14 THE MISSOURIUM. 
generally these traditions are founded! on events which have 
actually transpired, and according to their importance in rela- 
tion to the welfare of the aborigines among whom they oe- 
curred, and in absence of any better method of perpetuating 
them, are transmitted with great care in their legends from 
generation to generation; but in the course of time, as might 
reasonably be expected, these traditions lose much in correct- 
ness and minuteness of detail, owing to the circumstances, more 
or less, in which the tribes have been placed. As I am con- 
strained to confine my remarks within very circumscribed limits, 
I will only relate one of the traditions having reference to the 
existence of the before described animal; this one, however, led 
principally to its discovery. 
At the time when the first white settlers emigrated to the 
Osage country, (as this section of territory is usually called,) it 
was inhabited by the Osage Indians, and the river by which it 
is watered was called the Big Bone river, owing to a tradition 
preserved by them, which they stated as follows: 
There was a time when the Indians paddled their canoes 
over the now extensive prairies of Missouri, and encamped or 
hunted on the bluffs. (These bluffs vary from 50 to 400 feet 
in perpendicular height.) That at a certain period many large 
and monstrous animals came from the eastward, along and up 
the Mississippi and Missouri rivers; upon which the animals 
that had previously occupied the country became very angry, 
and at last so enraged and infuriated, by reason of these intru- 
sions, that the red man durst not venture out to hunt any more, 
and was consequently reduced to great distress. At this 
time a large number of these huge monsters assembled here, 
when a terrible battle ensued, in which many on both sides 
were killed, and the remainder resumed their march towards 
the setting sun. Near the bluffs, which are at present known 
by the name of the Rocky Ridge, one of the greatest of these 
battles was fought. Immediately after the battle, the Indians 
gathered together many of the slaughtered animals, and offered 
them on the spot as a burnt sacrifice to the Great Spirit: the 
remainder were buried by the Great Spirit himself in the before 
mentioned Pomme de Terre, which from this time took the 
