"This Morning The Hunters Brought In Some Fat Deer Of The Long-Tailed
Red Kind, Which Are Quite As Large
As those of the United States,
and are, indeed, the only kind we have found at this place.
There are
Numbers of the sand-hill cranes feeding in the meadows:
we caught a young one of the same color as the red deer, which,
though it had nearly attained its full growth, could not fly;
it is very fierce, and strikes a severe blow with its beak. . . .
"Captain Lewis proceeded after dinner through an extensive low
ground of timber and meadow-land intermixed; but the bayous
were so obstructed by beaver-dams that, in order to avoid them,
he directed his course toward the high plain on the right.
This he gained with some difficulty, after wading up to his waist
through the mud and water of a number of beaver-dams. When
he desired to rejoin the canoes he found the underbrush so thick,
and the river so crooked, that this, joined to the difficulty
of passing the beaver-dams, induced him to go on and endeavor
to intercept the river at some point where it might be more
collected into one channel, and approach nearer the high plain.
He arrived at the bank about sunset, having gone only six miles
in a direct course from the canoes; but he saw no traces of the men,
nor did he receive any answer to his shouts and the firing of his gun.
It was now nearly dark; a duck lighted near him, and he shot it.
He then went on the head of a small island, where he found
some driftwood, which enabled him to cook his duck for supper,
and laid down to sleep on some willow-brush. The night was cool,
but the driftwood gave him a good fire, and he suffered no inconvenience,
except from the mosquitoes."
The easy indifference to discomfort with which these well-seasoned
pioneers took their hardships must needs impress the reader.
It was a common thing for men, or for a solitary man,
to be caught out of camp by nightfall and compelled to bivouac,
like Captain Lewis, in the underbrush, or the prairie-grass. As
they pressed on, game began to fail them. Under date of July 31,
they remark that the only game seen that day was one bighorn,
a few antelopes, deer, and a brown bear, all of which escaped them.
"Nothing was killed to-day," it is recorded, "nor have we
had any fresh meat except one beaver for the last two days;
so that we are now reduced to an unusual situation,
for we have hitherto always had a great abundance of flesh."
Indeed, one reason for this is found in Captain Lewis's remark:
"When we have plenty of fresh meat, I find it impossible to make
the men take any care of it, or use it with the least frugality,
though I expect that necessity will shortly teach them this art."
We shall see, later on, that the men, who were really as improvident
of food as the Indians, had hard lessons from necessity.
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