culate as they approached; they were not painted and had no weapons in their hands. They did not slacken their pace until they had completely surrounded our little party. They were in such great numbers and crowded so closely about the wagons and teams that we could not move on. But they were very friendly and we learned in some way that they were visiting us to see white women and children, for they had never seen any before. They peered into all the wagons from the ends and both sides, and caught hold of the wagon covers on the sides and raised them so they could look in. There was a host of them around the wagon I was in, lifting the sides of the cover and peeping in at mother and us children. We were not afraid of them for they all looked pleasant and much interested. Some were squaws, riding astride of saddles which had very high horns before and behind. The women's saddles were decorated with large headed brass tacks, and long flowing fringes. Some of the squaws had infants encased in sacks made of dressed hide of some kind, with a hoard attached so as to fit on and support the back of the child. They looked like cocoons of some kinds of insects and were swinging from the front horn of the saddle, like a holster pistol. There was nothing to be seen of the papoose but its little round chubby face. While they were crowding about our wagon, a squaw, with a youngster hanging to her saddle bow was trying to get a peep into the wagon when a horseman swung his horse against the child, which commenced crying. This drew forth such a volley of Snake lingo that the offender appeared very suddenly to lose all interest in the show and got away from there in a hurry. Besides a desire to see women and children, it seems they wanted tobacco, which was given in small quantities to a few, who appeared to be big Snakes. We were not detained by them more than thirty minutes, I should think. They rode away and we traveled on.
We passed through, on our way, the Rocky Mountains, but when or where I am not able to say. I do not remember climbing mountains until we came to the Blue Mountains. Several times before reaching Fort Boise I saw mountains at a distance, and at one place I saw what might have been a mountain range quite near the line of our route. A mountain almost without a tree, nearby and on our left hand seemed to
