Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/359



KILLING DULL CARE IN CAMP—EXPLORING THE SNOW-CRESTED BIG HORN MOUNTAINS—FINERTY KILLS HIS FIRST BUFFALO—THE SWIMMING POOLS—A BIG TROUT—SIBLEY'S SCOUT—A NARROW ESCAPE—NEWS OF THE CUSTER MASSACRE—THE SIOUX TRY TO BURN US OUT—THE THREE MESSENGERS FROM TERRY—WASHAKIE DRILLS HIS SHOSHONES—KELLY THE COURIER STARTS TO FIND TERRY—CROW INDIANS BEARING DESPATCHES—THE SIGN-LANGUAGE—A PONY RACE—INDIAN SERENADES—HOW THE SHOSHONES FISHED—A FIRE IN CAMP—THE UTES JOIN US.

In the main, this absence of news from Terry was the reason why General Crook took a small detachment with him to the summit of the Big Horn Mountains and remained four days. We left camp on the 1st of July, 1876, the party consisting of General Crook, Colonel Royall, Lieutenant Lemly, Major Burt, Lieutenants Carpenter, Schuyler, and Bourke, Messrs. Wasson, Finerty, Strahorn, and Davenport, with a small train of picked mules under Mr. Young. The climb to the summit was effected without event worthy of note, beyond the to-be-expected ruggedness of the trail and the beauty and grandeur of the scenery. From the highest point gained during the day Crook eagerly scanned the broad vista of country spread out at our feet, reaching from the course of the Little Big Horn on the left to the country near Pumpkin Buttes on the right. Neither the natural vision nor the aid of powerful glasses showed the slightest trace of a marching or a camping column; there was no smoke, no dust, to indicate the proximity of either Terry or Gibbon.

Frank Gruard had made an inspection of the country to the northwest of camp several days before to determine the truth of reported smokes, but his trip failed to confirm the story. The presence of Indians near camp had also been asserted, but scouting parties had as yet done nothing beyond proving these