One Of These Animals,
Which Was On A Sand-Bar As The Boat Passed, Raised Himself
On His Hind Feet, And After Looking At The Party For A Moment,
Plunged In And Swam Towards Them; But, After Receiving Three Balls
In The Body, He Turned And Made For The Shore.
Towards evening
they saw another enter the water to swim across; when Captain Clark
directed the boat towards the shore, and just as the animal landed
shot it in the head.
It proved to be the largest female they had
ever seen, and was so old that its tusks were worn quite smooth.
The boats escaped with difficulty between two herds of buffalo that
were crossing the river, and came near being again detained by them.
Among the elk of this neighborhood they saw an unusual number of males,
while higher up the herds consisted chiefly of females."
It is almost incredible that these wild animals should have been
so nearly exterminated by hunters and other rovers of the plains,
very soon after travel set in across the continent. The writer of
these lines, who crossed the plains to California so lately as 1856,
saw buffalo killed for the sake of their tongues, or to give rifle
practice to the wayfarers. After the overland railroad was opened,
passengers shot buffalo from the car-windows, well knowing that they could
not get their game, even if they should kill as they flew by a herd.
There are no buffalo nor elk where millions once roamed almost unmolested.
Early in the afternoon of August 3, the party reached the junction
of the Yellowstone and the Missouri, and camped on the same spot
where they had pitched their tents on the 26th of April, 1805.
They were nearing the end of their long journey.
But their troubles thickened as they drew near the close of their many miles
of travel. The journal for August 4 has this record: -
"The camp became absolutely uninhabitable in consequence of the multitude
of mosquitoes; the men could not work in preparing skins for clothing,
nor hunt in the timbered low grounds; there was no mode of escape,
except by going on the sand-bars in the river, where, if the wind
should blow, the insects do not venture; but when there is no wind,
and particularly at night, when the men have no covering except their
worn-out blankets, the pain they suffer is scarcely to be endured.
There was also a want of meat, for no buffalo were to be found;
and though elk are very abundant, yet their fat and flesh is more
difficult to dry in the sun, and is also much more easily spoiled
than the meat or fat of either deer or buffalo.
"Captain Clark therefore determined to go on to some spot which should
be free from mosquitoes and furnish more game. Having written a note to
Captain Lewis, to inform him of his intention, and stuck it on a pole at the
confluence of the two rivers, he loaded the canoes at five in the afternoon,
proceeded down the river to the second point, and camped on a sand-bar;
but here the mosquitoes seemed to be even more numerous than above.
The face of the Indian child was considerably puffed up and swollen with
their bites; the men could procure scarcely any sleep during the night,
and the insects continued to harass them next morning, as they proceeded.
On one occasion Captain Clark went on shore and ascended a hill after one
of the bighorns; but the mosquitoes were in such multitudes that he could
not keep them from the barrel of his rifle long enough to take aim.
About ten o'clock, however, a light breeze sprung up from the northwest,
and dispersed them in some degree.
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