d with tremendous chasms,
where the rocks rose like walls.

On the second day, however, he encamped once more in the plain, and
as it was still early some of the men strolled out to the neighboring
hills. In casting their eyes round the country, they perceived a great
cloud of dust rising in the south, and evidently approaching. Hastening
back to the camp, they gave the alarm. Preparations were instantly made
to receive an enemy; while some of the men, throwing themselves upon
the "running horses" kept for hunting, galloped off to reconnoitre. In
a little while, they made signals from a distance that all was friendly.
By this time the cloud of dust had swept on as if hurried along by a
blast, and a band of wild horsemen came dashing at full leap into the
camp, yelling and whooping like so many maniacs. Their dresses, their
accoutrements, their mode of riding, and their uncouth clamor, made
them seem a party of savages arrayed for war; but they proved to be
principally half-breeds, and white men grown savage in the wilderness,
who were employed as trappers and hunters in the service of the Hudson's
Bay Company.

Here was again "high jinks" in the camp. Captain Bonneville's men hailed
these wild scamperers as congenial spirits, or rather as the very game
birds of their class. They entertained them with the hospitality of
mountaineers, feasting them at every fire. At first, there were mutual
details of adventures and exploits, and broad joking mingled with peals
of laughter. Then came on boasting of the comparative merits of horses
and rifles, which soon engrossed every tongue. This naturally led to
racing, and shooting at a mark; one trial of speed and skill succeeded
another, shouts and acclamations rose from the victorious parties,
fierce altercations succeeded, and a general melee was about to take
place, when suddenly the attention of the quarrellers was arrested by a
strange kind of Indian chant or chorus, that seemed to operate upon them
as a charm. Their fury was at an end; a tacit reconciliation succeeded
and the ideas of the whole mongrel crowd whites, half-breeds and squaws
were turned in a new direction. They all formed into groups and taking
their places at the several fires, prepared for one of the most exciting
amusements of the Nez Perces and the other tribes of the Far West.

The choral chant, in fact, which had thus acted as a charm, was a kind
of wild accompaniment to the favorite Indian game of "Hand.