Skirting Along The North Fork For A Day Or Two, Excessively
Annoyed By Musquitoes And Buffalo Gnats, They Reached, In The
Evening Of The 17th, A Small But Beautiful Grove, From Which
Issued The Confused Notes Of Singing Birds, The First They Had
Heard Since Crossing The Boundary Of Missouri.
After so many days
of weary travelling through a naked, monotonous and silent
country, it was delightful once more to hear the song of the
bird, and to behold the verdure of the grove.
It was a beautiful
sunset, and a sight of the glowing rays, mantling the tree-tops
and rustling branches, gladdened every heart. They pitched their
camp in the grove, kindled their fires, partook merrily of their
rude fare, and resigned themselves to the sweetest sleep they had
enjoyed since their outset upon the prairies.
The country now became rugged and broken. High bluffs advanced
upon the river, and forced the travellers occasionally to leave
its banks and wind their course into the interior. In one of the
wild and solitary passes they were startled by the trail of four
or five pedestrians, whom they supposed to be spies from some
predatory camp of either Arickara or Crow Indians. This obliged
them to redouble their vigilance at night, and to keep especial
watch upon their horses. In these rugged and elevated regions
they began to see the black-tailed deer, a species larger than
the ordinary kind, and chiefly found in rocky and mountainous
countries. They had reached also a great buffalo range; Captain
Bonneville ascended a high bluff, commanding an extensive view of
the surrounding plains. As far as his eye could reach, the
country seemed absolutely blackened by innumerable herds. No
language, he says, could convey an adequate idea of the vast
living mass thus presented to his eye. He remarked that the bulls
and cows generally congregated in separate herds.
Opposite to the camp at this place was a singular phenomenon,
which is among the curiosities of the country. It is called the
chimney. The lower part is a conical mound, rising out of the
naked plain; from the summit shoots up a shaft or column, about
one hundred and twenty feet in height, from which it derives its
name. The height of the whole, according to Captain Bonneville,
is a hundred and seventy-five yards. It is composed of indurated
clay, with alternate layers of red and white sandstone, and may
be seen at the distance of upward of thirty miles.
On the 21st, they encamped amidst high and beetling cliffs of
indurated clay and sandstone, bearing the semblance of towers,
castles, churches, and fortified cities. At a distance, it was
scarcely possible to persuade one's self that the works of art
were not mingled with these fantastic freaks of nature. They have
received the name of Scott's Bluffs, from a melancholy
circumstance. A number of years since, a party were descending
the upper part of the river in canoes, when their frail barks
were overturned and all their powder spoiled.
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