of the Arrowstone fork, another easy pass, and descended a tributary of the Jefferson as far as its outlet, through rather a wild, broken, and mountainous country, with here and there an extensive, open plain, the ordinary resort of innumerable herds of buffalo.[197] The seventh day found us encamped in the immense plain through which the forks of the Missouri diverge, ascending to the source at the very top of the main chain of the Rocky Mountains.[198] In travelling through these wilds, great care is to be had in order to avoid the sudden attack of some of those straggling war-parties that infest this neighborhood purposely to search for scalps, plunder, and the fame of some daring exploit. We halted every evening for a few hours, to take a bite, as the trapper would say, and to give some food and rest to our animals. When it was quite dark, we would kindle a brisk fire as if to last until morning; then under cover of the night, proceed on our journey for about ten miles, to some unsuspected place, thus eluding {309} our enemies, should any have followed in our track, or be lurking in the neighborhood, awaiting the midnight hour to execute their murderous designs. From the three forks we went easterly, crossing by an easy pass the mountain chain which separates the head waters of the Missouri from the Yellow-Stone River,
- [Footnote: Lodge River (called by him Cart River). See our volume xxvii, p. 253, note 130,
which describes the journey made by De Smet in 1841.—Ed.]
