midday
Chief Amokeat and his Nez Perces had made their first meal on fish drawn from the lake , as was shown by the fragments of their feast scattered round . Considerable ashes indicated the spot where a fire had been kindled , in the usual primitive manner of spinning a light pointed stick , whose sharpened end was thrust into another dry branch . Thus Deerfoot 's calculations proved to be right . He had reached the scene of the midday halt of the Nez Perces by traveling about two-thirds of the distance of his predecessors . With his flint and steel he soon had a blaze going . Over it he broiled the bison tongue , cut into thin strips , and ate his fill . The meal was a big one for him , and he would not go out of his way to procure any more food for twenty-four hours or more .