Rocky Mountains. 347 



rattle snakes had been killed by the soldier in pitching it. 

 On the following day we descended the creek. 



18th. The creek was rapidly subsiding, so that a bridge 

 constructed by the Omawhaws, which we had passed almost 

 unobserved, was now two feet above the surface of the water^ 

 and rendered it necessary to unload the boat in order to drag 

 her over. This structure is very simple ; a double series of 

 stout forked pieces of wood are driven into the bottom of the 

 creek, upon these, poles are laid transversely, crossed by 

 numerous smaller pieces, which form a support for dried 

 grass, covered by a proper quantity of earth. What necessity 

 gave rise to the building of this bridge we know not, and 

 we are inclined to believe that bridge building, is a rare effort 

 in our aboriginal architecture. 



On the 20th Major O l Fallon set out on a visit to the Paw- 

 nee villages, accompanied by Captain Riley, Adjutant Pent- 

 land, Lieutenants Talcott and Graham, Mr. Dougherty and 

 myself, together with a guard of twenty-seven men, and with 

 seventeen pack and riding horses. In recording the events 

 of this journey it would be superfluous to note the appear- 

 ance of the country over which we passed, or to describe the 

 magnitude and direction of the water courses that intersect 

 the route, as this will be detailed in another part of the work ; 

 our attention in the few following pages, will be more par- 

 ticularly directed to our transactions and interviews with the 

 natives. In the course of the two following days we met with 

 several Oto and Omawhaw Indians, who were occupied with 

 hunting and trapping. On the 23d we halted a short time 

 with a party of the latter nation, headed by a man of much 

 note, known to the traders by the name of the Volew\ the 

 relics of whose former village, we had previously observed 

 on Shell creek. Near this stream of water we examined a 

 great excavation in the brow of a bluff, to which the name 

 of Pawnee Medicine has been applied, in consequence of its 

 being an object of superstitious reverence to the people of 



