Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/333

 test their skill as anglers were fairly rewarded; the trout began to bite languidly at first and with exasperating deliberation, but making up for it all later on, when a good mess could be hooked in a few minutes. Noyes and Wells and Randall were the trout maniacs, but they had many followers in their gentle lunacy, which, before the hot weather had ended, spread throughout the whole command. Mills and his men were more inclined to go up in the higher altitudes and hunt for bear; they brought in a good-sized "cinnamon," which was some time afterwards followed by other specimens of the bruin family; elk and deer and buffaloes, the last chiefly the meat of old bulls driven out of the herds to the northwest, gave relish and variety to the ordinary rations and additional topics for conversation.

General Crook was an enthusiastic hunter and fisher, and never failed to return with some tribute exacted from the beasts of the hills or the swimmers of the pools; but he frequently joined Burt and Carpenter in their search for rare birds and butterflies, with which the rolling plains at the base of the Big Horn were filled. We caught one very fine specimen of the prairie owl, which seemed wonderfully tame, and comported itself with rare dignity; the name of "Sitting Bull" was conferred unanimously, and borne so long as the bird honored camp with its presence. Lieutenant Foster made numbers of interesting sketches of the scenery of the Big Horn and the hills nearest the Goose Creek; one of the packers, a man with decided artistic abilities, named Stanley, was busy at every spare moment sketching groups of teamsters, scouts, animals, and wagons, with delicacy of execution and excellent effect. Captain Stanton, our engineer officer, took his altitudes daily and noted the positions of the stars. Newspapers were read to pieces, and such books as had found their way with the command were passed from hand to hand and read eagerly. Mr. Wasson and I made an arrangement to peruse each day either one of Shakespeare's plays or an essay by Macaulay, and to discuss them together. The discovery of the first mess of luscious strawberries occasioned more excitement than any of the news received in the journals of the time, and an alarm on the picket line from the accidental discharge of a carbine or rifle would bring out all the conversational strength of young and old.

It was whispered that one of our teamsters was a woman, and no other than "Calamity Jane," a character famed in border