Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 37.djvu/329

 A cool breeze made our ride very pleasant. Husband & myself were alone entirely behind the dust of camp & enjoyed a sweet repast in conversing about home & dear friends. Particularly Mother Loomis in her new situation. Thought a sight of her in her Dairy would be particularly pleasant. Was much cheered with a view of the Fort at a considerable distance. Any thing that looks like a house makes us glad. Called and were hospitably entertained by Capt Thing who keeps the Fort. It was built by Cap Wyeth a gentleman from Boston, whom we saw at Rendezvous, on his way to the east. Our dinner consisted of dry buffalo meat, turnips & fried bread, which was a luxury. Mountain bread is simply course flour & water mixed & roasted or fried in buffalo grease. To one who has had nothing but meat for a long time this relishes very well. For tea we had the same with the addition of some stewed service berries.

4thEnjoyed the cool retreat of an uper room this morning while writing. The buildings of the Fort are made of hewed logs, roof covered with mud bricks, chimney & fireplaces also of the same. No windows except a square hole in the roof & in the bastion a few port holes large enough for guns only. The buildings are all enclosed in a strong log wall. This affords them a place of safty when attacked by hostile Indians, as they frequently are, the Fort being in the Black Feet country. We were invited to breakfast & dinner, dined with them only. Since dinner visited the garden & corn field. The turnips in the garden appear thrifty, the tops very large & small but the roots quite small. The peas looked well but had most of them been gathered by the mice. Saw a few onions that were going to seed, these looked quite natural. This is all the garden contained. He told us his corn did extremely well untill the eighth of June when the frost of one night completely prostrated it. It has since come up again but does not look as well as before. This is their first attempt at cultivation. The building at Fort William on Larimys Fork of Platte, Black Hills, are made in the same way, but larger & more finished than here. Here we had stools to sit on there we had very comfortable