The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-09-09
and chief of all the Half Breeds on this

side of the border We reached the
| camp at four that afternoon, distance
| of fifty-three miles. There we met with
a cordial reception from the breeds,
they cheerfully sharing their supplies
and blankets with u.s. Next morning,
with two breeds for guides, we started
for the pass in the Little Rockies
When we struck the foothills of thes
mountains the guides exhibited an
anxiety to return to their camp and
we consented from necessity. Owing
to binding snow-storm, that came up
soon after, we lost the trail and wan
dered about in the mountains until
about five o'clock, when we struck
camp of Santee Indians, consisting of
about 125 lodges. Our5reception was far
from hospitable. Ths beggars insisted
that we should give: them all our to-
baeco, which we Indignantly refused to
| do, and so we sought shelter in ravine
| near by, in Arrow creek. During the
night the storm increased in fury and
we slept through all the terrors of a
full-blown blizzard. AT daylight we
broke camp, but couldn't get Santee
to guide us out of the labyrinth of noun
wandered about until the afternoon of
the fourth day fromithe Santee camp
in that binding storm. without any
thing to eat or any rest for ourselves
and horses, when the sun came out
long enough for us to get our bearings
and sight the valley of Milk river in the
dim distance. We had not dared to
make fire, from fear of hostile Indians,
but by dark of that night we had reached
the river and decided 20 take the chances
of picketing our horses and building
fire.
"We were hungry and ch illed to the
marrow. So, after providing for our
horses, we pulled up'a lot of logs. and
made a blazing campfire, the light
from which shed its. luster for miles
around, creating weird reflection in
| the sky. Jack was so overcome that
it was agreed that he should sleep the
fore part of the night. He had hardly
laid down and pulled his blanket over
his person until he was as still as one
dead. was lying there before the
| fire in q doze, when heard a slight
scratching. l looked up and saw
| pair of glaring eyes set upon me. /
was dazed at first and felt that [ could
not move muscle. l studied the out
| lines of the figure back of the blazing
eyes and recognized the strange in
truder to be monstrous mountain
lion crouching, ready for a deadly
spring, directly over me. The beast
was spread at fuli length on a limb,
every muscle ready for action, every
| nerve strung at its utmost tension, his
tusks cleaning behind his red lips, his
long claws clutching convulsively.
Finally, fully aroused, / reached for
my Winchester rifle, the barrel of
which was lying within reach
of my extended arm. Bringing
| it quickly to my shoulder and
taking a hasty; aim while in
| a PROSTATE position pulled the trig-
ger. With wild shrek, so human in
its agony that it yet rings in my ears
like the dying groan of fellow being,
the brute fell headlong before the fire,
his long tail brushing my face in the
descent. was all Of tremor when l
shook Jack, whose dead sleep had not
been interrupted by the report. He
finally got up and, taking in the peril
of our situation, fell prone upon the
ground in faint. This was about ten
o'clock at night, bat kept our lonely
vigil until daylight, when we discov-
| cred to our infinite relief that we were
within mile of French Louis, breed
trader, better known as The Cross,
from crucifix that was planted there
| on the site of Catholic mission which
hadlbeen built by the Hudson Bay
traders and burned by the hostiles after
the good old missionary had been mur-
dered. At 'Frenchy's' we got the best
breakfast ever ate and after securing
| a relay of horses we moved on to Bel
KNAPP and returned to Fort Benton.
We carried the hide of the mountain
lion with us and afterward had it
stuffed. That was a cold night away
up in Montana and it makes me shud-
der to think of it. Philadelphia Times.