direction, and,
to our great surprise, beheld a pillar of blue smoke curling up into the
sky, and seeming to rise out of the plain!

"It must be Indians!" cried one.

"I noticed an odd-looking hole in the prairie down there," said Lincoln;
"I noticed it last night, when I was up after the bighorn. The smoke we
see comes out of it; and where there's smoke there must be a fire, they
say--there's somebody about that fire, be they Injuns or whites."

"Indians, of course," rejoined several; "who else would be found within
hundreds of miles of such a place as this? Indians, they must be."

A brief consultation was held among us, as to what was best to be done.
Our fire was at once "choked out," and our mules and horses brought into
the cover of the willow thicket. Some proposed that a small party of us
should go down the stream and reconnoitre; while others advised that we
should climb the mountain, from which we might get a view of the strange
place whence the smoke seemed to proceed. This was plainly the best
course to adopt--as, in case it should fail to satisfy us, we could
still follow the other plan. Half-a-dozen of us, therefore, leaving the
others to guard the camp, immediately set out to ascend the mountain.

We climbed up the ravine, occasionally stopping to look out over the
plain. We climbed until we had reached a considerable elevation. At
length we caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a deep barranca,--into
which ran the stream--but we could distinguish nothing within it at so
great a distance. We could see the plain stretching away beyond, naked
and sterile. On one side only, and that towards the east, there was a
belt of verdure, with here and there a solitary tree, or at most two or
three growing together, stunted-like and shrubby. Running in the centre
of this belt, we could distinguish a line or crack in the plain. This
was, no doubt, a channel by which the stream escaped from the barranca.
As nothing farther could be gained by remaining upon the mountain, we
descended, and joined our companions at the camp.

It was now agreed that a select party should follow the stream, until we
had approached the edge of this strange valley, and reconnoitred it with
caution. Six of us again started, leaving our horses as before. We
stole silently along, keeping among the willows, and as near as possible
to the banks of the rivulet. In this way we travelled about a mile and
a half. We saw then that