Volume 1

MOUSE RIVER REGAINED AND CROSSED. 313
colors of the rainbow. However, we got him on horseback
;
he was really an object of pity, and no such a sly
scoundrel as that old Indian we picked up on the road between
Portage la Prairie and Riviere la Souris, who, notwithstanding
his groans and lamentations on our leaving him at
Riviere aux Epinettes, arrived at Riviere la Souris about
two hours after us. That old vagabond, perceiving that I
had an extra horse, schemed to ride, that he might reach the
fort the sooner, in expectation of getting rum for payment
of his trip to Portage la Prairie.
July lyth. Having thus mounted our guide, we left
this disagreeable camp as fast as possible, directing our
course by the compass the same as yesterday, S. S. W.
We once more came to Riviere la Souris, at what is called
the upper end of the wood." The river runs here from W.
to E.; it is broad and deep, with a gentle current, entirely
free from rapids. Westward, no wood of any kind is to be
seen. We had some trouble to find a proper ford, and
were obliged to go down river some miles. At the beginning
of the wood we killed a fat bull
and took some choice
pieces. Having crossed the river with some difficulty, we
determined to stop here and wait for fair weather, as we
'* It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine within five or ten miles the
point at which Henry strikes Mouse r. again. He has come across country, on
no road, by uncorrected compass-points, at only estimated distances, diagonally
toward the river. If we hold him to a continuation of the course of the i6th,
which in fact is nearly that of the 15 th also, we may bring him to Mouse r. a
little below the boundary between Renville and Wood cos., say 18 m. above
Burlington and 26 above Minot. Then he goes down the river "some
miles " to find a ford. In 1873 I came along in his tracks as he goes down this
piece, but my memory does not serve me now about the point " called the upper
end of the wood." Burlington, Ward Co., is at the junction of Riviere des
Lacs, a stream which arises
about the Hill of the Murdered Scout, at 49°, and
skirts Mouse r. on the W. for the whole of its course, till it falls into the
latter at Burlington. Minot is the county town, and notable as being where
the Grt. N. Ry. crosses Mouse r. Logan is another place on Mouse r., about
10 m. below Minot; Echo is a third, 6 m. further down. Minot is nearly
due N. of Fort Stevenson, on the Missouri, distant 46 m., and also due N.
of the point (mouth of Miry or Snake or.) where Henry is going to strike the
Missouri.