Chapter 27
CHAPTER XXVII. INDIAN TRAIL. ROUGH MOUNTAIN TRAVELING. SUFFERINGS FROM HUNGER AND THIRST. POWDER RIVER.
GAME IN ABUNDANCE. A HUNTER'S PARADISE. MOUNTAIN PEAK SEEN AT A GREAT DISTANCE. ONE OF THE BIG HORN CHAIN. OTHER MOUNTAINS.
EXTENT. APPEARANCE. HEIGHT. THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT. VARIOUS CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MOUNTAINS.
INDIAN SUPERSTITIENTS CONCERNING THEM. LAND OF SOULS. TOWNS OF THE FREE AND GENEROUS SPIRITS. HAPPY HUNTING GROUNDS. FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING DAYS, THE TRAVELERS PURSUED A WESTERLY COURSE FOR THIRTY-FOUR
MILES ALONG A RIDGE OF COUNTRY DIVIDING THE TRIBUTARY WATERS OF THE MISSOURI AND THE YELLOWSTONE. AS LANDMARKS, THEY GUIDED THEMSELVES BY THE SUMMITS OF THE FAR DISTANT MOUNTAINS, WHICH THEY SUPPOSED TO BELONG TO THE BIG HORN CHAIN. THEY WERE GRADUALLY RISING INTO A HIGHER TEMPERATURE, FOR THE WEATHER WAS COLD FOR
THE SEASON, WITH A SHARP FROST IN THE NIGHT, AND ICE OF AN EIGHT OF AN INCH IN THICKNESS. ON THE 22ND OF AUGUST, EARLY IN THE DAY, THEY CAME UPON THE TRAIL OF A NUMEROUS BAND. THE MADDANS EXAMINED THE FOOTPRINTS WITH GREAT ATTENTION, AND DETERMINED IT TO BE THE TRAIL OF A PARTY OF CROWS, RETURNING FROM AN ANNUAL TRADING VISIT TO THE MADDANS. AS THIS TRAIL AFFORDED MORE COMMODIOUS TRAVELING, THEY IMMEDIATELY STRUCK INTO IT AND FOLLOWED
IT FOR TWO DAYS. IT LEAD THEM OVER ROUGH HILLS AND THROUGH BROKEN GULLYS, DURING WHICH TIME THEY SUFFERED GREAT FATIGUE FROM THE RUGGINESS OF THE COUNTRY. THE WEATHER, TOO, WHICH HAD RECENTLY BEEN FROSTY, WAS NOW OPPRESSIVELY WARM, AND THERE WAS A GREAT SCARCITY OF WATER, INSO MUCH THAT A VALUABLE DOG BELONGING TO MR.
MACKENZIE DIED OF THIRST. AT ONE TIME THEY HAD 25 MILES OF PAINFUL TRAVEL WITHOUT A DROP OF WATER, UNTIL THEY ARRIVED AT A SMALL RUNNING STREAM. HERE THEY EAGERLY SLAKED THEIR THIRST. WITH THIS BEING ALLEED, THE CALLS OF HUNGER BECAME EQUALLY IMPORTUNATE.
EVER SINCE THEY HAD GOT AMONG THESE BAREN AND ARID HILLS WHERE THERE WAS A DEFICIENCY OF GRASS, THEY HAD MET WITH NO BUFFALOS, THOSE ANIMALS KEEPING IN THE GRASSY METTOS NEAR THE STREAMS. THEY WERE OBLIGED THEREFORE TO HAVE RECORSED TO THEIR CORN MEAL WHICH THEY RESERVED FOR SUCH EMERGENCIES.
SOME HOWEVER WERE LUCKY ENOUGH TO KILL A WOLF WHICH THEY COOKED FOR SUPPER AND PRONOUNCED EXCELLENT FOOD. THE NEXT MORNING THEY RESUMED THEIR WAYFARING, HUNGRY AND JADED, AND HAD A DOGGED MARCH OF EIGHTTEEN MILES AMONG THE SAME KIND OF HILLS. AT LENGTH THEY EMERGED UPON A STREAM OF CLEAR WATER, ONE OF THE FORKS OF POWDER RIVER, AND
TO THEIR GREAT JOY BEHELD ONCE MORE WIDE GRASSY METTOS STOCKED WITH HERDS OF BUFFALO. FOR SEVERAL DAYS THEY KEPT ALONG THE BANKS OF THE RIVER, ASCENDING IT ABOUT EIGHTTEEN MILES. IT WAS A HUNTER'S PARADISE. THE BUFFALOS WERE IN SUCH ABUNDANCE THAT THEY WERE ENABLE TO KILL AS MANY AS THEY PLEASED,
AND TO JURK A SUFFICIENT SUPPLY OF MEAT FOR SEVERAL DAYS JOURNEYING. HERE THEN THEY REVELED AND REPOSED AFTER THEIR HUNGRY AND WEIRY TRAVEL, HUNTING AND FEASTING AND RECLINING UPON THE GRASS. THEIR QUIET HOWEVER WAS A LITTLE MARRED BY COMING UPON TRACES OF INDIANS, WHO, THEY CONCLUDED, MUST BE CROWS.
THEY WERE THEREFORE OBLIGED TO KEEP A MORE VIGILANT WATCH THAN EVER UPON THEIR HORSES. FOR SEVERAL DAYS THEY HAD BEEN DIRECTING THEIR MARCH TOWARDS THE LOFTY MOUNTAIN DESCRIED BY MR. HUNT AND MR. MCKENZIE ON THE 17TH OF AUGUST, THE HEIGHT OF WHICH RENDERED IT A LANDMARK OVER A VAST
EXTENT OF COUNTRY. AT FIRST IT HAD APPEARED TO THEM SOLITARY AND DETACHED, BUT AS THEY ADVANCED TOWARDS IT, IT PROOFED TO BE THE PRINCIPAL SUMMIT OF A CHAIN OF MOUNTAINS. DAY BY DAY IT VARIED IN FORM, OR RATHER ITS LOWER PEAKS, AND THE SUMMITS OF OTHERS OF THE CHAIN EMERGED ABOVE THE CLEAR HORIZON, AND FINALLY THE INFERIOR LINE OF HILLS WHICH
CONNECTED MOST OF THEM ROSE TO VIEW. SO FAR, HOWEVER, ARE OBJECTS DISCERNABLE IN THE PURE ATMOSPHERE OF THESE ELEVATED PLAINS, THAT FROM THE PLACE WHERE THEY FIRST DESCRIED THE MAIN MOUNTAIN, THEY HAD TO TRAVEL A HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILES BEFORE THEY REACHED ITS BASE. HERE THEY ENCAMPED ON THE 30TH OF AUGUST, HAVING COME NEARLY 400 MILES SINCE LEAVING
THE URIKRA VILLAGE. THE MOUNTAIN WHICH NOW TOWARD ABOVE THEM WAS ONE OF THE BIG HORN CHAIN, BORDERED BY A RIVER OF THE SAME NAME AND EXTENDING FOR A LONG DISTANCE, RATHER EAST OF NORTH AND WEST OF SOUTH. IT WAS A PART OF THE GREAT SYSTEM OF GRANITE MOUNTAINS WHICH FORMS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT
AND STRIKING FEATURES OF NORTH AMERICA, STRETCHING PARALLEL TO THE COAST OF THE PACIFIC THE IZMUS OF PANAMA ALMOST TO THE ARCTIC OCEAN AND PRESENTING A CORRESPONDING CHAIN TO THAT OF THE ANDES IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE. THIS VAST RANGE HAS ACQUIRED FROM ITS RUGGED AND BROKEN CHARACTER AND ITS SUMMITS AND NAKED GRANITE THE APPEALATION OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, A NAME BY NO MEANS DISTINCTIVE AS ALL ELEVATED
RANGES ARE ROCKY. AMONG THE EARLY EXPLORERS IT WAS KNOWN AS THE RANGE OF CHIPOWAYAN MOUNTAINS AND THIS INDIAN NAME IS THE ONE IT IS LIKELY TO RETAIN IN POETIC USAGE. RISING FROM THE MIDST OF VAST PLAINS AND PRAIRIES, TRAVERSING SEVERAL DEGREES OF LATITUDE, DIVIDING THE WATERS OF THE ATLANTIK AND THE PACIFIC, AND SEEMING TO BIND WITH DIVERGING RIDGES,
THE LEVEL REGIONS ON ITS FLANKS, IT HAS BEEN FIGURATIVELY TERMED THE BACKBONE OF THE NORTHERN CONTINENT. THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS DO NOT PRESENT A RANGE OF UNIFORM ELEVATION BUT RATHER GROUPS AND OCCASIONALLY DETACHED PEAKS. THOUGH SOME OF THESE RISE TO THE REGION OF PERPETUAL SNOWS AND ARE UPWARDS OF 11,000
FEET IN REAL ALTITUDE, YET THEIR HEIGHT FROM THEIR IMMEDIATE BASES IS NOT SO GREAT AS MIGHT BE IMAGINED AS THEY SWELL UP FROM ELEVATED PLAINS SEVERAL THOUSAND FEET ABOVE THE LEVEL OF THE OCEAN. THESE PLAINS ARE OFTEN OF A DESOLATE STERILITY, MERE SANDY WASTS FORMED BY THE DETRITUS OF THE GRANITE HEIGHTS.
A FOOT OF TREES AND URBAGE, SCORCHED BY THE ARDENT AND REFLECTED RAYS OF THE SUMMER SUN, AND IN WINTER SWEPT BY CHILLING BLASTS FROM THE SNOW-CLAD MOUNTAINS. SUCH IS A GREAT PART OF THAT VAST REGION EXTENDING NORTH AND SOUTH ALONG THE MOUNTAINS SEVERAL HUNDRED MILES IN-WIDTH, WHICH HAS NOT IMPROPERLY BEEN TERMED THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT. IT IS A REGION THAT ALMOST DISCURRIGES ALL HOPE OF CULTIVATION, AND CAN ONLY BE TRAVERSED
WITH SAFETY BY KEEPING NEAR THE STREAMS WHICH INTERSECT IT. EXTENSIVE PLAINS LIKEWISE OCCUR AMONG THE HIGHER REGIONS OF THE MOUNTAINS OF CONSIDERABLE FERTILITY. INDEED, THESE LOFTY PLATS OF TABLE LAND SEEM TO FORM A POCULIAR FEATURE IN THE AMERICAN CONTINENCE.
SOME OCCUR AMONG THE CORDIERAS OF THE ANDES, WHERE CITIES AND TOWNS AND CULTIVATED FARMS ARE TO BE SEEN EIGHT THOUSAND FEET ABOVE THE LEVEL OF THE SEA. The Rocky Mountains, as we have already observed, occur sometimes singly or in groups, and occasionally in collateral ridges. Between these are deep valleys, with small streams winding through them, which find their
way into the lower plains, augmenting as they proceed, and ultimately discharging themselves into those vast rivers which traverse the prairies like great arteries and drain the continent. While the granitic summits of the Rocky Mountains are bleak and bare, many of the inferior ridges are scantily clothed with scrubbed pines, oaks, cedar, and firs.
Various parts of the mountains also bear traces of volcanic action. Some of the interior valleys are strewed with scoria and broken stones, evidently of volcanic origin. The surrounding rocks bear the like character, and vestiges of extinguished craters are to be seen on the elevated heights.
We have already noticed the superstitious feelings with which the Indians regard the But this immense range of mountains, which divides all that they know of the world, and gives birth to such mighty rivers, is still more an object of awe and veneration. They call it the Crest of the World, and think that Wakanda, or the Master of Life, as they designate the Supreme Being, has his residence among these aerial heights.
The tribes on the eastern prairies call them the Mountains of the Setting Sun. Some of them place the happy hunting grounds, their ideal paradise, among the recesses of these mountains, but say that they are invisible to living men. Here also is the Land of Souls, in which are the towns of the free and generous spirits, where those who have pleased the Master of Life while living, enjoy after death all manner
of delights. Wonders are told of these mountains by the distant tribes, whose warriors or hunters have ever wandered in their neighborhood. It is thought by some that after death they will have to travel to these mountains and ascend one of their highest and most rugged peaks, among rocks and snows and tumbling
torrents. After many moons of painful toil they will reach the summit, from whence they will have a view over the Land of Souls. There they will see the happy hunting grounds, with the souls of the brave and good, living in tents in green meadows by bright running streams, or hunting the herds of buffalo and
elk and deer which have been slain on earth. There too they will see the villages or towns of the free and generous spirits brightening in the midst of delicious prairies. If they have acquitted themselves well while living, they will be permitted to descend and enjoy this happy country.
If they have otherwise, they will but be tantalized with this prospect of it, and then hurled back from the mountain to wander about the sandy plains and endure the eternal pangs of unsatisfied thirst and hunger.
