Notes on Memories of a Bear Hunter 



was passed. If the bar was too wide, the boat was 

 let down again to rest on the bottom, the spars were 

 moved forward a few feet, the bow was lifted up 

 again, and the pushing by the sternwheel renewed. 

 In that way the steamboat used to frequently "walk" 

 over the sand-bars. Sometimes it was necessary to 

 land men and carry forward a line to some point on 

 the bank where it could be attached to a tree or to a 

 post set in the ground called a dead man. This line 

 was then put about the drum of the engine, which 

 pulled on the line, while the clumsy wheel pushed be- 

 hind. This operation, in a sense, resembled the old- 

 fashioned cordelling, where a number of men marched 

 along the river bank hauling the boat up against the 

 current by a long line. The donkey engine, which 

 was so much in use during these periods of low water, 

 was called the "nigger." 



The earlier freight traffic up the Missouri River 

 was by means of keel boats. The boatsmen made 

 their way up the stream in such fashion as was most 

 convenient, rowing, poling or cordelling, as the case 

 might be, from starting point to finish. Year by year 

 the steamboats extended their journeys from St. Louis 

 further and further up the great river, and as the 

 journeys of the steamboats lengthened, those of the 

 keel boats grew shorter, though the mackinaws were 

 long used in sending furs down stream with the 

 current. General Chittenden says: 



"In the year 1831 the first serious attempt was made 

 to navigate with steamboats the Upper Missouri River. 

 The steamer Yellowstone in the summer of that year 

 reached Pierre, the site of the present capital of South 



245 



