire was impossible. Two or three of
their tents did go down, however, the doctor's included, and perhaps
they were safer in a breezy house, after all.

The mail has been held back, and will start with us. The time of going
was determined at Department Headquarters, and we will have to leave
here on the first--day after to-morrow--if such a thing is possible. We
return by the way of Benton. It is perfectly exasperating to see prairie
chicken all around us on the snow. Early this morning there was a large
covey up in a tree just across the creek from our tent, looking over at
us in a most insolent manner. They acted as though they knew there was
not a shotgun within a hundred miles of them. They were perfectly safe,
for everyone was too nearly frozen to trouble them with a rifle.

Camping on the snow will not be pleasant, and we regret very much that
the storm came just at this time. Charlie is busy cooking all sorts of
things for the trip, so he will not have much to do on the little camp
stove. He is a treasure, but says that he wishes we could stay here;
that he does not want to return to Fort Shaw. This puzzles me very much,
as there are so many Chinamen at Shaw and not one here. The doctor will
not go back with us, as he has received orders to remain at this post
during the winter.

FORT SHAW, MONTANA TERRITORY, November, 1880.

THE past few days have been busy ones. The house has received much
needed attention and camp things have been looked over and put away,
ready for the next move. The trip back was a disappointment to me and
not at all pleasant. The wagons were very lightly loaded, so the men
rode in them all the way, and we came about forty miles each day, the
mules keeping up a steady slow trot. Of course I could not ride those
distances at that gait, therefore I was compelled to come in the old,
jerky ambulance.

The snow was still deep when we left Maginnis, and at the first camp
snow had to be swept from the ground where our tent was pitched. But
after that the weather was warm and sunny. We saw the greatest number of
feathered game--enormous flocks of geese, brant, and ducks. Our camp one
night was near a small lake just the other side of Benton, and at dusk
hundreds of geese came and lit on the water, until it looked like one
big mass of live, restless things, and the noise was deafening. Some
of the men shot at them with rifles, but the ge