h strange head-gear the venerable bull
made off to the prairies.

On the 24th of August, the bull boat emerged, with its adventurous crew,
into the broad bosom of the mighty Missouri. Here, about six miles above
the mouth of the Yellowstone, the voyagers landed at Fort Union, the
distributing post of the American Fur Company in the western country.
It was a stockaded fortress, about two hundred and twenty feet
square, pleasantly situated on a high bank. Here they were hospitably
entertained by Mr. M'Kenzie, the superintendent, and remained with him
three days, enjoying the unusual luxuries of bread, butter, milk, and
cheese, for the fort was well supplied with domestic cattle, though it
had no garden. The atmosphere of these elevated regions is said to be
too dry for the culture of vegetables; yet the voyagers, in coming down
the Yellowstone, had met with plums, grapes, cherries, and currants, and
had observed ash and elm trees. Where these grow the climate cannot be
incompatible with gardening.

At Fort Union, Wyeth met with a melancholy memento of one of his men.
This was a powder-flask, which a clerk had purchased from a Blackfoot
warrior. It bore the initials of poor More, the unfortunate youth
murdered the year previously, at Jackson's Hole, by the Blackfeet, and
whose bones had been subsequently found by Captain Bonneville. This
flask had either been passed from hand to hand of the youth, or,
perhaps, had been brought to the fort by the very savage who slew him.

As the bull boat was now nearly worn out, and altogether unfit for the
broader and more turbulent stream of the Missouri, it was given up,
and a canoe of cottonwood, about twenty feet long, fabricated by the
Blackfeet, was purchased to supply its place. In this Wyeth hoisted his
sail, and bidding adieu to the hospitable superintendent of Fort Union,
turned his prow to the east, and set off down the Missouri.

He had not proceeded many hours, before, in the evening, he came to a
large keel boat at anchor. It proved to be the boat of Captain William
Sublette, freighted with munitions for carrying on a powerful opposition
to the American Fur Company. The voyagers went on board, where they
were treated with the hearty hospitality of the wilderness, and passed a
social evening, talking over past scenes and adventures, and especially
the memorable fight at Pierre's Hole.

Here Milton Sublette determined to give up further voyaging in the
canoe, and remain