A half-century of conflict. France and England in North America. Part ...

28 SEARCH FOR THE PACIFIC. [1742.dreary and brown with the withering touch of autumn.The spectacle was such as men still young have seenin these western lands, but which no man will seeagain. The vast plain swarmed with the movingmultitude. The tribes of the Missouri and theYellowstone had by this time abundance of horses,the best of which were used for war and hunting, andthe others as beasts of burden. These last wereequipped in a peculiar manner.Several of the longpoles used to frame the teepees, or lodges, weresecured by one end to each side of a rude saddle,while the other end trailed on the ground.Crossbarslashed to the poles just behind the horse kept themthreeor four feet apart, and formed a firm support,on which was laid, compactly folded, the buffalo-skincovering of the lodge. On this, again, sat a motherwith her young family, sometimes stowed for safetyin a large open willow basket, with the occasionaladdition of some domestic pet, — such as a tameraven, a puppy, or even a small bear-cub. Otherhorses were laden inthe same manner with woodenbowls, stone hammers, and other utensils, along withstores of dried buffalo-meat packed in cases of rawhidewhitened and painted. Many of the innumerabledogs — whose manners and appearance strongly suggestedtheirrelatives the wolves, to whom, however,they bore a mortal grudge — were equipped in asimilar way, with shorter poles and lighter loads.Bands of naked boys, noisy and restless, roamed theprairie, practising their bows and arrows on any small