488 AUDUBON 



we saw three more Indians, also with a canoe frame, but 

 we only interchanged the common yells usual on such 

 occasions. They looked as destitute and as hungry as if 

 they had not eaten for a week, and no doubt would have 

 given much for a bottle of whiskey. At our last landing 

 for wood-cutting, we also went on shore, but shot noth- 

 ing, not even took aim at a bird ; and there was an In- 

 dian with a flint-lock rifle, who came on board and stared 

 about until we left, when he went off with a little tobacco. 

 I pity these poor beings from my heart ! This evening we 

 came to the burial-ground bluff of Sergeant Floyd, ^ one 

 of the companions of the never-to-be-forgotten expedition 

 of Lewis and Clark, over the Rocky Mountains, to the 

 Pacific Ocean. A few minutes afterwards, before com- 

 ing to Floyd's Creek, we started several Turkey-cocks 



1 " Aug. 20th, 1804. Here we had the misfortune to lose one of our ser- 

 geants, Charles Floyd. . . . He was buried on the top of the bluff with the 

 honors due to a brave soldier; the place of his interment was marked by a 

 cedar post, on which his name and the day of his death were inscribed." 

 (" Expedition of Lewis and Clark," by Elliott Coues, p. 79.) 



" On the following day [May 8, 1833] we came to Floyd's grave, where 

 the sergeant of that name was buried by Lewis and Clark. The bank on 

 either side is low. The left is covered with poplars ; on the right, behind 

 the wood, rises a hill like the roof of a building, at the top of which 

 Floyd is buried. A short stick marks the place where he is laid, and has 

 often been renewed by travellers, when the fires in the prairie have 

 destroyed it. (" Travels in North America," p. 134, Maximilian, Prince of 

 Wied.) — M. R. A. 



Floyd's grave became a landmark for many years, and is noticed by most 

 of the travellers who have written of voyaging on the Missouri. In 1857 

 the river washed away the face of the bluff to such an extent that the 

 remains were exposed. These were gathered and reburied about 200 yards 

 further back on the same bluff. This new grave became obliterated in the 

 course of time, but in 1895 it was rediscovered after careful search. The 

 bones were exhumed by a committee of citizens of Sioux City ; and on 

 Aug. 20 ofthat year, the 91st anniversary of Floyd's death, were reburied in 

 the same spot with imposing ceremonies, attended by a concourse of several 

 hundred persons. A large flat stone slab, with suitable inscription, now 

 marks the spot, and the Floyd Memorial Association, which was formed at 

 the time of the third burial, proposes to erect a monument to Floyd in a 

 park to- be established on the bluff. — E. C. 



