Page:Recollections of My Boyhood.djvu/30

Rh the river from our camp, so far down that it looked like a small stream. The slope down to the river was very steep, but there was bunch grass in abundance and some of our cattle were grazing on the slope and along the river. Some boys were rolling rocks down this slope into the river. They did not seem to consider the danger to cattle below them, and were enjoying the sport of seeing the large stones rush and bound down the long and steep declivity and plunge with a tremendous splash into the water, sometimes throwing water twenty-five and thirty feet high. How long this sport had been going on, I had not noticed, not having been invited to take a hand, but it was going on when the train was ready to take up the line of march. Just at that time a boy known by the name of Wame Hembre had started a large stone which went with the velocity of a cannon ball in the direction of a yearling calf grazing near the foot of the slope, and just as the rock struck the calf, Wame was heard calling it to get out of the way. Of course the calf was killed as dead as if it had been struck by a bolt of lightning.

We were now approaching the Salmon Falls in Snake River, and heard the roar of the waters a long time before we saw them. The first sound that struck my ear seemed to jar the earth like distant thunder. As we approached, many Indians were seen, and long lines of something of a red color, which I thought were clothes hung out to dry, attracted my attention; but as we came nearer I learned that those lines were salmon which the Indians were drying in the sun. The company made a halt here, whether for noon or over night, I don't remember. Many Indians visited our camp, bringing fish, both fresh and dried, which they exchanged for old clothes, and a number of them strutted around dressed in their newly acquired garments, seeming to enjoy their often absurd appearance as much as we did, for when we would laugh, they would laugh and jabber among themselves. They were almost naked, some of them quite so. When one would get a garment he would put it on at once. A naked Indian would put on a shirt and step around as though he thought himself in full dress; another would seem delighted with nothing but a vest; another big buck with only a hat on would grin and seem as pleased as if he were "dressed to kill." This was grand sport