In The Meantime,
In Order To Lighten Our Burdens As Much As Possible, We Determined
To Deposit Here One Of
The pirogues, and all the heavy baggage which we
could possibly spare, as well as some provision, salt, powder, and
Tools.
This would at once lighten the other boats, and give them the crew
which had been employed on board the pirogue."
On the tenth of June, the weather being fair and pleasant,
they dried all their baggage and merchandise and secreted them
in places of deposits, called caches, as follows: -
"These deposits - or caches, as they are called by
the Missouri traders - are very common, particularly among
those who deal with the Sioux, as the skins and merchandise
will keep perfectly sound for years, and are protected
from robbery. Our cache was built in the usual manner.
In the high plain on the north side of the Missouri, and forty
yards from a steep bluff, we chose a dry situation, and then,
describing a small circle of about twenty inches diameter,
removed the sod as gently and carefully as possible:
the hole was then sunk perpendicularly for a foot deep.
It was now worked gradually wider as it descended, till at length
it became six or seven feet deep, shaped nearly like a kettle,
or the lower part of a large still with the bottom somewhat sunk
at the centre. As the earth was dug it was handed up in a vessel,
and carefully laid on a skin or cloth, in which it was carried
away and thrown into the river, so as to leave no trace of it.
A floor of three or four inches in thickness was then made
of dry sticks, on which was placed a hide perfectly dry.
The goods, being well aired and dried, were laid on this floor,
and prevented from touching the wall by other dried sticks,
as the merchandise was stowed away.
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