bucks' among the indians who for the mere pleasure of riding a good horse & excitement of the chase hunt buffalo & bring the robes back to the traders. One of the traders said that the other winter he made up his mind to get a ìclean thousandî robes himself & did so shooting most of them near their Kraal. He said he was an outlaw in the US. having with 12 men ìfaced upî against two deputy Marshalls & 25 US Troops. The traders stood with rifles pointed behind their waggons & the Marshalls & troops thought best to clear without attempting conflict. Last year when the indians came in to trade he mentioned as a very clever business that they had managed to ìclean them outî of all they had in a day. The last indians shot were killed in this way - One having had an altercation with the trader in question (called O'Neil I believe) struck him across the face, the latter then immediately shot him though some accounts I have heard say not fatally). Three of the indians friends then planned to shoot O'Neil but some other indians finding it out shot them before they could effect their purpose.

Near where we stopped for lunch on the St. Mary R. a dead indian was found. The body was in a little gully partly covered by earth. The wolves however had dragged his bones about & also various things which were with him. He must have been left there not more than a few months ago. He had not been properly buried according to indian fashion, neither had he been scalped & robbed as though killed by enemies. It appeared that he had been thrown into the hole just as