. . . Such Sketches, Rude And Imperfect As They Are,
Delineate The Predominant Character Of The Savage Nations.
If They Are Peaceable
And inoffensive, the drawings usually
consist of local scenery and their favorite diversions.
If the band are rude and ferocious,
We observe tomahawks,
scalping-knives, bows and arrows, and all the engines
of destruction. - A Mandan bow, and quiver of arrows;
also some Ricara tobacco-seed, and an ear of Mandan corn:
to these were added a box of plants, another of insects,
and three cases containing a burrowing squirrel, a prairie hen,
and four magpies, all alive." . . .
The articles reached Mr. Jefferson safely and were long on view at his
Virginia residence, Monticello. They were subsequently dispersed,
and some found their way to Peale's Museum, Philadelphia. Dr. Cones,
the zealous editor of the latest and fullest edition of Lewis and
Clark's narrative, says that some of the specimens of natural history
were probably extant in 1893.
Chapter VII
From Fort Mandan to the Yellowstone
Up to this time, the expedition had passed through regions from
which vague reports had been brought by the few white men who,
as hunters and trappers in pursuit of fur-bearing game,
had dared to venture into these trackless wildernesses.
Now they were to launch out into the mysterious unknown,
from which absolutely no tidings had ever been brought by white men.
The dim reports of Indians who had hunted through some parts
of the region were unreliable, and, as they afterwards proved,
were often as absurdly false as if they had been fairy tales.
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