em. Thus all crossed in safety. A march of nine miles
took them over high rolling prairies to the north fork; their eyes being
regaled with the welcome sight of herds of buffalo at a distance, some
careering the plain, others grazing and reposing in the natural meadows.

Skirting along the north fork for a day or two, excessively annoyed by
musquitoes and buffalo gnats, they reached, in the evening of the 17th,
a small but beautiful grove, from which issued the confused notes of
singing birds, the first they had heard since crossing the boundary
of Missouri. After so many days of weary travelling through a naked,
monotonous and silent country, it was delightful once more to hear
the song of the bird, and to behold the verdure of the grove. It was
a beautiful sunset, and a sight of the glowing rays, mantling the
tree-tops and rustling branches, gladdened every heart. They pitched
their camp in the grove, kindled their fires, partook merrily of their
rude fare, and resigned themselves to the sweetest sleep they had
enjoyed since their outset upon the prairies.

The country now became rugged and broken. High bluffs advanced upon the
river, and forced the travellers occasionally to leave its banks and
wind their course into the interior. In one of the wild and solitary
passes they were startled by the trail of four or five pedestrians, whom
they supposed to be spies from some predatory camp of either Arickara
or Crow Indians. This obliged them to redouble their vigilance at
night, and to keep especial watch upon their horses. In these rugged
and elevated regions they began to see the black-tailed deer, a
species larger than the ordinary kind, and chiefly found in rocky and
mountainous countries. They had reached also a great buffalo range;
Captain Bonneville ascended a high bluff, commanding an extensive view
of the surrounding plains. As far as his eye could reach, the country
seemed absolutely blackened by innumerable herds. No language, he says,
could convey an adequate idea of the vast living mass thus presented to
his eye. He remarked that the bulls and cows generally congregated in
separate herds.

Opposite to the camp at this place was a singular phenomenon, which
is among the curiosities of the country. It is called the chimney. The
lower part is a conical mound, rising out of the naked plain; from the
summit shoots up a shaft or column, about one hundred and twenty feet
in height, from which it derives its name.