consisting of ten
men, to seek and join those whom he had detached while on the route;
appointing for them the same rendezvous, (at the Medicine Lodge,) on the
28th of August.

All hands now set to work to construct "bull boats," as they are
technically called; a light, fragile kind of bark, characteristic of
the expedients and inventions of the wilderness; being formed of buffalo
skins, stretched on frames. They are sometimes, also, called skin boats.
Wyeth was the first ready; and, with his usual promptness and hardihood,
launched his frail bark, singly, on this wild and hazardous voyage, down
an almost interminable succession of rivers, winding through countries
teeming with savage hordes. Milton Sublette, his former fellow
traveller, and his companion in the battle scenes of Pierre's Hole,
took passage in his boat. His crew consisted of two white men, and two
Indians. We shall hear further of Wyeth, and his wild voyage, in the
course of our wanderings about the Far West.

The remaining parties soon completed their several armaments. That
of Captain Bonneville was composed of three bull boats, in which he
embarked all his peltries, giving them in charge of Mr. Cerre, with a
party of thirty-six men. Mr. Campbell took command of his own boats, and
the little squadrons were soon gliding down the bright current of the
Bighorn.

The secret precautions which Captain Bonneville had taken to throw his
men first into the trapping ground west of the Bighorn, were, probably,
superfluous. It did not appear that Fitzpatrick had intended to hunt in
that direction. The moment Mr. Campbell and his men embarked with the
peltries, Fitzpatrick took charge of all the horses, amounting to above
a hundred, and struck off to the east, to trap upon Littlehorn, Powder,
and Tongue rivers. He was accompanied by Captain Stewart, who was
desirous of having a range about the Crow country. Of the adventures
they met with in that region of vagabonds and horse stealers, we shall
have something to relate hereafter.

Captain Bonneville being now left to prosecute his trapping campaign
without rivalry, set out, on the 17th of August, for the rendezvous at
Medicine Lodge. He had but four men remaining with him, and forty-six
horses to take care of; with these he had to make his way over mountain
and plain, through a marauding, horse-stealing region, full of peril
for a numerous cavalcade so slightly manned. He addressed himself to his
difficult jo