Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/357

 great trout streams were not long without proper recognition at the hands of our anglers. Under the influence of the warm weather the fish had begun to bite voraciously, in spite of the fact that there were always squads of men bathing in the limpid waters, or mules slaking their thirst. The first afternoon ninety-five were caught and brought into camp, where they were soon broiling on the coals or frying in pans. None of them were large, but all were "pan" fish, delicious to the taste. While the sun was shining we were annoyed by swarms of green and black flies, which disappeared with the coming of night and its refreshingly cool breezes.

June 23, Lieutenant Schuyler, Fifth Cavalry, reported at headquarters for duty as aide-de-camp to General Crook. He had been four days making the trip out from Fort Fetterman, travelling with the two couriers who brought our mail. At old Fort Reno they had stumbled upon a war party of Sioux, but were not discovered, and hid in the rocks until the darkness of night enabled them to resume their journey at a gallop, which never stopped for more than forty miles. They brought news that the Fifth Cavalry was at Red Cloud Agency; that five commissioners were to be appointed to confer with the Sioux; and that Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, had been nominated by the Republicans for the Presidency. General Hayes had commanded a brigade under General Crook in the Army of West Virginia during the War of the Rebellion. Crook spoke of his former subordinate in the warmest and most affectionate manner, instancing several battles in which Hayes had displayed exceptional courage, and proved himself to be, to use Crook's words, "as brave a man as ever wore a shoulder-strap."

My note-books about this time seem to be almost the chronicle of a sporting club, so filled are they with the numbers of trout brought by different fishermen into camp; all fishers did not stop at my tent, and I do not pretend to have preserved accurate figures, much being left unrecorded. Mills started in with a record of over one hundred caught by himself and two soldiers in one short afternoon. On the 28th of June the same party has another record of one hundred and forty-six. On the 29th of same month Bubb is credited with fifty-five during the afternoon, while the total brought into camp during the 28th ran over five hundred. General Crook started out to catch a mess, but