The next morning I waded through deep snow some distance southeast of town to a soldiers' camp where Major Roy was in command and reported. He informed me that it would be impossible for me to go by stage to Fort Sill, that the stages had quit running on account of the deep snow, and that he would order me back to St. Louis, which he did. We arrived in St. Louis about the 20th of December, and stopped at the Lindell, one of the good hotels in those days. The controversy between Doctor Mills, the medical director and the department quartermaster was quite amusing. The doctor ending up by saying, "You sent him the only road he couldn't go." It was decided I should wait for a boat down the Mississippi and up the Arkansas to Fort Smith, and stage across country from there to Fort Sill. On my first arrival at St. Louis from the West I had gone to see a furrier about tanning my buffalo hide and he informed me it would require several days to put it in prime condition. I went to see him again on our return to St. Louis and was told it would probably be ready by the time we would start to Fort Sill by boat and that he would make a robe I would be proud of. He sent it to the boat the day before we left, and as it seemed a little damp, I spread it out on the hurricane deck to dry. As it dried it became hard around the edges and I kept trimming away the hard parts, particularly those of the neck and legs until I had my robe in the shape of a parallelogram. This was disappointing but I still praised it as a souvenir of the chase. We found it a very great help in keeping us warm while in the stage from Fort Smith to Fort Sill. It disappeared one night while hanging outside of our tent at Fort Sill which was only a camp at that time. It had cost me a most thrilling experience when first getting possession of it and then ten dollars to have it tanned, and now after a short service it was gone and I concluded it was hardly worth the ammunition. We were in St. Louis a week or more waiting for the boat to start and while there we had the pleasure of seeing Joseph Jefferson in "Rip Van Winkle." He was then in his prime and although I have seen and heard him since in the same play it did not appeal to me in the same way it did at the first performance. I think it was the last day of December that we went on the boat and started on our trip down the river the following evening. It was a light craft, stern wheel boat, and I was amazed at the vast quantity of freight that it carried. The trip down the Mississippi was without incident but we had frequent delays on the Arkansas unloading freight and crossing sandbars. From Little Rock to Fort Smith we tied up every night. Most of the time up the Arkansas a man stood at the head of the boat taking soundings. We were cordially received and entertained on our arrival at Fort Smith by the post surgeon, Doctor Theibaut and his family, where we remained two or three days.