Hunting at High Altitudes 



by General E. S. Godfrey, and published in the Cen- 

 tury Magazine in the year 1892. It is understood 

 that General Godfrey has long been engaged in the 

 preparation of a book on this campaign, and when 

 published, this book is likely to give us all that we 

 shall ever know about the destruction of the old 

 Seventh Cavalry. 



3. Missouri River Steamboat and Freight Traffic. 

 Steamboat travel on the Missouri in those days was 

 slow, and sometimes difficult. The boats were of very 

 shoal draft and were propelled by a single paddle 

 wheel at the stern. When the water of the river was 

 low, the vessel was constantly running on newly de- 

 posited shoals and sand-bars, for the channel of the 

 river changed from hour to hour. For this reason, 

 at low stages of water, the boats usually tied up dur- 

 ing the night. 



Each vessel was rigged with two long spars or 

 poles, one at either side, just a little forward of amid- 

 ships. One end of each spar was shod with iron, 

 and through the other, or through a pulley attached 

 to it, ran a rope, one end of which was fastened to 

 the frame of the boat, while the other end was free. 

 If the vessel ran firmly on a sand-bar or could not 

 find a passage over a bar that seemed to block the 

 channel, the iron-shod ends of the spars were put 

 overboard and rested on the bottom the spars stand- 

 ing vertically the free end of the rope was put about 

 the drum of a donkey engine and the forward end of 

 the boat was thus literally lifted up, and by means 

 of the sternwheel propelled forward, until the bar 



244 



