iftness; yet, it takes a stanch horse to
overtake him, when at full speed on level ground; and a buffalo cow is
still fleeter in her motion.

Among the Indians and half-breeds of the party, were several admirable
horsemen and bold hunters; who amused themselves with a grotesque kind
of buffalo bait. Whenever they found a huge bull in the plains, they
prepared for their teasing and barbarous sport. Surrounding him on
horseback, they would discharge their arrows at him in quick succession,
goading him to make an attack; which, with a dexterous movement of the
horse, they would easily avoid. In this way, they hovered round him,
feathering him with arrows, as he reared and plunged about, until he was
bristled all over like a porcupine. When they perceived in him signs
of exhaustion, and he could no longer be provoked to make battle, they
would dismount from their horses, approach him in the rear, and seizing
him by the tail, jerk him from side to side, and drag him backward;
until the frantic animal, gathering fresh strength from fury, would
break from them, and rush, with flashing eyes and a hoarse bellowing,
upon any enemy in sight; but in a little while, his transient excitement
at an end, would pitch headlong on the ground, and expire. The arrows
were then plucked forth, the tongue cut out and preserved as a dainty,
and the carcass left a banquet for the wolves.

Pursuing his course up Bear River, Captain Bonneville arrived, on the
13th of June, at the Little Snake Lake; where he encamped for four or
five days, that he might examine its shores and outlets. The latter, he
found extremely muddy, and so surrounded by swamps and quagmires, that
he was obliged to construct canoes of rushes, with which to explore
them. The mouths of all the streams which fall into this lake from the
west, are marshy and inconsiderable; but on the east side, there is
a beautiful beach, broken, occasionally, by high and isolated bluffs,
which advance upon the lake, and heighten the character of the scenery.
The water is very shallow, but abounds with trout, and other small fish.

Having finished his survey of the lake, Captain Bonneville proceeded on
his journey, until on the banks of the Bear River, some distance higher
up, he came upon the party which he had detached a year before, to
circumambulate the Great Salt Lake, and ascertain its extent, and the
nature of its shores. They had been encamped here about twenty days;
and were greatly re