Letter IV.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRÉCIS HISTORIQUES, BRUSSELS.
Journey to the Great Desert in 1851.
(Continued)
UNIVERSITY OF ST. LOUIS, January 20, 1852.
SIR:
The whole forenoon of the 31st of July, the day on which the Church celebrates the Feast of St. Ignatius, founder of the Society of Jesus, was employed in making preparations for our journey into the interior of the country. Mr. Culbertson, superintendent of the forts on the Mississippi and the Yellowstone rivers, is a distinguished man, endowed with a mild, benevolent, and charitable temper, though, if need be, intrepid and courageous. He has always given me marks of kindness and friendship, but most particularly in this last tour. Being at the head of our troop, he was able to aid me in my project.
We numbered thirty-two persons; the greater part were Assiniboins, Minataries, and Crows, who were repairing to the great Indian council to be held in the vicinity of Fort Laramie, and by the same route that we had chosen, and which was scarcely less than 800 miles in length. Two four-wheeled wagons and two carts, for transporting our provisions and our baggage, composed our whole convoy. The four vehicles were in all probability the first that had ever crossed this unoccupied waste. There is not the slightest perceptible vestige of a beaten track between Fort Union and the Red Buttes, which are on the route to Oregon, and 161 miles west of Fort Laramie.
Having dined, we crossed the river with our baggage. Following the course of one of the little tributaries of the Yellowstone, we advanced abort six miles. We had with us a skilful hunter, of the Black-Feet tribe, and lie made a happy commencement by bringing . us two fine deer as the first fruits of his ability. The mosquitoes attacked us on all sides, leaving us no repose. We were forced to combat them continually with branches, handkerchiefs, and smoke. The last is the most efficacious weapon for dissipating these sanguinary insects, but it is at the same time the most difficult for the traveller to support. Night came on, and brought with it a terrible storm. The thunder rolled above our heads and the clouds discharged torrents of water.
On the 1st of August, at six o'clock in the morning, we resumed our route. We took all possible precaution to avoid meeting any hostile band. The Indians who accompanied us kept their eyes on the earth to discover any recent tracks of an . enemy. An extraordinary experience gives them an admirable tact in detecting trails which are imperceptible to others. The foes that our travelling companions dreaded most in the section we were about to traverse, were the Black-Feet and the Sioux. After breakfasting in the neighborhood of the source of the Fox River, we journeyed from morning till night over hilly and undulating plains, bounded by ranges of hills which stretch from the Yellowstone to the Missouri. From time to time we descried promontories in the distance, which serve as guides to the traveller.. At the close of the day we pitched our camp at the base of the Tetons of the Yellowstone. These Tetons derive their name from a group of lofty hills situated in one of those delightful valleys which are numerous in these parts, and which, being surrounded by trees and shrubbery of various kinds, form a most agreeable contrast to the plains that we had just left behind so destitute of wood and water. Wild fruit, such as plums, cherries, gooseberries, sorbs, buffalo-berries, or Shepherdia angelica, abound. Among the vegetables and roots we noticed the Psoralea esculenta, or Breadroot : its white apple, and its charming white, oval blossom, nearly three inches in circumference, is universally found in this uncultivated solitude; and would deserve a place in a garden of choice plants; the savages value it highly. The wild onion and the sweet onion bear handsome flowers; these plants would undoubtedly improve with culture. The roots of the water-arrow (Sagittaria rigida), and those of the wild Lily of the Valley (Convallaria borealis), are equally prized by the Indians, who call them Swan potatoes. Peanuts are also a delicious and nourishing root, found commonly in low and alluvial lands. The above-named roots form a considerable portion of the sustenance of these Indians during winter. They seek them in the places where the mice aid other little animals, in particular the groundsquirrel, have piled them in heaps.
The mosquitoes tormented us greatly during the day. They especially worried our horses and mules, which were literally covered with them. For us, we had taken measures against their attacks by covering our heads with sacks formed of coarse gauze.
The distance between the Tetons and Fort Union is about eighty miles. We saw very few deer, and from time to time an antelope or buck was roused from repose and fled at our approach. Traces of several kinds of bear, especially the grizzly bear, are very common; the latter are found in the woody places and along the streams and rivulets. We succeeded in killing three, not without great effort and danger.
Our hunter brought us two fine, fat antelopes, which were soon dressed and served up for our supper. One of the Indians killed a skunk (Mephitis Americana). The strong odor of .this animal is intolerable to the whites; the savages, on the contrary, appear to like it, and deem its flesh exquisite. How true is the proverb: De gustibus non disputandum !-there is no accounting for tastes.
On the 2d of August we set out at break of day, and were fanned by a refreshing breeze. The country through which we progressed was full of interest: the valleys were covered with a luxuriant verdure, intermingled with flowers of various hues. Groves of cotton-wood, elm, and ash, as well as groups of service-trees and cherry-trees, offered themselves, along the beds of dry rivers and streamlets. We ascended, step by step, the hills which separate the waters of the Missouri from those of the Yellowstone, like so many insuperable barriers furrowed with profound ravines. We triumphed over these obstacles with great difficulty, and at length attained the summit of the hills. There a most magnificent spectacle unrolled itself before our eyes. Nature has accumulated in this spot a great variety of her most fantastical caprices. On one side is displayed a succession of beautiful prairies, here and there interrupted with groves of stunted trees and shrubs, and terminating in verdant hills dotted with groups of cedar and pine; on the other are shapeless heaps of red and white clay and piles of stones, which, viewed at a distance, resemble brick-kilns, from their peculiar color: although thrown together without any apparent order, they add much interest to the landscape.
The region through which we passed for several days furnished evident proofs that it has been strongly volcanic, even at a very recent date, for the surface is still covered with lava and scoriae. I counted as many- as seventy conical hills, from twenty to a hundred feet in height, grouped in one single plain and in the space of from four to five miles: they bad evidently gone through the ordeal of fire. Some of these hills were composed of cinders that the earth in her fiery convulsions appeared to have vomited from her centre. Several times, after having gained some miles on the heights, we found ourselves suddenly facing an almost perpendicular descent, formed of rock and white clay, down which we had to let our vehicles by hand. We then entered into a chain of valleys and fertile prairies watered by springs and rivulets, and embellished with the cotton-wood, elm, ash, cedar, and pine; in other places the summits of the hills are remarkable for their beauty, and the rich undulating plains for their abundant verdure.
On the fourth day of our march we descried thousands of bison ;, the whole space between the Missouri and the Yellowstone was covered as far as the eye could reach. Hitherto the musquitoes had greatly tormented us, but now they entirely vanished. We sought the cause of this phenomenon. The Indians told us that the absence of our winged enemies was owing to the prodigious number of buffaloes which were grazing in the neighboring plains, and which attracted these insects. In fact, we saw these noble animals throwing the earth on their bodies by means of their horns and feet, or rolling themselves in the sand and dust, and thus filling the air with clouds, in the endeavor to rid themselves of their vexatious followers. The lot of these animals appeared bad enough, for they were pursued day and night. During a whole week we heard their bellowings like the noise of distant thunder, or like the murmurs of the ocean-waves beating against the shore. It may be said that it. is the country in which the buffalo and herds of deer are generally found in the greatest abundance. A good hunter might easily kill here, in the course of a day, several cows, deer, a mountain-goat, a red-tailed and a black-tailed buck, an antelope, hares, and rabbits. He might fire twice upon a grizzly bear, and perhaps meet a gray and a silver fox. To this list of animals we may add the beaver, otter, badger, prairie-clog, and several kinds of wild fowl, principally pheasants and grouse. It is easy to see that our hunters possess the power of selecting a repast. In truth, we regaled ourselves with what was most delicate, and left a great quantity of flesh in the plains for the benefit of the vultures and wolves, whose howlings and rejoicings already resounded on every side.
An Assiniboin gave us a singular proof of his dexterity in the chase ; I cannot forbear mentioning -it. Alone and on foot, he stealthily approached a large herd of bison cows, As soon as he was near enough to them to allow of their hearing him, he began to imitate the cry of a young calf. At once the cows ran towards the place of concealment of the ingenious hunter, and he killed one of there. The troop, alarmed, withdrew hastily and in great disorder. He reloaded his rifle and renewed his cry; the cows stopped, returned as if by enchantment, and he killed a second. The Assiniboin assured us that he could easily have taken more by the same stratagem, but thinking two cows were enough for us, he suffered the rest to go.
Travellers in these upper regions enjoy an excellent appetite. I have been more than once astonished at the enormous quantity of meat that a man is capable of consuming without injury to his health ; it would hardly be credited in Europe. One and even two buffalo-tongues, a side of venison or other meat, and some additional trifles, are not considered a< large portion for one meal.
On the 7th of August we crossed lands intersected with numerous ravines and dried streams. The soil was much lighter than that we last trod; it was covered with a species of wild artemisia, or wormwood-an infallible mark of sterility. The aspect of all the ravines, shores, and beds of rivers and streams, as well as that of every eminence, proves that there are numerous veins of mineral coal in this section. The observations that I made on the quality of the soil, induce me to believe that these deposits of coal extend as far as the numerous coal mines which exist in the territories watered by the Saskatchewan and Athabasca Lake, of which I have already spoken, in my letters in 1845 and 1846, after travelling over those places.
Evident tokens convince the traveller that the immense plains that he is crossing, and on which not even a shrub grows, have not always been destitute of wood. Petrified trunks and entire trees frequently meet the eye. Astonishment and admiration seize the mind, and excite conjectures concerning the manner in which these changes have been wrought. But what answer offer to the question, " Why are not these lands wooded as they must have been in former times ?" The steppes of Asia, the pampas of South America, and the western prairies of this hemisphere, seem to possess a common and uniform character; generally speaking, they have neither trees nor shrubs can them. Some observers attribute it to the action of frequent fires which have passed over these localities; others to the change undergone in the climate, or to the natural sterility of the soil ; and, in fine, there are some who pretend that some operation or convulsion of nature has destroyed the forests which formerly existed here, and has reduced them to their present condition. I have examined different localities; and the enormous heaps of shells of the testaceous kind and of the genus muscula, which I found some feet distant from the summits of the loftiest hills, and which were incorporated in alluvial earth, and mingled with sand and water-worn pebbles, convince me that this portion of land has undergone changes as great as they are amazing.
On the same day we traversed a mountainous elevation which stretches as far as the Owl-head Buttes. These buttes or mounds, in this ocean-like prairie, serve as guides to the warrior, the traveller, and the hunter, who can perceive them thirty miles off. From the summit of this extensive eminence we contemplated, with pleasing wonder, the " White Earth country," or clay plains of the Yellowstone. From south to north they measure from thirty to forty miles. When on this height, the imagination discovers the ruins of ancient villages, and one seems to see confused rows of broken columns, forts with their turrets and bastions, towers, domes, walls in decay, castles, and edifices of every sort. Some of these pillars of red and white hardened clay rise to an elevation of from 50 to 100 feet. It would have gratified me much to have passed one or two days in an attentive examination of these volcanic productions. I presume that the soil is not unlike that near the White Earth River, a tributary of the Missouri, and that it contains the same species of interesting fossils.
Similar tracts, which have ceased to be volcanic, are found in the environs of the superior sources of the Rivers Arkansas, Platte, etc., and of the Big Horn, a branch of the Yellowstone. Near the source of the River Puante, which empties into the Big Horn, and the sulphurous waters of which have probably the same medicinal qualities as the celebrated Blue Lick Springs of Kentucky, is a place called Colter's Hell-from a beaver-hunter of that name. This locality is often agitated with subterranean fires. The sulphurous gases which escape in great volumes from the burning soil infect the atmosphere for several miles, and render the earth so barren that even the wild wormwood cannot grow on it. The beaver-hunters have assured me, that the underground noises and explosions are often frightful. However, I think that the most extraordinary spot in this respect, and perhaps the most marvellous of all the northern half of this continent, is in the very heart of "the Rocky Mountains, between the 43d and 45th degrees of latitude and 109th and 111th degrees of longitude, that is, between the sources of the Madison and Yellowstone. It reaches more than a hundred miles. Bituminous, sulphurous, and boiling springs, are very numerous in it. The hot springs contain a large quantity of calcareous matter, and form hills more or less elevated, which resemble in their nature, perhaps, if not in their extent, the famous springs of Pemboukkalesi, in Asia Minor, so well described by Chandler. The earth is thrown up very high, and the influence of the elements causes it to take the most varied and the most fantastic shapes. Gas, vapor, and smoke are continually escaping, by a thousand openit)gs, from the base to the summit of the volcanic pile ; the noise at times resembles the steam let off by a boat. Strong subterranean explosions occur like those in 11 Colter's Hell." The hunters and the Indians speak of it with a superstitious fear, and consider it the abode of evil spirits, that is to say, a kind of-bell. Indians seldom approach it without offering some sacrifice, or, at least, without presenting the calumet of peace to the turbulent spirits, that they may be propitious. They declare that the subterranean noises proceed from the forging of warlike weapons: each eruption of earth is, in their eyes, the result of a combat between the infernal spirits, and becomes the monument of a new victory or calamity. Near Gardiner River, a tributary of the Yellowstone, and in the vicinity of the region I have just been describing, there is a mountain of sulphur. I have this report from Captain Bridger, who is familiar with every one of these mounds, having passed thirty years of his life near them.
From the Owl Buttes, where we encamped on the 7th of August, to the source of the Immel, a distance of nearly thirty miles, we travelled on the highlands. The surface was rugged, cut by deep ravines, and excessively difficult to pass with our vehicles. At every step we met volcanic remains. For two days our route offered on the right and left burnt hills, some of which were covered with lava and scoriae, and had evidently been craters, whence volcanic matter had been ejected into the neighboring plain.
At the decline of the same day, we were witnesses of a singularly beautiful phenomenon. The moon was surrounded by four circles; the first was of a beautiful azure, the second a rich purple, and the third white, while the fourth was obscure or black. In the midst of all these circles the queen of night shone brilliantly. The savages augured from this sign, that some hostile band was near, and passed the whole night in arms, watching.
On the 10th we quitted the highlands and advanced about twenty miles, over a barren, rugged space, excavated by rains. A kind of salamander, vulgarly called " horned frog," lizards, and rattlesnakes, were most abundant. I give you the information I gathered from the Indians concerning the antidotes they employ for curing the bite of the last-named reptile. Blackroot (Pterocaulon) is regarded by them as a sovereign remedy against the wound inflicted by this most venomous serpent, and Providence has rendered it very plentiful, precisely in those places in which these snakes are found. The remedy is truly side by side with the ill-for it is sufficient to chew the weed and apply it to the wound, when the swelling is arrested and disappears. ""Then an Indian, his horse, or his clog, has been bitten by one of these serpents, they pursue the reptile, which dies almost directly after having given its bite. They open its stomach, take out the blood that it has swallowed and apply it to the wound; the swelling subsides at once, and the dangerous effects of the poison are prevented. When the swelling is considerable, the Indians use the sharp bones and the teeth of the rattlesnake to pick and open the swollen slain, and by this means they dissipate or remove the inflammation. The copperhead-snake has a poison so subtle, that its breath alone causes death to him who inhales it. Its tongue is not forked like that of other snakes; it is of a triangular shape. When the reptile is startled and provoked, his-head flattens, and he throws from his mouth a great quantity of yellow poison, and then blows till he expires.
On the 11th we arrived at the upper portion of a gently sloping plain. Having crossed it, we found ourselves at Fort Alexander, situated on the banks of the Yellowstone, and at a short distance from the little river Rosebud. Fort Alexander is one hundred miles distant from Fort Union. The winter, it is said, is extremely severe in these regions, commencing in November, and only terminating in the month of April.
Accept, &c.,
P.J. DE SMET, S.J.