The only neighbours of the fort are the Indian villages. They are surrounded by their stages for the dead, which form a very strange appearance, and, in the warm season, when the wind blows from that direction, spread most disagreeable and unwholesome exhalations.[193] In the summer time, the many Indians engaged in various occupations in the prairie, and their numerous horses grazing around, give great animation to the country; but, in winter, the landscape is extremely dead and monotonous. The extensive white plain is enlivened by neither man nor beast, unless, indeed, some herds of buffaloes are in the neighbourhood, or a few hungry wolves are prowling about in search of food. At that season there is generally more life on the frozen river, as the Indians are continually going backwards and forwards from their winter to their summer villages, and to the fort. Men, women, children, and dogs, drawing little sledges, are seen on it all day long; and the people of the fort amuse themselves with skating, and the children with sledges, especially on Sundays.[194]
The climate in the country about Fort Clarke is, in general, healthy; yet, in the spring and autumn, and even in winter, there are always some disorders which carry off many of the inhabitants, especially the Indians, who are entirely destitute of medical assistance. In the winter which we passed here, several such epidemics prevailed, which affected very many of the people; and some of the Whites, too, were severe sufferers. A great many children were carried off by the hooping-cough, and some Indians by diarrhœa and colic; and the cholera having prevailed on the Lower Missouri, it was at first feared that it had penetrated thus far, though these apprehensions afterwards proved to be groundless. In consequence of the frequent and sudden changes of the temperature, catarrh is very common among the half-naked Indians; agues are quite unknown here. The winter is usually accompanied with much rain, snow, stormy, and tempestuous weather. At times there have even been snow-storms late in May, from which Indians have perished in the prairie. In April, last year, a father and son were there frozen to death.
Great inundations are rare; since Charbonneau came to this country, which was about thirty-seven {326} years since, there have been only two, which, however, were very severe.[195] Earthquakes, which are frequent on the Mississippi, have not been noticed here; a circumstance confirmed by Volney. March and April are called by the Indians the horses' winter, because, when the weather is warm, the horses are often driven to pasture in the prairie, and then violent storms of snow sometimes occur suddenly, and destroy many of these animals.
The difference of climate a few days' journey down the Missouri is often very great; for in many seasons the gourds are ripe in the Arikkara villages, when they are only in blossom with the Mandans, and the trees are in flower there, when the leaves are but just beginning to sprout here; a difference which is, of course, still greater the further you go down the river. At the Mandan villages, the leaves of the plants seldom appear before May; the willows on the banks, perhaps, a little sooner. The flowers in the prairie are said not to blossom earlier, and in some years the trees have not been clothed with foliage till the end of May. The changes of temperature are often sudden and unpleasant.[196] The summer is always dry and hot, yet the heat is not so enervating as on the Mississippi, though, in the prairies, when there is no wind stirring, it is excessively oppressive. Swarms of mosquitoes are a great torment in the summer time, but not in the same degree every year. Last summer they were not very numerous. We were assured that July is the only month in the year which is without frost; before and after it there are frosts nightly.[197] In the heat of summer the creeks become dry, and the crops of maize of the Indians often fail in consequence of the drought. In the year 1833, the crop was not very good, though it did not entirely fail. Autumn is generally the most pleasant season of the year.
Fine, bright, clear days, with moderate heat, prevail; the leaves, indeed, fall in October; and even in autumn {327} the changes of temperature are frequently great and rapid. On the 17th October the weather was fine, serene, and warm, and on the 18th such a sharp frost, with a storm of snow, that two Indians were frozen to death in the prairie. The winter is long, and generally severe; most animals then migrate, and, therefore, the winter Fauna has but a few species whereof to boast. We were told that, about new year, there is usually a very cold interval of about a week, which was the case during our visit; and the Indians have, on this account, called one of their months "the moon of the seven cold days." The winter of 1833-34 is considered as one of the most severe. The mercury in the thermometer was frozen for several days, and, at Fort Union, the cold is said to have been 47°, Fahrenheit, below zero.[198] The snow is seldom more than two feet deep, but it remains a long time, often unchanged till the month of March—a proof of the dryness of the climate. In the dreadful storms of snow which perfectly darken the air, the compass is an important and necessary instrument; in fact, it is, at all times, indispensable in these prairies. The winter of 1832 was extremely mild: there was scarcely any snow, and the inhabitants did not remember to have had such a season for many years. The Missouri generally freezes in November. Last year (1832), on the 24th November, and likewise in the winter of this year (1833), it froze on the 23rd November, but only in some places, at which the ice was passable two days after.
Close to the fort it is seldom frozen quite across, there being, generally, a narrow open channel, which, however, is not of any great length. The freezing of the Missouri in this part of the country, which continues uninterruptedly throughout the winter, is not to be compared with that of other large rivers; for instance, the Mississippi—for the Upper Missouri has at this season much less depth and rapidity, so that it freezes the more easily. Mr. Kipp recollected, in in the eleven years of his residence here, the greatest degree of cold to have been 36° below zero. The east and north winds are generally accompanied, at Fort Clarke, with snow and rain: the north and north-west winds are cold. In spring and autumn there are violent storms, and but few days are without wind, which, in fact, is pretty nearly the case in all seasons of the year. In cold winters the sun often has a parhelion-on either side. In the spring and autumn, there are often splendid northern lights, while in winter they are very rare, and are most frequently seen in autumn at about ten o'clock in the evening.
The water of the Missouri is cold, refreshing, and very wholesome. In spring and summer it is not so transparent as at other times; in frosty weather in winter, it is perfectly clear, as many travellers have testified. The water in the small streams is generally bad, having something of a brackish taste; and the banks of the Missouri are frequently covered with a very thin, white, saline coating. Lewis and Clarke frequently speak of this phenomenon. The soil in this country is said to be, in general, fruitful in the plains; and especially in the valleys which lie {328} between the hills, there is a stratum of black mould, more than two feet thick, but the excessive drought, in summer and winter, causes many crops to fail. The almost incessant wind dries the ground to such a degree, that it soon absorbs the little moisture proceeding from the rain. The dew, besides, is not sufficiently copious to refresh and support the parched vegetation, as it does in hot countries. When manure was spread upon the prairies, it was immediately converted into dust, and blown away by the wind. The Mandans and Manitaries cultivate very fine maize, without ever manuring the ground; but their fields are on the low banks of the river, sufficiently sheltered by eminences, where the soil is particularly fruitful. When, after many years, the field is exhausted, they let it lie fallow, and cultivate another spot, since these extensive wildernesses offer them inexhaustible resources. They have been advised to use manure, at which, however, they only laugh. Mr. Kipp intended to make a trial with some exhausted Indian land, and to manure it; for this purpose, he meant to spread earth over the manure, that the wind might not so easily affect it, and in this way he hoped, in the sequel, to convince the Indians, who pertinaciously abide by their old prejudices. They have extremely fine maize of different species. Mr. Kipp has made frequent trials of blue flowering potatoes, which succeeded extremely well; but the Indians were so eager after these incomparable roots, that he could not keep enough for seed. One Indian, however, in Mih-Tutta-Hang-Kush, had prudently preserved some potatoes in order to plant them; and thus it may be hoped that they will be gradually propagated among these people.
It appears, from what has been above stated, that drought and want of wood are the chief impediments to the cultivation and settlement of the Whites in the prairies of the Upper Missouri—an opinion in which most of the persons engaged in the service of the Company agree, though Bradbury thinks differently.[199]