This Stream Is Now Known As Medicine River,
From Medicine Hill, A Conspicuous Landmark Rising At A Little Distance
From The Missouri.
The voyagers were now near the lower portion of what
is now known as South Dakota, and they camped in territory embraced
in the county of Presho.
Here they were forced to send out their hunters;
their stock of meat was nearly exhausted. The hunters returned empty-handed.
"After a hunt of three hours they reported that no game was to be found
in the bottoms, the grass having been laid flat by the immense number
of buffaloes which recently passed over it; and, that they saw only a few
buffalo bulls, which they did not kill, as they were quite unfit for use.
Near this place we observed, however, the first signs of the wild turkey;
not long afterward we landed in the Big Bend, and killed a fine fat elk,
on which we feasted. Toward night we heard the bellowing of buffalo bulls
on the lower island of the Big Bend. We pursued this agreeable sound,
and after killing some of the cows, camped on the island, forty-five miles
from the camp of last night." . . . . . . . . .
"Setting out at ten o'clock the next morning, at a short distance they passed
the mouth of White River, the water of which was nearly of the color of milk.
As they were much occupied with hunting, they made but twenty miles.
The buffalo," says the journal, "were now so numerous, that from an
eminence we discovered more than we had ever seen before at one time;
and though it was impossible accurately to calculate their number,
they darkened the whole plain, and could not have been, we were convinced,
less than twenty thousand.
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