The
Indians Were Mainly Fishers Of The Shoshone - Or Great Snake
River - Tribe, Feeding Mostly On Salmon, Which They Speared
With Marvellous Dexterity; And Root-Diggers, Who Live Upon
Wild Roots.
When hard put to it, however, in winter, the
latter miserable creatures certainly, if not the former,
devoured their own children.
There was no map of the
country. It was entirely unexplored; in fact, Bancroft the
American historian, in his description of the Indian tribes,
quotes my account of the Root-diggers; which shows how little
was known of this region up to this date. I carried a small
compass fastened round my neck. That and the stars (we
travelled by night when in the vicinity of Indians) were my
only guides for hundreds of dreary miles.
Such then was the task we had set ourselves to grapple with.
As with life itself, nothing but the magic powers of youth
and ignorance could have cajoled us to face it with heedless
confidence and eager zest. These conditions given, with
health - the one essential of all enjoyment - added, the
first escape from civilised restraint, the first survey of
primordial nature as seen in the boundless expanse of the
open prairie, the habitat of wild men and wild animals, -
exhilarate one with emotions akin to the schoolboy's rapture
in the playground, and the thoughtful man's contemplation of
the stars. Freedom and change, space and the possibilities
of the unknown, these are constant elements of our day-
dreams; now and then actual life dangles visions of them
before our eyes, alas!
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 156 of 404
Words from 40905 to 41163
of 106633
