We had scaled the first hill, when we saw about two miles off a few buffaloes trotting towards us, which had probably lagged behind, and now wanted to catch up the herd. We rode about thirty yards off the path, to a spot where we were covered by rocks and commanded the sloping path down to the water. Ere long we heard the heavy trot of the approaching animals on the stony ground, and presently several cows, and behind them a fat old bull came past us. We all fired together, and the old bull rolled over and over down the slope, and lay dead at the bottom. We took as usual its tongue, marrowbones, and loins, and left the rest to those that came after us. We could not have found a finer road through these hills: broad and trodden smooth, it wound along the crags, so that we were often able to advance at a quick amble. It frequently ran over dizzy precipices, whence we surveyed the pleasant valleys, whose dark shadow seemed to invite us, while the hot sun and its reflection from the bare rocks over which we were marching, was hardly rendered endurable by the fresh breeze blowing up here. We crossed a number of small streams, which came down from the western hills, and all flowed to the Platte, until at the end of a week we again reached the latter river, at the point where a large affluent, coming from the Bighorn, joined it. We appeared to be here on the last slopes of the enormous mountains, over which the snowpeak was visible in all its splendour as a farewell salutation. It rose higher above its smaller comrades, and glistened like the purest silver in the blue sky, while the edge of the mountains displayed no snow, and seemed like a thin strip of fog above the nearer hills. Eastward we noticed on the horizon of the extensive plains only low ranges of hills, while to the north the Black Mountains raised their mighty crests and a few snow-clad peaks. We crossed this southern arm of the Platte, and camped on the other side of it, in order to grant our cattle a few days' rest there, where the most splendid grass and a cool thick wood covered its bank. The bright streams offered us the most glorious fish, which can be almost selected in these streams, as we see them swarm round the bait, and the latter can be dropped before the fish you wish to catch. The neighbourhood of our camp was enlivened by game of every description; on the slopes of the neighbouring Black Mountains we found mountain sheep and black-tailed stags; in the forests between them and the Platte the majestic giant stag was preparing for the rutting season, and with swollen neck whetting the numerous tines of its splendid antlers on the trees. The prairies near us brought to us the elegant Virginian stag and the swift, black-eyed antelope, while the buffalo incessantly passed in all directions: not far from our camp we also found a warren of those interesting little creatures, which are falsely called prairie dogs, as they do not belong to this family, but to that of the badger.