We marched thus with easy journeys, in order not to tire our horses, in the direction of the Rocky Mountains, for some fifty or sixty leagues, killing a few prairie dogs, elks, and two or three striped sousliks (_Spermophilus Hoodii_). At times a covey of larks rose at our approach, or crows and rooks appeared in large numbers and settled down close to us.
Eagle-head would not consent to a halt for the sake of killing a few isolated buffaloes we perceived in the distance. We had still thirty miles to go before getting up with our scouts, and finding ourselves in the real hunting ground.
On the eighth day after leaving the village we reached a creek which meandered through a plain, on which the grass was extremely high, called, as far as I can remember, by the Indians, Green River. A rather tall hill, situated on its hank, concealed our presence, and sheltered us from the wind.
Eagle-head gave orders to camp. The horses were allowed to graze, and a fire of _bois de vâche_ was lighted to roast a few ducks and two elks that composed our breakfast.
This stream, owing to the advanced season, was nearly dry, and filled with tall, closely-growing weeds. After a two hours' halt we continued our march, passing over gently sloping hills, and we found a few of some height, behind which herds of buffalo are usually found. Before reaching the top, our party traversed a small valley filled with a narrow strip of beech trees, elms, and nyundos, between clumps of roses, _prunus padres_, and a few other shrubs, while the wild tine (_clematis_) hung in festoons about the trees.
On reaching the top of the last mound we halted, and a singular scene, which was not without some wild grandeur, was suddenly offered to our sight.
All the crests of the hills, as far as sight could extend, were crowned by the scouts sent ahead, and who, motionless as statues of Florentine bronze, stood out boldly in the blue sky.
These scouts were not seated in the saddle, but standing on it, holding in the left hand their buffalo robes, which they at times waved, and in their right their clubs, which they employed to indicate certain points of the horizon. At our feet, in an immense valley intersected by a large river, whose numerous capacious windings resembled a silver thread, a multitude of black spots spotted the tall grass.