Rocky Mountain husbandman., 1879-01-02
Written for the Rocky Mountain Husbandman.
MOVING A REGIMENT, AND SOME OF THE
INCIDENTS OF THE TRIP.

MOVING A REGIMENT, AND SOME OF THE
INCIDENTS OF THE TRIP.
Tomorrow we move aboard the boat; the
wagons with the heavy freight not having
arrived, we must of course wait for them.
October 1st.-Farewell to the mountains
of Montana We are on the steamer, all
ready to pull out, but the wind is so strong
that the boat cannot get away from the bank.
There are barely state-rooms enough on
the Josephine for the officers and their FAM
lilies, SO the order is that no laundress can
have "birth" ON the boat.
We leave Bartlett here to await the arri-
val of $50 recruits tor the Sd Infantry.
Turned over to him all my ga" tents for
his recruits. u "#
On October I'd we started down the river
and stopped for the night at wood yard
little distance below the mouth of the Mus
clcshell river. At the mouth of this stream
stands one lone chimney. A fragment of
that kind sets one thinking, and find my
that moulded the ..dobies'' for this lonely
reminder of past hopes and bloody Sioux
raids.
What pity that the route to the mouth
Of the Nuscleshell was abandoned. 1t is
certainly the best in the territory, and as
soon as the wool-growers attain little more
strength, will be the route from central
Montana. The hills rise much more gradu-
ally, and are not nearly SO high, as at Car
roll, and after passing through the bad
lands, (about twelve miles,) the route is a
natural wagon road-well watered and tim
bered, and plenty OF grass.
| Alas for Carroll. The wind whistles sor-
rowfully through its abandoned avenues.
It's gold-mounted, silver-initial, pearl-han-
died, log saloons are things of the remorse-
less past. How many hopes and houses lie
| buried in the mud of the river that flows
silently toward the gulf The town looks
now like one of Nasby's pictures of the
Confederate Crossroads. "A veritable Bas-
com was standing il the doorway OF the
| only saloon as we landed, and half ex-
pected to see 8 Petroleum. step out and be-
gin an advocacy Of on-lilnited" paper
| money.
! As there were no conveniences on the Jo-
sephine for cooking for SO many men they
were allowed to 60 ashore here and cook
coffee. AL the cooking for the men must
be done on the shore at night when we
lay up.
| At the s'Little Rockies" we feel that we
are parting forever from the beautiful blue
mountains that make of Montana land
scape of never-ending variety and inexhaust-
able sublimity. The dreary sameness of the
bad-lands, tlecked with the leprous white
spots of alkali, or the wearying monotony
| OF the fiat, uninteresting PLAN induces a
feeling Of home-sickness, a yearning for one
more view of the rugged, sky-reaching
mountains, that with an eyer-varying change
of light and shade, present to the pleased
eye an endless panorama OF lovely land
scapes. 5f
| There are wood-yards here and there on
the river bank, and as the boat darts past,
| the "wood hawks" as they are called, hast
ell to the shore and gaze wistfnlly after us,
turning away, with sigh, perhaps, as the
| boat vanlshes around bend; wondering,
possibly, when they too, will be flying down
| the river to visit once more the friends that
are, may be, mourning them as lost.
! Between Carroll and Fort Peck we passed
many small bands of buffalo.
| On October Sd we reached woodward
one hundred and thirty-seven miles below
the mouth OF the Muscleshell. The men
here report number of Sioux at Wolf
point. They think there are at least, one
hundred and twenty lodges. e 6