pockets of their white brothers; to abstract the very buttons from their
coats, and, above all, to make free with their hunting knives.

By equal altitudes of the sun, taken at this last encampment, Captain
Bonneville ascertained his latitude to be 41 47' north. The thermometer,
at six o'clock in the morning, stood at fifty-nine degrees; at two
o'clock, P. M., at ninety-two degrees; and at six o'clock in the
evening, at seventy degrees.

The Black Hills, or Mountains, now began to be seen at a distance,
printing the horizon with their rugged and broken outlines; and
threatening to oppose a difficult barrier in the way of the travellers.

On the 26th of May, the travellers encamped at Laramie's Fork, a clear
and beautiful stream, rising in the west-southwest, maintaining an
average width of twenty yards, and winding through broad meadows
abounding in currants and gooseberries, and adorned with groves and
clumps of trees.

By an observation of Jupiter's satellites, with a Dolland reflecting
telescope, Captain Bonneville ascertained the longitude to be 102 57'
west of Greenwich.

We will here step ahead of our narrative to observe that about three
years after the time of which we are treating, Mr. Robert Campbell,
formerly of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, descended the Platte
from this fork, in skin canoes, thus proving, what had always been
discredited, that the river was navigable. About the same time, he built
a fort or trading post at Laramie's Fork, which he named Fort William,
after his friend and partner, Mr. William Sublette. Since that time, the