miles wide; and, allowing the animals to be ten feet apart, and only ten
in a line, there were already eleven thousand in view. Some idea may thus
be formed of their number when they had occupied the whole plain. In a
short time they surrounded us on every side, extending for several miles
in the rear, and forward as far as the eye could reach; leaving around us,
as we advanced, an open space of only two or three hundred yards. This
movement of the buffalo indicated to us the presence of Indians on the
North fork.

I halted earlier than usual, about forty miles from the junction, and all
hands were soon busily engaged in preparing a feast to celebrate the day.
The kindness of our friends at St. Louis had provided us with a large
supply of excellent preserves and rich fruit-cake; and when these were
added to a macaroni soup, and variously prepared dishes of the choicest
buffalo-meat, crowned with a cup of coffee, and enjoyed with prairie
appetite, we felt, as we sat in barbaric luxury around our smoking supper
on the grass, a greater sensation of enjoyment than the Roman epicure at
his perfumed feast. But most of all it seemed to please our Indian
friends, who, in the unrestrained enjoyment of the moment, demanded to
know if our "medicine-days came often." No restraint was exercised at the
hospitable board, and, to the great delight of his elders, our young
Indian lad made himself extremely drunk.

Our encampment was within a few miles of the place where the road crosses
to the North fork, and various reasons led me to divide my party at this
point. The North fork was the principal object of my survey; but I was
desirous to ascend the South branch, with a view of obtaining some
astronomical positions, and determining the mouths of its tributaries as
far as St. Vrain's fort, estimated to be some two hundred miles farther up
the river, and near to Long's Peak. There I hoped to obtain some mules,