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The Conquest of the Missouri
Aided by the swift current, the boat covered the fifty- ? three miles to the Yellowstone with all the speed it was safe to give her, dodging iniand out among the Big Horn?s multitude of islands, which the captain knew only from ? having passed them once before. It is said that a river pilot only half knows his river when he has run it but , one way, for the landmarks he passes going up bear a totally unfamiliar aspect when seen again going down.
But on that 30th of June, 1876, the Far West was brought safely through all the pitfalls of the Big Horn, and late in the afternoon tied up to the bank of the Yellowstone where Gibbon?s wagon-train was parked. From here, the next morning, ? Muggins ? Taylor left for his long, lonely ride of 175 miles to Fort Ellis, with the despatches of General Gibbon, General Terry intending to send his official announcement of the disaster down to Bismarck by the Far West for transmission to division headquarters. The young clerk of the Far West, Walter Burleigh, was very anxious to accompany Taylor, but the captain dissuaded him, as the trip would by no means be without danger from roving parties of Sioux.
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