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In six days we reached the rendezvous at the mouth of Horse creek on the Green river, and staid there for some twenty days. Then McCoy went back to fort Hall and I joined Fontenells party and started for the Gillon stone. We were one hundred strong, fifty trappers and fifty camp keepers. We had met with so much opposition from the Blackfeet that this time as we were in force we determined to trap wherever we pleased, even if we had to fight for the right. We hopped the Gillon stone, Otter and Muscle shell rivers and then up the Bighorn and on to the Powder river where we wintered. During our hunt we had had no fights with the Blackfeet but we did not know the cause, the Crow Indian village was near our encampment. The Indians were friendly and remained near us during the entire winter, they told us why we were not being harassed by the Blackfeet during our hunt, it was because the Small pox had broken out among them and they had gone North of the Missions and none were left up on hunting ground. We remained in our camp on the Powder river till the first of April and passed a pleasant time But is was one of the coldest winters I had ever experienced. for fear of losing them we had to Keep our animals in a corral and the feed furnished them consisted of Cotton wood pulled from the trees and then thawed out by our fires. We had to Keep the Buffalo from our camp by building large fires in the valleys. They came in Such huge droves that our horses were in danger of being Killed when we turned them out to eat the branches of the trees we had cut down. When we broke up camp we dispatched two men to Fort Laramie where the