the west side and grazed
or trailed down it. It was a beautiful stream of water, having its
source in the Big Horn Mountains, frequently visible on our left. For
the next four or five days we had easy work. There were range cattle
through that section, but fearful of Texas fever, their owners gave
the Powder River a wide berth. With the exception of holding the herd
at night, our duties were light. We caught fish and killed grouse; and
the respite seemed like a holiday after our experience of the past few
days. During the evening of the second day after reaching the Powder,
we crossed the Crazy Woman, a clear mountainous fork of the former
river, and nearly as large as the parent stream. Once or twice we
encountered range riders, and learned that the Crazy Woman was a stock
country, a number of beef ranches being located on it, stocked with
Texas cattle.

Somewhere near or about the Montana line, we took a left-hand trail.
Flood had ridden it out until he had satisfied himself that it led
over to the Tongue River and the country beyond. While large trails
followed on down the Powder, their direction was wrong for us, as they
led towards the Bad Lands and the lower Yellowstone country. On the
second day out, after taking the left-hand trail, we encountered some
rough country in passing across a saddle in a range of hills forming
the divide between the Powder and Tongue rivers. We were nearly a
whole day crossing it, but had a well-used trail to follow, and down
in the foothills made camp that night on a creek which emptied into
the Tongue. The roughness of the trail was well compensated for,
however, as it was a paradise of grass and water. We reached the
Tongue River the next afternoon, and found it a similar stream to the
Powder,--clear as crystal, swift, and with a rocky bottom. As these
were but minor rivers, we encountered no trouble in crossing them, the
greatest danger being to our wagon. On the Tongue we met range riders
again, and from them we learned that this trail, which crossed the
Yellowstone at Frenchman's Ford, was the one in use by herds bound for
the Musselshell and remoter points on the upper Missouri. From one
rider we learned that the first herd of the present season which went
through on this route were cattle wintered on the Niobrara in western
Nebraska, whose destination was Alberta in the British possessions.
This herd outclassed us in penetrating northward, though in distance
they had not trav