speculations; and indeed this wild, horse-stealing tribe is one
of the most notorious of the mountains. The chief, of course, had
his scalps to show and his battles to recount. The Blackfoot is the
hereditary enemy of the Crow, toward whom hostility is like a cherished
principle of religion; for every tribe, besides its casual
antagonists, has some enduring foe with whom there can be no permanent
reconciliation. The Crows and Blackfeet, upon the whole, are enemies
worthy of each other, being rogues and ruffians of the first water. As
their predatory excursions extend over the same regions, they often come
in contact with each other, and these casual conflicts serve to keep
their wits awake and their passions alive.

The present party of Crows, however, evinced nothing of the invidious
character for which they are renowned. During the day and night that
they were encamped in company with the travellers, their conduct was
friendly in the extreme. They were, in fact, quite irksome in their
attentions, and had a caressing manner at times quite importunate. It
was not until after separation on the following morning that the captain
and his men ascertained the secret of all this loving-kindness. In the
course of their fraternal caresses, the Crows had contrived to empty the
pockets of their white brothers; to abstract the very buttons from their
coats, and, above all, to make free with their hunting knives.

By equal altitudes of the sun, taken at this last encampment, Captain
Bonneville ascertained his latitude to be 41 47' north. The thermometer,
at six o'clock in the morning, stood at fifty-nine degrees; at two
o'clock, P. M., at ninety-two degrees; and at six o'clock in the
evening, at seventy degrees.

The Black Hills, or Mountains, now began to be seen at a distance,
printing the horizon with their rugged and broken outlines; and
threatening to oppose a difficult barrier in the way of the travellers.

On the 26th of May, the travellers encamped at Laramie's Fork, a clear
and beautiful stream, rising in the west-southwest, maintaining an
average width of twenty yards, and winding through broad meadows
abounding in currants and gooseberries, and adorned with groves and
clumps of trees.

By an observation of Jupiter's satellites, with a Dolland reflecting
telescope, Captain Bonneville ascertained the longitude to be 102 57'
west of Greenwich.

We will here step ahead of our narrative to observe that about three
yea