Indeed, in the excitement of
the moment, they were loud and extravagant in their commendations of
"the mountain tap"; elevating it above every beverage produced from hops
or malt. It was a singular and fantastic scene; suited to a region
where everything is strange and peculiar:--These groups of trappers, and
hunters, and Indians, with their wild costumes, and wilder countenances;
their boisterous gayety, and reckless air; quaffing, and making merry
round these sparkling fountains; while beside them lay their weep
ons, ready to be snatched up for instant service. Painters are fond of
representing banditti at their rude and picturesque carousels; but here
were groups, still more rude and picturesque; and it needed but a sudden
onset of Blackfeet, and a quick transition from a fantastic revel to
a furious melee, to have rendered this picture of a trapper's life
complete.
The beer frolic, however, passed off without any untoward circumstance;
and, unlike most drinking bouts, left neither headache nor heartache
behind. Captain Bonneville now directed his course up along Bear River;
amusing himself, occasionally, with hunting the buffalo, with which
the country was covered. Sometimes, when he saw a huge bull taking his
repose in a prairie, he would steal along a ravine, until close upon
him; then rouse him from his meditations with a pebble, and take a shot
at him as he started up. Such is the quickness with which this animal
springs upon his legs, that it is not easy to discover the muscular
process by which it is effected.
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