"There - there! riding on horseback!" cried one of the hunters.
"Yes; with white scarfs on!" cried the other.
Wyeth looked in the direction they pointed, but descried nothing
but two bald eagles, perched on a low dry branch beyond the
thickets, and seeming, from the rapid motion of the boat, to be
moving swiftly in an opposite direction. The detection of this
blunder in the two veterans, who prided themselves on the
sureness and quickness of their sight, produced a hearty laugh at
their expense, and put an end to their vauntings.
The Yellowstone, above the confluence of the Bighorn, is a clear
stream; its waters were now gradually growing turbid, and
assuming the yellow clay color of the Missouri. The current was
about four miles an hour, with occasional rapids; some of them
dangerous, but the voyagers passed them all without accident. The
banks of the river were in many places precipitous with strata of
bituminous coal.
They now entered a region abounding with buffalo - that
ever-journeying animal, which moves in countless droves from
point to point of the vast wilderness; traversing plains, pouring
through the intricate defiles of mountains, swimming rivers, ever
on the move, guided on its boundless migrations by some
traditionary knowledge, like the finny tribes of the ocean,
which, at certain seasons, find their mysterious paths across the
deep and revisit the remotest shores.
These great migratory herds of buffalo have their hereditary
paths and highways, worn deep through the country, and making for
the surest passes of the mountains, and the most practicable
fords of the rivers. When once a great column is in full career,
it goes straight forward, regardless of all obstacles; those in
front being impelled by the moving mass behind. At such times
they
will break through a camp, trampling down everything in their
course.
It was the lot of the voyagers, one night, to encamp at one of
these buffalo landing places, and exactly on the trail. They had
not been long asleep, when they were awakened by a great
bellowing, and tramping, and the rush, and splash, and snorting
of animals in the river. They had just time to ascertain that a
buffalo army was entering the river on the opposite side, and
making toward the landing place. With all haste they moved their
boat and shifted their camp, by which time the head of the column
had reached the shore, and came pressing up the bank.
It was a singular spectacle, by the uncertain moonlight, to
behold this countless throng making their way across the river,
blowing, and bellowing, and splashing. Sometimes they pass in
such dense and continuous column as to form a temporary dam
across the river, the waters of which rise and rush over their
backs, or between their squadrons.
