126 PICTOGRAPHS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 



In addition to this fact, Dr. Washington Matthews, assistant surgeon 

 United States Army, communicates the statement that the Indians had 

 numberless other opportunities all over their country of receiviug the 

 same information. He was at Fort Eice during the eclipse and remem- 

 bers that long before the eclipse occurred the officers, men, and citi- 

 zens .around the post told the Indians of the coming event and discussed 

 it with tliem so much that they were on the tip-toe of expectancy 

 when the day came. Two-Bears and his baud were then encamped at 

 Fort Eice, and he and several of his leading men watched the eclipse 

 along with the whites and through their smoked glass, and then and 

 there the phenomenon was thoroughly explained to them over and over 

 again. There is no doubt that similar explanations were made at all 

 the numerous posts and agencies along the river that day. The path of 

 the eclipse coincided nearly with the course of the Missouri for over a 

 thousand miles. The duration of totality at Fort Eice was nearly two 

 minutes (l m 48*.) 



No. III. Dakotas witnessed eclipse of the sun; frightened terribly. 



It is remarkable that the Corbusier Winter Counts do not mention 

 this eclipse. 



1870-'71. — No. I. The-Flame's son killed by Eees. The recorder, The- 

 Flamc, evidently considered his family misfortune to be of more im- 

 portance than the battle referred to by the other recorders. 



No. II. The Uncpapas had a battle with the Crows, the former losing, 

 it is said, 14 and killing 29 out of 30 of the latter, though nothing ap- 

 pears to show those numbers. The central object in the symbol is not 

 a circle denoting multitude, but an irregularly rounded object, clearly 

 intended for one of the wooden inclosures or forts frequently erected 

 by the Indians, and especially the Crows. The Crow fort is shown as 

 nearly surrounded, and bullets, not arrows or lances, are flying. This 

 is the first instance in which any combat or killing is portrayed wheie 

 guns explicitly appear to be used by Indians, though nothing in the 

 chart is at variance with the fact that the Dakotas had for a number 

 of years beeu familiar with fire arms. The most recent indications 

 of any weapon were those of the arrows piercing the Crow squaw in 

 1857-'5S and Brave-Bear in 1854-55, while the last one before them was 

 the lance used in 1848-'49, and those arms might well have been em- 

 ployed in all the cases selected for the calendar, although rifles and 

 muskets were common. There is also an obvious practical difficulty in 

 picturing by a single character killing with a bullet, not arising as to 

 arrows, lances, dirks, and hatchets, all of which can be and are in the 

 chart shown projecting from the wounds made by them. Pictdgraphs 

 in the possession of the Bureau of Ethnology show battles in which 

 bullets are denoted by continuous dotted lines, the spots at which they 

 take effect being sometimes indicated. It is, however, to be noted that 

 the bloody wound on the Eee's shoulder (180G-'07) is without any pro- 

 truding weapon, as if made by a bullet. 



