428 Expedition to the 



it when placed upon the pack-horses, during our march by 

 day. 



We had each two small blankets, which were carried upon 

 Our horses, one being placed under the saddle, and the other 

 upon it. These, with the addition, in some instances, of a 

 great coat, or a blanket-capot, and a valise or a pair of hol- 

 sters, to supply the place of a pillow, were our only articles 

 of bedding. 



On the morning of the 7th a new disposition was made, 

 in relation to the pack-horses, a man being appointed to 

 attend particularly to each. We breakfasted, and recom- 

 menced our journey at an early hour, and moving forward 

 at an easy pace, arrived about ten o'clock at the Elk-horn, a 

 considerable river., tributary to the Platte. On the preced- 

 ing evening, we had been joined at our camp by a party of 

 three or four Frenchmen, on their way to a hunting camp of 

 the Omawhaws to trade. We purchased of them two small 

 brass kettles, to complete our supply of camp furniture. One 

 of these men had been of Pratte and Vasquez's party, at the 

 time of the late attack, and had received, in that affair, a 

 wound in the back from a rifle ball, which was yet unhealed. 

 In the morning they accompanied us to the Elk-horn, where 

 the wounded Frenchman was one of the first to strip and 

 plunge into the river. Surprising accounts are given of the 

 hardihood, and patience under suffering, manifested by the 

 Indians ; but we have rarely seen one of them exhibit a 

 more striking instance of insensibility to pain, than this 

 Frenchman. 



The Elk-horn, called Wa-ta-tung-ya by the Otoes, is, where 

 we crossed it, about thirty yards wide, and during a great part 

 of the year, too deep and rapid to admit of being forded. At this 

 time our horses were barely able to keep their feet, in cross- 

 ing the deepest part of the channel. Our heavy baggage was 

 ferried across in a portable canoe, consisting of a single bison 

 hide, which we carried constantly with us. Its construction is 



