USA > Oregon > The Oregon trail : sketches of prairie and Rocky Mountain life > Part 21
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32
216
217
THE BLACK HILLS
with black fir trees. On our left they rose close to us like a wall, but on the right a winding brook with a narrow strip of marshy soil intervened. The stream was clogged with old beaver dams, and spread frequently into wide pools. There were thick bushes and many dead and 5 blasted trees along its course, though frequently nothing remained but stumps cut close to the ground by the beaver, and marked with the sharp chisel-like teeth of those in- defatigable laborers. Sometimes we were diving among trees, and then emerging upon open spots, over which, 10 Indian-like, all galloped at full speed. As Pauline bounded over the rocks I felt her saddle-girth slipping, and alighted to draw it tighter; when the whole array swept past me in a moment, the women with their gaudy ornaments tinkling as they rode, the men whooping, and laughing, 15
and lashing forward their horses. Two black-tailed deer bounded away among the rocks; Raymond shot at them from horseback; the sharp report of his rifle was answered by another equally sharp from the opposing cliffs, and then the echoes, leaping in rapid succession from side to 20 side, died away rattling far amid the mountains.
After having ridden in this manner for six or eight miles, the appearance of the scene began to change, and all the declivities around us were covered with forests of tall, slender pine trees. The Indians began to fall off to the 25 right and left, and dispersed with their hatchets and knives among these woods, to cut the poles which they had come to seek. Soon I was left almost alone; but in the deep stillness of those lonely mountains, the stroke of hatchets and the sound of voices might be heard from far and near. 30
Reynal, who imitated the Indians in their habits as well as the worst features of their character, had killed buffalo enough to make a lodge for himself and his squaw, and now he was eager to get the poles necessary to complete it. He asked me to let Raymond go with him and assist in the 35 work. I assented,' and the two men immediately entered the thickest part of the wood. Having left my horse in Raymond's keeping, I began to climb the mountain. I was weak and weary and made slow progress, often pausing to rest, but after an hour had elapsed, I gained a height, 40 whence the little valley out of which I had climbed seemed
218
THE OREGON TRAIL
like a deep, dark gulf, though the inaccessible peak of the mountain was still towering to a much greater distance above. Objects familiar from childhood surrounded me; crags and rocks, a black and sullen brook that gurgled 5 with a hollow voice deep among the crevices, a wood of mossy distorted trees and prostrate trunks flung down by age and storins, scattered among the rocks, or damming the foaming waters of the brook. The objects were the same, yet they were thrown into a wilder and more startling Io scene, for the black crags and the savage trees assumed a grim and threatening aspect, and close across the valley the opposing mountain confronted me, rising from the gulf for thousands of feet, with its bare pinnacles and its ragged covering of pines. Yet the scene was not without its 15 milder features. As I ascended, I found frequent little grassy terraces, and there was one of these close at hand, across which the brook was stealing, beneath the shade of scattered trees that seemed artificially planted. Here I made a welcome discovery, no other than a bed of straw- 20 berries, with their white flowers and their red fruit, close nestled among the grass by the side of the brook, and I sat down by them, hailing them as old acquaintances; for among those lonely and perilous mountains they awakened delicious associations of the gardens and peaceful homes of 25 far-distant New England. .
Yet wild as they were, these mountains were thickly peopled. As I climbed farther, I found the broad dusty paths made by the elk, as they filed across the mountain- side. The grass on all the terraces was trampled down 30 by deer; there were numerous tracks of wolves, and in some of the rougher and more precipitous parts of the ascent, I found foot-prints different from any that I had ever seen, and which I took to be those of the Rocky mountain sheep. I sat down upon a rock; there was a 35 perfect stillness. No wind was stirring, and not even an insect could be heard. I recollected the danger of be- coming lost in such a place, and therefore I fixed my eye upon one of the tallest pinnacles of the opposite mountain. It rose sheer upright from the woods below, and by an 40 extraordinary freak of nature sustained aloft on its very summit a large loose rock. Such a landmark could never
219
THE BLACK HILLS
be mistaken, and feeling once more secure, I began again to move forward. A white wolf jumped up from among some bushes, and leaped clumsily away; but he stopped for a moment, and turned back his keen eye and his grim bristling muzzle. I longed to take his scalp and carry it 5 back with me, as an appropriate trophy of the Black hills, but before I could fire, he was gone among the rocks. Soon I heard a rustling sound, with a cracking of twigs at a little distance, and saw moving above the tall bushes the branching antlers of an elk. I was in the midst of a Ios hunter's paradise.
Such are the Black hills, as I found them in July; but they wear a different garb when winter sets in, when the broad boughs of the fir tree are bent to the ground by the load of snow, and the dark mountains are whitened with it. 15 At that season the mountain-trappers, returned from their autumn expeditions, often build their rude cabins in the midst of these solitudes, and live in abundance and luxury on the game that harbors there. I have heard them relate, how with their tawny mistresses, and perhaps a few young 20 Indian companions, they have spent months in total seclu- sion. They would dig pitfalls, and set traps for the white wolves, the sables, and the martens, and though through the whole night the awful chorus of the wolves would re- sound from the frozen mountains around them, yet within 25 their massive walls of logs they would lie in careless ease and comfort before the blazing fire, and in the morning shoot the elk and the deer from their very door.
CHAPTER XVIII
A MOUNTAIN HUNT
THE camp was full of the newly-cut lodge-poles; some, already prepared, were stacked together, white and glisten- ing, to dry and harden in the sun; others were lying on the ground, and the squaws, the boys, and even some of the 5 warriors were busily at work peeling off the bark and paring them with their knives to the proper dimensions. Most of the hides obtained at the last camp were dressed and scraped thin enough for use, and many of the squaws were engaged in fitting them together and sewing them with sinews, to Io form the coverings for the lodges. Men were wandering among the bushes that lined the brook along the margin of the camp, cutting sticks of red willow, or shongsasha, the bark of which, mixed with tobacco, they use for smoking. Reynal's squaw was hard at work with her awl and buffalo 15 sinews upon her lodge, while her proprietor, having just finished an enormous breakfast of meat, was smoking a social pipe along with Raymond and myself. He proposed at length that we should go out on a hunt. "Go to The Big Crow's lodge," said he, "and get your rifle. I'll bet the 20 gray Wyandot pony against your mare that we start an elk or a black-tailed deer, or likely as not, a bighorn, before we are two miles out of camp. I'll take my squaw's old yellow horse; you can't whip her more than four miles an hour, but she is as good for the mountains as a mule."
25 I mounted the black mule which Raymond usually rode. She was a very fine and powerful animal, gentle and manageable enough by nature; but of late her temper had been soured by misfortune. About a week before I had chanced to offend some one of the Indians, who out of 3º revenge went secretly into the meadow and gave her a severe stab in the haunch with his knife. The wound, though partially healed, still galled her extremely, and made her
220
221
A MOUNTAIN HUNT
even more perverse and obstinate than the rest of her species.
The morning was a glorious one, and I was in better health than I had been at any time for the last two months. Though a strong frame and well compacted sinews had 5 borne me through hitherto, it was long since I had been in a condition to feel the exhilaration of the fresh moun- tain wind and the gay sunshine that brightened the crags and trees. We left the little valley and ascended a rocky hollow in the mountain. Very soon we were out of sight Ic of the camp, and of every living thing, inan, beast, bird, or insect. I had never before, except on foot, passed over such execrable ground, and I desire never to repeat the experiment. The black mule grew indignant, and even the redoubtable yellow horse stumbled every moment, 15 and kept groaning to himself as he cut his feet and legs among the sharp rocks.
It was a scene of silence and desolation. Little was visible except beetling crags and the bare shingly sides of the mountains, relieved by scarcely a trace of vegetation. 20 At length, however, we came upon a forest tract, and had no sooner done so than we heartily wished ourselves back among the rocks again; for we were on a steep descent, among trees so thick that we could see scarcely a rod in any direction.
25
If one is anxious to place himself in a situation where the hazardous and the ludicrous are combined in about equal proportions, let him get upon a vicious mule, with a snaffle bit, and try to drive her through the woods down a slope of 45°. Let him have on a long rifle, a buckskin 30 frock with long fringes, and a head of long hair. These latter appendages will be caught every moment and twitched away in small portions by the twigs, which will also whip him smartly across the face, while the large branches above thump him on the head. . His mule, if she be a true one, will 35 alternately stop short and dive violently forward, and his positions upon her back will be somewhat diversified and
extraordinary. At one time he will clasp her affectionately, to avoid the blow of a bough overhead; at another, he will throw himself back and fling his knee forward against the 4c side of her neck, to keep it from being crushed between the
222
THE OREGON TRAIL
rough bark of a tree and the equally unyielding ribs of the animal herself. Reynal was cursing incessantly during the whole way down. Neither of us had the remotest idea where we were going; and though I have seen rough riding, 5 I shall always retain an evil recollection of that five min- utes' scramble.
At last we left our troubles behind us, emerging into the channel of a brook that circled along the foot of the descent; and here, turning joyfully to the left, we rode Io in luxury and case over the white pebbles and the rippling water, shaded from the glaring sun by an overarching green transparency. These halcyon moments were of short duration. The friendly brook, turning sharply to one side, went brawling and foaming down the rocky 15 hill into an abyss, which, as far as we could discern, had no bottom; so once more we betook ourselves to the de- tested woods. When next we came forth from their danc- ing shadow and sunlight, we found ourselves standing in the broad glare of day, on a high jutting point of the moun- 20 tain. Before us stretched a long, wide, desert valley, wind- ing away far amid the mountains. No civilized eye but mine had ever looked upon that virgin waste. Reynal was gazing intently; he began to speak at last:
" Many a time, when I was with the Indians, I have 25 been hunting for gold all through the Black hills. There's plenty of it here; you may be certain of that. I have dreamed about it fifty times, and I never dreamed yet but what it came out true. Look over yonder at those black rocks piled up against that other big rock. Don't it look 30 as if there might be something there? It won't do for a white man to be rummaging too much about these moun- tains; the Indians say they are full of bad spirits; and I believe myself that it's no good luck to be hunting about here after gold. Well, for all that, I would like to have one 35 of these fellows up here, from down below, to go about with his witch-hazel rod, and I'll guarantee that it would not be long before he would light on a gold mine. Never mind ; we'll let the gold alone for to-day. Look at those trees down below us in the hollow; we'll go down there, and I 40 reckon we'll get a black-tailed deer."
But Reynal's predictions were not verified. We passed
223
A MOUNTAIN HUNT
mountain after mountain, and valley after valley; we ex- plored deep ravines; yet still to my companion's vexa- tion and evident surprise, no game could be found. So, in the absence of better, we resolved to go out on the plains and look for an antelope. With this view we began 5 to pass down a narrow valley, the bottom of which was covered with the stiff wild-sage bushes and marked with deep paths, made by the buffalo, who, for some inexplicable reason, are accustomed to penetrate, in their long grave - processions, deep among the gorges of these sterile moun- 10 tains.
Reynal's eye was ranging incessantly among the rocks and along the edges of the black precipices, in hopes of discovering the mountain sheep peering down upon us in fancied security from that giddy elevation. Nothing was 15 visible for some time. At length we both detected some- thing in motion near the foot of one of the mountains, and in a moment afterward a black-tailed deer, with his spread- ing antlers, stood gazing at us from the top of a rock, and then, slowly turning away, disappeared behind it. In an 20 instant Reynal was out of his saddle, and running toward the spot. I, being too weak to follow, sat holding his horse and waiting the result. I lost sight of him, then heard the report of his rifle deadened among the rocks, and finally saw him reappear, with a surly look that plainly betrayed 25 his ill success. Again we moved forward down the long valley, when soon after we came full upon what seemed a wide and very shallow ditch, incrusted at the bottom with white clay, dried and cracked in the sun. Under this fair outside, Reynal's eye detected the signs of lurking mischief. 30 He called me to stop, and then, alighting, picked up a stone and threw it into the ditch. To my utter amazement it fell with a dull splash, breaking at once through the thin crust, and spattering round the hole a yellowish creamy fluid, into which it sank and disappeared. A stick, five or six feet long, 35 lay on the ground, and with this we sounded the insidious abyss close to its edge. It was just possible to touch the bottom. Places like this are numerous among the Rocky mountains. The buffalo, in his blind and heedless walk, often plunges into them unawares. Down he sinks; one 40 snort of terror, one convulsive struggle, and the slime
224
THE OREGON TRAIL
calmly flows above his shaggy head, the languid undula- tions of its sleek and placid surface alone betraying how the powerful monster writhes in his death-throes below.
We found after some trouble a point where we could 5 pass the abyss, and now the valley began to open upon the plains which spread to the horizon before us. On one of their distant swells we discerned three or four black specks, which Reynal pronounced to be buffalo.
"Come," said he, "we must get one of them. My squaw Io wants inore sinews to finish her lodge with, and I want some glue myself."
He immediately put the yellow horse to such a gallop as he was capable of executing, while I set spurs to the mule, who soon far outran her plebeian rival. When we had 15 galloped a mile or more, a large rabbit, by ill luck, sprang up just under the feet of the mule, who bounded violently
aside in full carcer. Weakened as I was, I was flung for- cibly to the ground, and my riffe, falling close to iny head, went off with the shock. Its sharp, spiteful report rang for 20 some moments in my car.
Being slightly stunned, I lay for an instant motionless, and Reynal, supposing me to be shot, rode up and began to curse the mule. Soon recover- ing myself, I rose, picked up the rifle and anxiously exam- ined it. It was badly injured. The stock was cracked, 25 and the main screw broken, so that the lock had to be tied in its place with a string; yet happily it was not rendered totally unserviceable. I wiped it out, reloaded it, and hand- ing it to Reynal, who meanwhile had caught the mule and led her up to me, I mounted again. No sooner had I done 30 so, than the brute began to rear and plunge with extreme violence; but being now well prepared for her, and free from incumbrance, I soon reduced her to submission. Then taking the riffe again from Reynal, we galloped for- ward as before.
35 We were now free of the mountain and riding far out on the broad prairie. The buffalo were still some two miles in advance of us. When we came near them, we stopped where a gentle swell of the plain concealed us from their view, and while I held his horse Reynal ran 40 forward with his rifle, till I lost sight of him beyond the ris- ing ground. A few minutes elapsed; I heard the report of
225
.
A MOUNTAIN HUNT
his piece, and saw the buffalo running away at full speed on the right, and immediately after, the hunter himself, un- successful as before, came up and mounted his horse in excessive ill-humor. He cursed the Black hills and the buffalo, swore that he was a good hunter, which indeed 5 was true, and that he had never been out before among those mountains without killing two or three deer at least.
We now turned toward the distant encampment. As
we rode along, antelope in considerable numbers were flying lightly in all directions over the plain, but not one Ic of them would stand and be shot at. When we reached the foot of the mountain ridge that lay between us and the village, we were too impatient to take the smooth and circuitous route; so turning short to the left, we drove our wearied animals directly upward among the rocks. Still 15 more antelope were leaping about among these flinty hillsides. Each of us shot at one, though from a great distance, and each missed his mark. At length we reached the summit of the last ridge. Looking down, we saw the bustling camp in the valley at our feet, and ingloriously 20 descended to it. As we rode among the lodges, the Indians looked in vain for the fresh meat that should have hung behind our saddles, and the squaws uttered various sup- pressed ejaculations, to the great indignation of Reynal. Our mortification was increased when we rode up to his 25 lodge. Here we saw his young Indian relative, The Hail- Storm, his light graceful figure reclining on the ground in an easy attitude, while with his friend The Rabbit, who sat by his side, he was making an abundant meal from a wooden bowl of wasna, which the squaw had placed be- 30 tween them. Near him lay the fresh skin of a female elk, which he had just killed among the mountains, only a mile
or two from the camp. No doubt the boy's heart was elated with triumph, but he betrayed no sign of it. He even seemed totally unconscious of our approach, and his hand- 35 some face had all the tranquillity of Indian self-control; a self-control which prevents the exhibition of emotion, without restraining the emotion itself. It was about two months since I had known The Hail-Storm, and within that time his character had remarkably developed. When 40 I first saw him, he was just emerging from the habits and
226
THE OREGON TRAIL
feelings of the boy into the ambition of the hunter and warrior. He had lately killed his first deer, and this had excited his aspirations after distinction. Since that time he had been continually in search of game, and no young 5 hunter in the village had been so active or so fortunate as he. It will perhaps be remembered how fearlessly he attacked the buffalo bull, as we were moving toward our camp at the Medicine-Bow mountain. All this success had produced a marked change in his character. As I first Io remembered him he always shunned the society of the young squaws, and was extremely bashful and sheepish in their presence; but now, in the confidence of his own reputation, he began to assume the airs and the arts of a man of gal- lantry. He wore his red blanket dashingly over his left 15 shoulder, painted his checks every day with vermilion, and hung pendants of shells in his cars. If I observed aright, he met with very good success in his new pursuits; still The Hail-Storm had much to accomplish before he attained the full standing of a warrior. Gallantly as he 20 began to bear himself among the women and girls, he still was timid and abashed in the presence of the chiefs and old men; for he had never yet killed a man, or stricken the dead body of an enemy in battle. I have no doubt that the handsome smooth-faced boy burned with a keen desire 25 to flesh his maiden scalping-knife, and I would not have encamped alone with him without watching his movements with a distrustful eye.
His elder brother, The Horse, was of a different charac- ter. He was nothing but a lazy dandy. He knew very 30 well how to hunt, but preferred to live by the hunting of others. He had no appetite for distinction, and The Hail- Storm, though a few years younger than he, already sur- passed him in reputation. He had a dark and ugly face, and lie passed a great part of his time in adorning it with 35 vermilion, and contemplating it by means of a little pocket looking-glass which I gave him. As for the rest of the day, he divided it between eating and sleeping, and sitting in the sun on the outside of a lodge. Here he would re- main for hour after hour, arrayed in all his finery, with an 40 old dragoon's sword in his hand, and evidently flattering himself that he was the center of attraction to the eyes of
227
A MOUNTAIN HUNT
the surrounding squaws. Yet he sat looking straight for- ward with a face of the utmost gravity, as if wrapped in profound meditation, and it was only by the occasional sidelong glances which he shot at his supposed admirers that one could detect the true course of his thoughts.
Both he and his brother may represent a class in the Indian community : neither should The Hail-Storm's friend, The Rabbit, be passed by without notice. The Hail-Storm and he were inseparable : they ate, slept, and hunted to- gether, and shared with one another almost all that they Io possessed. If there be anything that deserves to be called romantic in the Indian character, it is to be sought for in friendships such as this, which are quite common among many of the prairie tribes.
Slowly, hour after hour, that weary afternoon dragged 15 away. I lay in Reynal's lodge, overcome by the listless torpor that pervaded the whole encampment. The day's work was finished, or if it were not, the inhabitants had resolved not to finish it at all, and all were dozing quietly within the shelter of the lodges. A profound lethargy, the 20 very spirit of indolence, seemed to have sunk upon the village. Now and then I could hear the low laughter of some girl from within a neighboring lodge, or the small shrill voices of a few restless children, who alone were moving in the deserted area. The spirit of the place in- 25 fected me; I could not even think consecutively; I was fit only for musing and reverie, when at last, like the rest, I fell asleep.
When evening came and the fires were lighted round the lodges, a select family circle convened in the · neigh- 30 borhood of Reynal's domicile. It was composed entirely of his squaw's relatives, a mean and ignoble clan, among whom none but The Hail-Storm held forth any promise of future distinction. Even his prospects were rendered not a little dubious by the character of the family, less 35 however from any principle of aristocratic distinction than from the want of powerful supporters to assist him in his undertakings, and help to avenge his quarrels. Raymond and I sat down along with them. There were eight or ten men gathered around the fire, together with about as 40 many women, old and young, some of whom were toler-
5
228
THE OREGON TRAIL
ably good-looking. As the pipe passed round among the men, a lively conversation went forward, more merry than delicate, and at length two or three of the elder women (for the girls were somewhat diffident and bash- 5 ful) began to assail Raymond with various pungent wit- ticisms. Some of the men took part, and an old squaw concluded by bestowing on him a ludicrous nickname, at which a general laugh followed at his expense. Ray- mond grinned and giggled, and made several futile at- Knowing the impolicy and even dan- ger of suffering myself to be placed in a ludicrous light among the Indians, I maintained a · rigid inflexible coun- tenance, and wholly escaped their sallies.
Io tempts at repartee.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.