The Indians along the upper Missouri were not then confined to reservations and, in fact, roamed unrestrained from the Platte to the North far beyond our boundary into the British possessions, and from the Mississippi to the crest of the Rocky Mountains, subsisting mainly upon the flesh of the buffalo. The long twilight of this high latitude enabled the boat to run in clear weather almost if not quite as late as 10 o’clock, and little time was lost by darkness, and we were also favored with several magnificent displays of the Aurora Borealis, exceedingly brilliant, lighting the entire northern half of the sky for hours at a time. On reaching the spurs or detached ranges of the mountains that appear on either side of the river, navigation was rendered more difficult by the shoals and rapids over which the boat could hardly have passed but from the fact that she had been lightened by the discharge of the greater part of her cargo, at points below. In the latter part of June we landed at Fort Benton, the head of navigation on the Missouri, where the boat remained several days. CHAPTER III. Fort Benton was established by the American Fur Company, I think in the year 1832. That same year the first steamboat ascended the river to that locality, owned by the company. When we reached the fort it was in charge of Alexander Culbertson, a prominent employee of the fur company. Fifty-four years before this it took Lewis and Clark nearly a year to make the journey from St. Louis to the Great Falls, thirty miles above Fort Benton. The remainder of the boat’s cargo, including the work oxen, plows, harrows, etc., intended for the Blackfoot Agency, was unloaded and the merchandise piled up on the river bank, a part being stored in the fort, while arrangements were being made by Colonel Vaughn for transportation to the Blackfoot Agency, on Sun River, the supervision of which kept the colonel very busy for several days. The long voyage up the Missouri, together with my experience and observation, gathered along the way, had convinced me that I would not enjoy spending the whole winter at the Blackfoot Agency, so I determined to return on the boat. Mr. Lace, who had come up with the intention of going out to the mountains, was so discouraged with the prospects of hunting under existing conditions, that he also resolved to return on the boat. There was no way of his getting back to the States at a later date in that year, except to float down the river, a mode of traveling that had no attractions for him. Mr. Holbrook, the young Harvard graduate, who was traveling merely for recreation and health, had no intention of remaining, so the boat was not entirely bereft of passengers.