detected a hive. These marks are generally respected by any
other bee hunter that should come upon their track. When they have
marked sufficient to fill all their casks, they turn their faces
homeward, cut down the trees as they proceed, and having loaded their
wagon with honey and wax, return well pleased to the settlements.

Now it so happens that the Indians relish wild honey as highly as do the
white men, and are the more delighted with this natural luxury from its
having, in many instances, but recently made its appearance in their
lands. The consequence is numberless disputes and conflicts between them
and the bee hunters: and often a party of the latter, returning, laden
with rich spoil, from one of their forays, are apt to be waylaid by the
native lords of the soil; their honey to be seized, their harness cut
to pieces, and themselves left to find their way home the best way
they can, happy to escape with no greater personal harm than a sound
rib-roasting.

Such were the marauders of whose offences the gallant White Plume made
the most bitter complaint. They were chiefly the settlers of the western
part of Missouri, who are the most famous bee hunters on the frontier,
and whose favorite hunting ground lies within the lands of the Kansas
tribe. According to the account of White Plume, however, matters were
pretty fairly balanced between him and the offenders; he having as often
treated them to a taste of the bitter, as they had robbed him of the
sweets.

It is but justice to this gallant chief to say that he gave proofs of
having acquired some of the lights of civilization from his proximity
to the whites, as was evinced in his knowledge of driving a bargain. He
required hard cash in return for some corn with which he supplied the
worthy captain, and left the latter at a loss which most to admire, his
native chivalry as a brave, or his acquired adroitness as a trader.

3.

Wide prairies Vegetable productions Tabular hills--Slabs of
sandstone Nebraska or Platte River--Scanty fare--Buffalo
skulls--Wagons turned into boats--Herds of buffalo--Cliffs
resembling castles--The chimney--Scott's Bluffs Story
connected with them--The bighorn or ahsahta--Its nature and
habits--Difference between that and the "woolly sheep," or
goat of the mountains

FROM THE MIDDLE to the end of May, Captain Bonneville pursued a western
course over vast undulating plains, destitute of tree or s