g Reichaud as the
chief's prisoner. It was said he expected to get the President to
pardon him and allow him to establish a trading-post for the
Ogallallas. The feeling against this outlaw was such as to make General
Smith fear that some one at Cheyenne would shoot him, and so the party
turned off to Pine Bluff Station, about forty-three miles east of that
town. We thus missed seeing them. But there were other objects of
interest in our journey, and we went on to the mail station, called the
Chug, a place not of much note,--for beside a company of cavalry, there
were not a dozen ranches there on the beautiful stream, along whose
banks were growing willow-trees, and the cottonwood also. Besides,
there were half a dozen tepees filled with half-breeds, who are herders
and wood-choppers in the mountains.

While the paymaster was dispensing the greenbacks to Uncle Sam's boys,
the doctor and I sallied out with a guide in search of those much
admired

MOSS AGATES,

which are here found in great abundance, even quarried out of a bluff
and carried off by the wagon-load. The guide had been there but once,
and somehow or other he could not locate it exactly, and we had a ride
out of six miles and back without finding the spot. Still, we picked up
a few on the way. As these are now so much the fashion for jewelry, I
will describe them. First, I should say that most suppose they contain
real moss, or fern-leaves, so distinct are they seen in a clear agate
to resemble them. Thus you see imitations of pine-trees, vines, a
deer's head, and sprigs of various kinds; but it is through iron
solutions penetrating them when in a soluble state. If you take a pen
and drop some ink into a tumbler of water, it will scatter and form for
the moment an appearance like a moss agate. These agates, when found on
bluffs or dry places, are coated over with a white covering of lime or
alkali. Those in the beds of rivers found along the line of the Pacific
Railroad, are smooth and transparent. They are called the "Cheyenne
brown agate," "Granger water agate," "Church Buttes light-blue agate,"
and the "Sweet-water agate."

There are great quantities of them near Church Butte and Granger
stations, nearly nine hundred miles west of Missouri River. You have to
poke among cobble-stones, etc. to find them, and when a person comes
upon a handsome specimen, he will shout, as did a minister from
Chicago, one day, with me, when he picked up a nice one