-one savages, which they soon ascertained to be
Blackfeet. The width of the river enabled them to keep at a sufficient
distance, and they soon landed at Fort Cass. This was a mere
fortification against Indians; being a stockade of about one hundred and
thirty feet square, with two bastions at the extreme corners. M'Tulloch,
an agent of the American Company, was stationed there with twenty men;
two boats of fifteen tons burden were lying here; but at certain seasons
of the year a steamboat can come up to the fort.

They had scarcely arrived, when the Blackfeet warriors made their
appearance on the opposite bank, displaying two American flags in token
of amity. They plunged into the river, swam across, and were kindly
received at the fort. They were some of the very men who had been
engaged, the year previously, in the battle at Pierre's Hole, and a
fierce-looking set of fellows they were; tall and hawk-nosed, and very
much resembling the Crows. They professed to be on an amicable errand,
to make peace with the Crows, and set off in all haste, before night, to
overtake them. Wyeth predicted that they would lose their scalps; for he
had heard the Crows denounce vengeance on them, for having murdered two
of their warriors who had ventured among them on the faith of a treaty
of peace. It is probable, however, that this pacific errand was all a
pretence, and that the real object of the Blackfeet braves was to hang
about the skirts of the Crow band, steal their horses, and take the
scalps of stragglers.

At Fort Cass, Mr. Wyeth disposed of some packages of beaver, and a
quantity of buffalo robes. On the following morning (August 18th), he
once more launched his bull boat, and proceeded down the Yellowstone,
which inclined in an east-northeast direction. The river had alluvial
bottoms, fringed with great quantities of the sweet cotton-wood,
and interrupted occasionally by "bluffs" of sandstone. The current
occasionally brings down fragments of granite and porphyry.

In the course of the day, they saw something moving on the bank among
the trees, which they mistook for game of some kind; and, being in want
of provisions, pulled toward shore. They discovered, just in time,
a party of Blackfeet, lurking in the thickets, and sheered, with all
speed, to the opposite side of the river.

After a time, they came in sight of a gang of elk. Wyeth was
immediately for pursuing them, rifle in hand, but saw evident signs
of dissatisfacti