James's Account of S. H. Long's Expedition, 1819-1820, part 3

by Edwin James; Stephen H. Long; Thomas Say

Near our camp was a circular breast-work, constructed like those already mentioned, and large enough to contain eighty or an hundred men. We were not particularly pleased at meeting these works so frequently as we had done of late, as they indicate the country where they are found, to be one [312] particularly exposed to the depredations of Indian war-parties.

August 16. The greater part of the flesh of the bison killed on the preceding evening had been dried and smoked in the course of the night, so that we had now no fear of suffering immediately from hunger, having as much jerked meat as was sufficient to last several days.

The sky continued clear, but the wind was high, and the drifting of the sand occasioned much annoyance. The heat of the atmosphere became more intolerable, on account of the showers of burning sand, driven against us with such force as to penetrate every part of our dress, and proving so afflictive to our eyes, that it was with the utmost difficulty we could see to guide our horses. The sand is carried from the bed of the river, which is here a naked beach of more than half a mile wide, and piled in immense drifts along the bank. Some of these heaps we have seen covering all but a small portion of the upper branches of what appeared like large trees. Notwithstanding we were now three hundred miles distant from the sources of the river, we found very little water; and that being stagnant, and so much frequented by bisons and other animals, was so loathsome both to sight and smell, that nothing but the most uncontrollable thirst could have induced us to taste it.

At a short distance below the place of our encampment, we passed the confluence of a considerable creek entering from the south-west. Though like all the streams of this thirsty region, its waters were entirely hid in the sand; yet it is evidently the bed of a large tributary, and from its direction, we conclude it can be no other than the one on which the Kaskaias informed us they had encamped the night before we met them. Its name, if it have any, among the Indians or Spaniards, we have not yet learned.[61]

We had, for some days, observed a few wild horses, [313] and they, as well as the bisons, were now becoming numerous. In the habits of the wild horse, we find little unlike what is seen in the domestic animal, though he becomes the most timorous and watchful of the inhabitants of the wilderness. They show a similar attachment to each other's society, though the males are occasionally found at a distance from the herds. It would appear, from the paths we have seen, that they sometimes perform long journeys, and it may be worthy of remark, that along these paths are frequently found very large piles of horse-dung, of different ages, affording sufficient evidence that this animal, in a wild state, has, in common with some others, an inclination to drop his excrement where another has done so before him. This propensity is sometimes faintly discovered in the domestic horse.

As we were about to halt for dinner, a bison who had lingered near our path was killed; but the flesh was found in too ill a condition to be eaten, as is the case with all the bulls at this season.

Soon after we had mounted our horses in the afternoon, a violent thunder-storm came on from the north-west; hail fell in such quantities, as to cover the surface of the ground, and some of the hail-stones which we examined, were near an inch in diameter. Falling with a strong wind, these heavy masses struck upon our bodies with great violence; our horses, as they had done on a similar occasion before, refused to move, except before the wind. Some of the mules turned off from our course, and had run more than half a mile before they could be overtaken. For ourselves, we found some protection, by wrapping our blankets loosely around our bodies, and waited for the cessation of the storm, not without calling to mind some instances on record of hail-stones which have destroyed the lives of men and animals.

It is not improbable, that a climate of a portion of country within the range of the immediate influence [314] of the Rocky Mountains, may be more subject to hail-storms in summer, than any other parts of North America in the same latitude. The radiation of heat from so extensive a surface of naked sand, lying along the base of this vast range of snowy mountains, must produce great local inequalities of temperature. The diminished pressure of the atmosphere, and the consequent rapidity of evaporation, in these elevated regions, may also be supposed to have an important influence on the weather. We have not spent sufficient time in the country, near the eastern range of the Rocky Mountains, to enable us to speak with confidence of the character of its climate. It is, however, sufficiently manifest, that in summer it must be extremely variable, as we have found it; the thermometer often indicating an increase of near fifty degrees of temperature between sunrise and the middle of the day. These rapid alternations of heat and cold must be supposed to mark a climate little favourable to health, though we may safely assert that this portion of the country is exempt from the operation of those causes which produce so deleterious an atmosphere in the lower and more fertile portions of the Mississippi basin. If the wide plains of the Platte, the Upper Arkansa, and the Red river of Louisiana should ever become the seat of a permanent civilized population, the diseases most incident to such a population will probably be fevers, attended with pulmonary and pleuritic inflammations, rheumatism, scrofula, and consumption.[62] It is true, that few, if any, instances of pulmonary consumption occur among the Indians of this region; the same remark is probably as true of the original native population of New York and New England.

Though much rain fell during this storm, it was so rapidly absorbed by the soil, that but little running water was to be seen. The bed of the river was found smooth and unobstructed, and afforded us for several days the most convenient path for travelling. As we [315] descended, we found it expand in some places to a width of near two miles. Bisons became astonishingly numerous; and in the middle of the day countless thousands of them were seen coming in from every quarter to the stagnant pools which filled the most depressed places in the channel of the river. The water of these was of course too filthy to be used in cooking our meat, and though sometimes compelled to drink it, we found little alleviation to our thirst. At our encampments, we were able to supply ourselves with water of a better quality by digging in the sand, where we scarce ever failed to meet with a supply at a few feet from the surface.

On the 17th,[63] we halted in the middle of the day to hunt, as, although we had killed several bisons on our marches of the preceding days, none of them had been found in good condition. The flesh of the bulls, in the months of August and September, is poor and ill flavoured; but these are much more easily killed than the cows, being less vigilant, and sometimes suffering themselves to be overtaken by the hunter, without attempting to escape. As the herds of cows were now seen in great numbers, we halted, while the hunters went out and killed several. Our camp was placed on the south-west side of the river, under a low bluff, which separates the half-wooded valley from the open and elevated plains. The small elms along this valley were bending under the weight of innumerable grape vines, now loaded with ripe fruit, the purple clusters crowded in such profusion as almost to give a colouring to the landscape. On the opposite side of the river was a range of low sand hills, fringed with vines, rising not more than a foot or eighteen inches from the surface. On examination, we found these hillocks had been produced exclusively by the agency of the grape vines, arresting the sand as it was borne along by the wind, until such quantities had been accumulated as to bury every part of the plant, except the end of the branches. Many of these were so loaded with [316] fruit, as to present nothing to the eye but a series of clusters, so closely arranged as to conceal every part of the stem. The fruit of these vines is incomparably finer than that of any other native or exotic which we have met with in the United States. The burying of the greater part of the trunk, with its larger branches, produces the effect of pruning, inasmuch as it prevents the unfolding of leaves and flowers on the parts below the surface, while the protruded ends of the branches enjoy an increased degree of light and heat from the reflection of the sand. It is owing, undoubtedly, to these causes, that the grapes in question are so far superior to the fruit of same vine in ordinary circumstances. The treatment here employed by nature, to bring to perfection the fruit of the vine may be imitated; but without the same peculiarities of soil and exposure, and with difficulty be carried to the same magnificent extent. Here are hundreds of acres, covered with a movable surface of sand, and abounding in vines, which, left to the agency of the sun and the winds, are, by their operation, placed in more favourable circumstances than it is in the power of man, to so great an extent, to afford. We indulged ourselves to excess, if excess could be committed in the use of such delicious and salutary fruit, and invited by the cleanness of the sand, and a refreshing shade, we threw ourselves down, and slept away, with unusual zest, a few of the hours of a summer afternoon.