From this camp I was ordered to make a topographical survey to the junction of the North fork of the Red river with the main stream, a distance of about one hundred miles by the route we took along the river. Mr. Spencer with a detachment of about thirty troopers was sent with me as an escort. This kind of survey did not pretend to be accurate but was intended to observe and record the principal features of the country, such as canons, high points of land, valleys and table lands, and to estimate the altitudes and distance. The compass was the only instrument used on this trip. We arrived at our destination about the middle of the forenoon of the third day and crossed the North fork and went into camp at the junction of the two streams. There was an immense cottonwood tree just on the bank where the two streams united and we conceived the idea of marking our names and date on it, supposing that we might be the first white people in that locality. After the work was done I suggested that we have a picket pin heated and burn the letters to keep them from healing over so soon, but we discovered there were no matches in the command to start a fire, a piece of carelessness that we thought inexcusable. It occurred to me that the medical panniers are always provided with matches and on investigation I found a little box of wax matches and we soon had a fire started. When we had seared the letters over thoroughly we were quite pleased with the result and if that tree is still standing it will probably show some marks of the vandal hands that scarred its magnificent body. I remember the dinner that day among other good dinners that I have had on my hunting trips. We had buffalo hump and I thought it at that time the best thing I had ever tasted. The country from our camp at the mouth of Cache creek to the junction of North fork and the main stream of Red river is made up mostly of wide valleys and high table lands called mesa in Spanish. These vary in extent from a mile or less to several miles and near the river the country is broken up by frequent canons. It was a beautiful country to look at but it was, of course, entirely uninhabited except by prairie dogs and wild game and buffalo were plentiful, and I recall one bunch of wild horses. We came on them unawares, going up from a wide valley to a mesa or table land, and they were grazing some three or four hundred yards from the edge of the mesa. It was astonishing how quickly they were bunched up, the colts in the middle, the mares on the flanks and the stallions in the lead, going full speed to get away. When we came to the edge of the mesa again they had crossed a wide valley and were going up on another mesa several miles away still at full speed. They were a beautiful bunch of animals, a reddish roan in color, long tails and manes, and in size much larger than the Indian ponies, but were of a pony build and smaller than our best roadsters.