Black bears had been frequent in the country passed since the 15th. At this season they feed principally upon grapes, plums, the berries of the cornus alba, and C. circinata, and the acorns of a small scrubby oak, common about the sand hills.
They are also fond of the flesh of animals; and it is not uncommon to see them disputing with the wolves and buzzards, for their share of the carcasses [327] of bisons and other animals, which have been left by the hunters or have died of disease. Grapes had evidently been very abundant here, but had been devoured, and the vines torn in pieces by the bears and turkies.
In the middle of the day we found the heat more oppressive, with the mercury at 96°, than we had known it in many instances when the thermometer had indicated a higher temperature by six or eight degrees. This sultry calm, was, however, soon succeeded by thunder-showers, attended with their ordinary effects upon the atmosphere. In the afternoon the country we passed was swarming with innumerable herds of bison, wild horses, deer, elk, &c. while great numbers of minute sand-pipers, yellow-shanked snipes, killdeer plovers, (charadrius vociferus,) and telltale godwits about the river, seemed to indicate the vicinity of larger bodies of water than we had been accustomed of late to see. During the afternoon and the night there was a continual and rapid alternation of bright calm and cloudless skies, with sudden and violent thunder-storms. Our horizon was a little obscured on both sides by the hills and the scattered trees which skirted along the sides of the valley. As we looked out of our tent to observe the progress of the night, we found sometimes a pitchy darkness veiling every object; at others, by the clear light of the stars and the constant flashing from some unseen cloud, we could distinguish all the features of the surrounding scene: our horses grazing quietly about our tent, and the famished jackal prowling near, to seize the fragments of our plentiful supper. The thunder was almost incessant, but its low and distant mutterings were at times so blended with the roaring of the bisons, that more experienced ears than ours might have found a difficulty in distinguishing between them. At a late hour in the night some disturbance was perceived among the horses, occasioned by a herd of wild horses, who had [328] come in, and struck up a hasty acquaintance with their enslaved fellow brutes.
As it was near daylight, we forbore to do any thing to frighten away the intruders, hoping, as soon as the light should be sufficient, to have an opportunity to prove our skill in the operation of "creasing." A method sometimes adopted by hunters for taking the wild horses, is to shoot the animal through the neck, using the requisite care not to injure the spine. There is a particular part of the neck through which a horse may receive a rifle ball without sustaining any permanent injury; the blow is, however, sufficient to produce a temporary suspension of the powers of life, during which the animal is easily taken: this is called creasing, and requires for its successful performance a very considerable degree of skill and precision in the use of the rifle. A valuable but rather refractory mule belonging to our party, escaped from the cantonment near Council Bluffs, a few days before we left that place. He was pursued by two men through the prairies of the Papillon, across the Elk Horn, and finally to the Platte, where, as they saw no prospect of taking him by other means, they resolved upon creasing. The ball, however, swerved an inch or two from its aim, and broke the neck of the animal.
[CHAPTER VII [I][70]
Inconveniences Resulting from Want of Water—Wood Ticks—Plants—Loss of One of the Party—Honey Bees—Forests—Gray Sandstone—Indications of Coal—Limestone.
August 22d. So much rain had fallen during the night, that, soon after commencing our morning march, we enjoyed the novel and pleasing sight of a running stream of water. It had been only two weeks since the disappearance of running water in the river above, but during this time we had suffered much from thirst, and had been constantly tantalized with the expectation of arriving at the spot where the river should emerge from the sand. By our computation of distances we had travelled more than one hundred and fifty miles along the bed of this river without having once found it to contain running water. We had passed the mouths of many large tributaries, but they, like the river itself, were beds of naked sand. The narrative of Lewis and Clarke has been thought deserving of ridicule, on account of the frequent mention of "dry rivers;" but if not rivers, what are these extensive drains, [2] carrying off the occasional surplus of water from large districts, to be called? It is to be remembered also, that all the more considerable of them are constantly conveying away, silent and unseen, in the bottom of their deep beds, streams of water of no trifling magnitude. This is probably the case with all such as have their sources in the primitive country of the Rocky Mountains, likewise with those which traverse any great extent of the floetz trap district, as both of these formations afford a more abundant supply of water than the sandstone tracts.
In the afternoon we saw a dense column of smoke rising suddenly from the summit of a hill at some distance, on the right hand side of the river. As at the moment the air happened to be calm, the smoke rose perpendicularly in a defined mass, and after continuing for a few minutes, ceased suddenly. Having recently observed the signs of Indians, we took this as a confirmation of our suspicions, that an encampment or a village was not far distant. We have observed that parties of Indians, whether stationary or on their marches, are never without videttes, kept constantly at a distance from the main body, for the purpose of giving timely notice of the approach of enemies. Several methods of telegraphic communication are in use among them, one of which is this, of raising a sudden smoke; and for this purpose they are said to keep in constant readiness a supply of combustibles. During the remainder of this and the day following we were in constant expectation of falling in with Indians. Towards evening, on the 23d, we saw an unusual number of horses, probably four or five hundred, standing among the scattered trees along the river bottom. We saw them while more than a mile distant; and from the dispersed manner of their feeding, and the great intermixture of colours among them, we concluded they must be the horses belonging to a band of Indians. We accordingly halted, and put our guns in order for [3] immediate use; then, approaching cautiously, arrived within a few rods of the nearest before we discovered them to be wild horses. They took fright, and dispersing in several directions, disappeared almost instantly.
At eleven P. M. the double meridian altitude of the moon's lower limb, observed for latitude, was 72° 18′ 15″, index error 0° 8′ 0″. For the two last days our average course had inclined considerably to the south; the water, visible in the river, had increased rapidly in quantity, and the apparent magnitude of the stream was nearly equal to what it had been four hundred miles above.