to protect their unhorsed comrades from the furious assaults of the
whites; but, after a scene of "confusion worse confounded," horses and
mules were abandoned, and the Indians betook themselves to the bushes.
Here they quickly scratched holes in the earth about two feet deep, in
which they prostrated themselves, and while thus screened from the shots
of the white men, were enabled to make such use of their bows and arrows
and fusees, as to repulse their assailants and to effect their retreat.
This adventure threw a temporary stigma upon the game of "old sledge."

In the course of the autumn, four Iroquois hunters, driven by the snow
from their hunting grounds, made their appearance at the cantonment.
They were kindly welcomed, and during their sojourn made themselves
useful in a variety of ways, being excellent trappers and first-rate
woodsmen. They were of the remnants of a party of Iroquois hunters that
came from Canada into these mountain regions many years previously,
in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company. They were led by a brave
chieftain, named Pierre, who fell by the hands of the Blackfeet, and
gave his name to the fated valley of Pierre's Hole. This branch of the
Iroquois tribe has ever since remained among these mountains, at mortal
enmity with the Blackfeet, and have lost many of their prime hunters in
their feuds with that ferocious race. Some of them fell in with
General Ashley, in the course of one of his gallant excursions into the
wilderness, and have continued ever since in the employ of the company.

Among the motley Visitors to the winter quarters of Captain Bonneville
was a party of Pends Oreilles (or Hanging-ears) and their chief. These
Indians have a strong resemblance, in character and customs, to the Nez
Perces. They amount to about three hundred lodges, are well armed, and
possess great numbers of horses. During the spring, summer, and autumn,
they hunt the buffalo about the head-waters of the Missouri, Henry's