intain the most vigilant precautions;
throwing out scouts in the advance, and on every rising ground.

In the course of the day he arrived at the plain of white clay, already
mentioned, surrounded by the mineral springs, called Beer Springs, by
the trappers. Here the men all halted to have a regale. In a few moments
every spring had its jovial knot of hard drinkers, with tin cup in hand,
indulging in a mock carouse; quaffing, pledging, toasting, bandying
jokes, singing drinking songs, and uttering peals of laughter, until it
seemed as if their imaginations had given potency to the beverage, and
cheated them into a fit of intoxication. Indeed, in the excitement of
the moment, they were loud and extravagant in their commendations of
"the mountain tap"; elevating it above every beverage produced from hops
or malt. It was a singular and fantastic scene; suited to a region
where everything is strange and peculiar:--These groups of trappers, and
hunters, and Indians, with their wild costumes, and wilder countenances;
their boisterous gayety, and reckless air; quaffing, and making merry
round these sparkling fountains; while beside them lay their weep
ons, ready to be snatched up for instant service. Painters are fond of
representing banditti at their rude and picturesque carousels; but here
were groups, still more rude and picturesque; and it needed but a sudden
onset of Blackfeet, and a quick transition from a fantastic revel to
a furious melee, to have rendered this picture of a trapper's life
complete.

The beer frolic, however, passed off without any untoward circumstance;
and, unlike most drinking bouts, left neither headache nor heartache
behind. Captain Bonneville now directed his course up along Bear River;
amusing himself, occasionally, with hunting the buffalo, with which
the country was covered. Sometimes, when he saw a huge bull taking his
repose in a prairie, he would steal along a ravine, until close upon
him; then rouse him from his meditations with a pebble, and take a shot
at him as he started up. Such is the quickness with which this animal
springs upon his legs, that it is not easy to discover the muscular
process by which it is effected. The horse rises first upon his fore
legs; and the domestic cow, upon her hinder limbs; but the buffalo
bounds at once from a couchant to an erect position, with a celerity
that baffles the eye. Though from his bulk, and rolling gait, he does
not appear to run with much sw