Mexico weekly ledger., 1901-02-28

places with large groves Of Aspen
trees. Crossings "a deep ravine the road
went up steep mountain and about
half way to the top, like an oasis in a
desert and covering about ten acres OF
ground, there was a dense grove of
tall and beautiful balsam fir trees,
the road passing through the center OF
it. An emigrant ahead of us had
killed a bear in this grove and left its
feet lying by the road. When l was
passing through the grove the boys
behind with the cattle met sixty Snake
Indian warriors with their war paint
on and armed to the teeth They said
that they were going out to fight the
Crows. We camped on Bear river
that night and the next morning we
met vast army of buffalo crickets
that were travelling south. These
crickets are about the size of half
grown mole and they are jet black
and shine like a polished boot. They
were so fat that they could hardly
crawl and so thick were they on the
ground that it was impossible to walk
through them withoutcrushing several
of them at every step. Travelling up
the river we passed an Indian village
on our left and stopped at noon near
Hams Fork, tributary of Bear river
that comes down from the mountains
on the north. After dinner was over
the boys all started to the creek to
fish, leaving me alone to take care OF
the camp, and soon after they left a
shower of rain began to fall and got
into my wagon to keep dry. Before
the shower was over a buck Indian
rode into camp and getting off his
pony, he squatted by the fire and
looked straight at me, but said moth
ing. After looking him over, and
seeing what a dirty and mean looking
fellow he was felt like picking up my
rife and making a good Indian OF
him, but just then the happy thought
struck me that l might have little
fun at his expense.
In my wagon there was sack OF
hard tack or sea biscuits, that were SC
hard that they could not be broken
without laying them on rock and
striking them with a hammer, and
then they looked precisely like broken
oyster shells. BY the side of the sack
was "a 5-gallon keg of "nigger-heel" mo-
lasses that was about as strong as con-
centrated lye, and, as no one in the
train would touch either Of them, i
thought that l would give that Indian
his fill. l filled a big tin plate with
molasses and took out of the bag about
dozen biscuits and placed them be-
fore him and then the fun began.
Thought that he would fail when he
tried to bite through one of those cast
iron biscuits, but when he brought his
Jaws together it cracked like a pistol
and the crunching of it sounded like a
lot of hogs cracking nuts under wal
nut tree. | sat down and laughed at
him until the tears ran down my
cheeks, but be kept steadily at his
work and paid no attention to me.
Well, after he had slowed away quart
of molasses and a peck of hard-tack
and his stomach looked like an inflated
balloon, he shook his head when | was
about to refill his plate and with a
grunt of satisfaction he climbed onto
his pony and rode away. At that time
those Indians were doing profitable
business in swindling the emigrants
An Indian would sell pony to an
emigrant for twenty-five or thirty dol
lars and after the emigrant had trav'
eled for two or three days he would bt
overtaken by about half dozenarmeo
Indians who would take the pony
from him, claiming that the Indian
thatIsOld it to him had stolen it from
them. Near this camp nine year
later there was the bloodiest battle
ever fought west of the Rocky noun
tains. With a regiment of soldiers
Gen. Connor met there over 1000 wei
armed Indians, and the Indians wer'
so confident Of victory that they can't
down into the valley and fought thu