began.  The unhappy victims, finding themselves hemmed in on every side, ran this way and that in their mad efforts to escape.  Finding all chance of escape impossible, and seeing their slaughtered fellows drop dead at their feet, they bellowed with fright, and in the confusion that whelmed them lost all power of resistance.  The slaughter generally lasted two or three hours, and seldom many got clear of the weapons of their assailants.

The field over the “surround” presented the appearance of one vast slaughter-house.  He who had been the most successful in the work of devastation was celebrated as a hero, and received the highest honours from the fair sex, while he who had been so unfortunate as not to have killed a single buffalo was jeered at and ridiculed by the whole band.

The “surround” accomplished, we received permission from Two Axe to take up our line of march.  Accordingly we started along the river, and had only proceeded five miles from the village when we found that the Platte forked.  Taking the South Fork, we journeyed on some six miles and camped.  So we continued every day, making slow progress, some days not advancing more than four or five miles, until we had left the Pawnee villages three hundred miles in our rear.  We found plenty of buffalo along our route until we approached the Rocky Mountains, when the buffalo, as well as all other game, became scarce, and we had to resort to the beans and corn supplied to us by the Pawnees.

Not finding any game for a number of days, we again felt alarmed for our safety.  The snow was deep on the ground, and our poor horses could obtain no food but the boughs and bark of the cottonwood trees.  Still we pushed forward, seeking to advance as far as possible, in order to open a trade with the Indians, and occupy ourselves in trapping during the finish of the season.  We were again put upon reduced rations, one pint of beans per day being the allowance to a mess of four men, with other articles in proportion.

We travelled on till we arrived at Pilot Butte, where two misfortunes befell us.  A great portion of our horses were stolen by the Crow Indians, and General Ashley was taken sick, caused, beyond doubt, by exposure and insufficient fare.  Our condition was growing worse and worse; and, as a measure best calculated to procure relief, we all resolved to go on a general hunt, and bring home something to supply our pressing necessities.  All who were able, therefore, started in different directions, our customary mode of hunting.  I travelled, as near as I could judge, about ten miles from the camp, and saw no signs of game.  I reached a high point of land, and, on taking a general survey, I discovered a river which I had never seen in this region before.  It was of considerable size, flowing four or five miles distant, and on its banks I observed acres of land covered with moving masses of buffalo.  I hailed this