The Stream Is Now Known As The Arrow;
The Appropriateness Of The Title Conferred On The Stream By Lewis
And Clark Appears From The Story Which They Tell Of Their Experience
Just Below "Slaughter River," As Follows:
"On the north we passed a precipice about one hundred and twenty feet high,
under which lay scattered the
Fragments of at least one hundred
carcasses of buffaloes, although the water which had washed away
the lower part of the hill must have carried off many of the dead.
These buffaloes had been chased down the precipice in a way very common
on the Missouri, by which vast herds are destroyed in a moment.
The mode of hunting is to select one of the most active and fleet
young men, who is disguised by a buffalo-skin round his body;
the skin of the head with the ears and horns being fastened on his
own head in such a way as to deceive the buffalo. Thus dressed,
he fixes himself at a convenient distance between a herd of buffalo
and any of the river precipices, which sometimes extend for some miles.
His companions in the mean time get in the rear and side of the herd,
and at a given signal show themselves and advance toward the buffaloes.
These instantly take the alarm, and finding the hunters beside them,
they run toward the disguised Indian or decoy, who leads them
on at full speed toward the river; when, suddenly securing himself
in some crevice of the cliff which he had previously fixed on,
the herd is left on the brink of the precipice. It is then
in vain for the foremost buffaloes to retreat or even to stop;
they are pressed on by the hindmost rank, which, seeing no danger
but from the hunters, goad on those before them till the whole
are precipitated, and the shore is strewn with their dead bodies.
Sometimes, in this perilous seduction, the Indian is himself either
trodden under foot by the rapid movements of the buffaloes, or missing
his footing in the cliff is urged down the precipice by the falling herd.
The Indians then select as much meat as they wish; the rest
is abandoned to the wolves, and creates a most dreadful stench.
The wolves which had been feasting on these carcasses were very fat,
and so gentle that one of them was killed with an espontoon."[1]
[1] A short spear.
The dryness and purity of the air roused the admiration of the explorers,
who noticed that the woodwork of the cases of their instruments shrank,
and the joints opened, although the wood was old and perfectly seasoned.
A tablespoonful of water, exposed to the air in an open saucer,
would wholly evaporate in thirty-six hours, when the thermometer did not
mark higher than the "Temperate" point at the warmest hour of the day.
Contrary to their expectations, they had not yet met with any Indians,
although they saw many signs of their having recently been in that vicinity.
The journal says:
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