68 
FOREST AND STREAM* 
saddles, and some powder and lead, which had been put 
in the cache with them. The Indians gave them two fat 
young horses for food, asking nothing in return, and the 
hospitality and generosity of these Indians made a great 
impression on the white men, who were now disposed to 
treat them with a great deal more courtesy and considera- 
tion than had been their custom. Captain Lewis at this 
meeting is quite enthusiastic about these Chopunnish In- 
dians, whom he describes as industrious, cleanly, and 
generous — a report quite different from that made on the 
way down the riv-r. . 
At the village ..here they camped May II, the Indians 
lived in a single house, one hundred and fifty feet long, 
built of sticks, straw and dried grass. It contained about 
twenty-four fires, about double that number of families, 
and might muster, perhaps, one hundred fighting men. 
The difficulty of talking to these Indians was great, for 
Captains Lewis and Clark were obliged to speak in Eng- 
lish to one of the men, who 'translated this in French 
to Chabonneau, who interpreted to his wife in Minne- 
tari, she told it in Shoshoni to a young Shoshoni prisoner, 
who finally explained it to the Nez Perces in their own 
tongue. After the council was over, the wonders of the 
compass, the spyglass, the magnet, the watch, and the 
air-gun were all shown to the Indians. Here they were 
obliged also to do a good deal of doctoring, and finally 
another council was held, at which it was agreed by the 
Indians to follow the advice of Captains Lewis and 
Clark. Presents were made by the Indians to the whites; 
and to each chief was given a flag, a pound of powder, 
and fifty balls; and the same to the young men who had 
presented horses to them. They also paid the man who 
had charge of their horses, in part, agreeing with him 
to give the balance so soon as the remainder of the horses 
were brought in. , 
On the 14th of May they crossed the river and made a 
camp, where they purposed to wait until the snow had 
melted in the mountains. The hunters killed two bears 
and some small game, much of which they gave to the 
Indians, to whom it was a great treat, since they seldom 
had a taste of flesh. Many patients continued to be 
brought to them whom they doctored, and with some 
success. 
Early in June they began to make preparations to cross 
the mountains, though the Indians told them it would be 
impossible to do this before about the first of July. They 
were now well provided with animals, each man having 
a good riding horse, with a second horse for a pack, and 
some loose horses to be used in case of accident, or for 
food. The salmon had not yet come up the river, ihey 
started on the 15th of June in a rain, and on the way 
found three deer, which their hunters had killed, ihey 
soon began to climb the mountains, and before long found 
themselves traveling over hard snow, which bore up their 
horses well, but it was evident that the journey would be 
too long to make, since for several days travel there 
would be no food for the animals. So they were obliged 
to turn back and wait for the warmer weather. 
Two men who had been sent back to the Indian village 
to hurry up the Indians who had promised to cross the 
mountains with them, and make peace with the Indians on 
the Upper Missouri, returned with three Indians, who 
agreed to go with the party to the falls of the Missouri 
in consideration of receiving two guns. They pushed 
along over the mountains, usually keeping on the divide, 
to head all streams and not cross any running water. 
The country was completely covered with snow. Un the 
26th of June they camped high up on the mountains, 
where there was good food for the horses. The traveling 
was pleasant, the snow hard. Their provisions had now 
about given out, however, except that they still had some 
roots; but now and then a deer was killed, which kept 
them from absolute starvation. : . 
Bv July 1 they had reached a country where .game was 
quite abundant, deer, elk and big-horr^being plerity in the 
neighborhood. It was determined to divide ; the party, 
anS to cover more country on the return than they had 
when coming out. Captain Lewis, with nine; men was to 
go to the Falls of the Missouri, leave three- nien -there to 
prepare carts for transporting baggage and canoes^ across 
lie portage, and with the remaining six to ascend Maria s 
SI -and explore the country there. The remainder of 
the .party were to go to the head of the Jfferson 1 River 
wherTnihe men under Sergeant Ordway should descend 
it with . the canoes. Captain Clark's party was to go to the 
Yellowstone, there build canoes, and go down that river 
wKh leven men; whle Sergeant Pryor with two others 
should take the horses overland to the Mandans; and 
thence go north to the British posts on the Assmaboine, 
and induce Mr. Henry to persuade some of the Sioux 
chiefs to go with him to Washington. This plan was 
Ca Captain Jt Lewis's party kept on their way until they 
reached Dearborn River; but before they got to it they 
saw signs of buffalo, and even had glimpses of tne game 
They were now in a good game country, and made rapid 
brogress, and before' long found themselves at their old 
■*ta&nj White Bear Island. During the flood of the river 
the water bad entered their cache and spoiled much ot 
•their property. They had much trouble here with lost 
horses, and one of their men, riding suddenly upon a 
bear his horse wheeled and threw him, and the bear 
drove him up into a tree, where he was kept all day. _ 
: Captain Lewis now started to explore the Manas 
River : and, 'pushing, his way up it, almost reached the 
foot of the Rocky' Mountains. Here they met a band of 
Indians. Who stated that they were Gros Ventres of the 
prairie, or, as Lewis and Clark put it, Minnetan of Fort 
§e Prairie ; and who r after some hesitation, appeared to 
be friendly enough, ahd f smoked with Captain Lewis. 
They expressed themselves as willing to be at peace with 
the Indians across the mountains, but said that those In- 
dians had lately killed a number of their relations How- 
even white nien and Indians came together, but Captain 
Lewis kept a very close watch, fearing that the Indians 
would steal his horses. This did not happen, but on the 
following day, July 27, the Indians seized the rifles of 
four of the party. A? -soon as Fields and his brother saw 
the Indian running off with their two rifles they pursued 
him, and overtaking Aim, stabbed him through the heart 
with a knife. The other guns were recovered without 
killing any of the Indians; but as they were trying to 
drive off the horses, Captain Lewis ordered the men to 
follow up the main party, who were driving the horses, 
a»4 shoot them. He himself ran after two other Indians, 
who were driving away another bunch of horses, and so 
nearly overtook them that they left twelve of their own 
animals, but continued to drive off one belonging to the 
white men. Captain Lewis had now run as far as he 
could, and calling to the Indians several times that unless 
they gave up the horse he would shoot, he finally did so, 
and killed an Indian. The other men now began to come 
up, having recovered a considerable number of the 
horses; they had lost one of their own horses and cap- 
tured four belonging to the Indians. They now retreated 
down the river with the horses that they had, but took 
nothing from ihe Indians' camp. 
These Indians were probably not Gros Ventres, as 
stated in the Lewis and Clark journal. Precisely the 
same story was told me fifteen or twenty years ago by 
the oldest Indian in the Blackfoot camp, as having hap- 
pened on Birch Creek, a branch of the Maria's. The In- 
dian killed by Fields was. named Side Hill Calf, and the 
aged man who related the story said that he was a boy 
with the Indian war party. 
Captain Lewis, believing that they would be promptly 
pursued by a much larger party of Indians and attacked, 
at once began a retreat. The Indian horses' which had 
been captured proved good ones, the plains were level, 
and they rode hard for more than eighty miles, only stop- 
ping twice to kill a buffalo and to rest their horses. They 
stopped at two o'clock in the morning, and at daylight 
started on again, and at last when they reached the Mis- 
souri they heard the report of a gun, and then others, 
and before long had the satisfaction of seeing their 
friends going down the river. They landed, and Captain 
Lewis's party, after turning loose the horses, embarked, 
with the baggage, and kept on down the stream. Before 
long they met Sergeants Gass and Willard, who were 
bringing down horses from the falls, and now the whole 
party had come together, except Captain Clark's outfit, 
which had gone down the Yellowstone. 
The journey down the Missouri was quickly made, and 
at the mouth of the Yellowstone a note was found from 
Captain Clark, who had gone on before them. Not far 
below this Captain Lewis, while hunting elk on a willow 
grove sandbar, was shot in the thigh by his companion, 
Cruzatte, who apparently mistook him for an elk, he be- 
ing clad in buckskin. At first Captain Lewis thought that 
they had been attacked by Indians, but no signs of In- 
dians being found, the conclusion that Cruzatte had shot 
him, apparently by mistake, seemed inevitable. On 
August 12 they met Captain Clark's party, whose adven- 
tures had been much less startling than theirs. His party 
had started up Wisdom River, on the west side of the 
mountains, and crossing over to the head of the Jefferson, 
had passed through a beautiful country-Hthe Beaverhead 
— very lovely in its surroundings, with fertile soil, and 
abounding in game. 
Most of the party had gone down the river in canoes, 
but a few men had been left on the land to drive down 
the horses. A part of these, under Sergeant Ordway, 
kept on down the river, while at the mouth of the Madi- 
son, Captain Clark, with ten men and the wife and child 
of Chabonneau, taking the fifty horses, crossed over to 
go to the Yellowstone and descend it. When they reached 
the Yellowstone, they followed it down for some little 
time, through a country abounding in buffalo, deer and 
elk. Very likely they would have gone on further but 
for an accident to one of the men, who was so badly hurt 
that he could not sit on his horse. Small timber being 
found, canoes were constructed, which were lashed to- 
gether and loaded preparatory to setting out. While all 
this was being done, twenty- four of their horses disap- 
peared, and a little search showed a piece of rope and a 
moccasin, which made it clear that the horses had been 
run off by the Indians. Sergeant Pryor, with two men, 
was ordered to take the remaining horses down the river 
to the mouth of the Bighorn, where they should be 
crossed, and from here he was to take them to the Man- 
dans. The canoes which went on down the river passed 
various streams, and at one point came upon what ap- 
peared to have been a medicine lodge of the Blackfeet. 
At a stream to which they gave the name of Horse Creek, 
they found Pryor with his animals. He had had much 
trouble in driving the horses, since, as many of them had 
been used by the Indians in hunting buffalo, whenever 
they saw a bunch of buffalo they would set off in pursuit 
and surround them. To prevent this, Sergeant Pryor 
was obliged to send one man ahead of the horse herd to 
drive away the buffalo. 
From the top of Pompey's Pillar Captain Clark had a 
wide and beautiful prospect over the country, dotted 
everywhere by herds of buffalo, elk, and wolves. Big- 
horn were abundant here and further down the stream, 
and the noise of the buffalo — for this was now the rutting 
season — was continuous. The large herds of elk were so 
gentle that they might be approached within twenty paces 
without being alarmed. The abundance of buffalo was 
so great that the travelers were in great fear, either that 
they would come into their camp at night and destroy 
their boats by trampling on them, or that the herds, 
which were constanly crossing the river, would upset the 
boats. Bears, also, were very abundant, and quite as 
fierce as they had been on the Missouri. Captain Clark 
killed one, the largest female that they had seen, and so 
old that the canine teeth had been worn quite smooth. 
Mosquitoes here were terribly abundant ; several times, it 
is said, they lighted on the rifle barrels in such numbers 
that it was impossible to take sight. 
On August 8 they were joined by Sergeant Pryor and 
his men, who had no horses ; every one of them had been 
taken off the second day after they left the party by 
Indians. They followed them for a short distance, but 
without overtaking them; and finally coming back to the 
river, built two rowboats, in which they came down the 
stream with the utmost safety and comfort. On the nth 
of August they met two trappers, who had left Illinois in 
the summer of 1804, and had spent the following winter 
with the Tetons, where they had robbed and swindled a 
French trader out of all his goods. They told Captain 
Clark that the Mandans and Minnetaries were at war 
with the Arikaras, and had killed two of them ; and also 
that the Assinaboines were at war with the Mandans, 
news which could not have been very pleasing to the ex- 
plorers, whose efforts on their way up the river had been 
so strong for peace. 
The party having come together on August 12, they 
kept on down the river, and two days later reached the 
village of the Mandans. Here they had protracted coun- 
cils with the Mandans and Minnetaries, and tried hard to 
persuade some of them to go on with them to Washing- 
ton. Colter applied to the commanding officers for per- 
mission to join the two trappers who had come down the 
river to this point, and he was accordingly discharged, 
supplied with powder and lead, and a number of other ar- 
ticles which might be useful to him. The next day he 
started back up the river. What Colter's subsequent ad- 
ventures were is well known to anyone who has followed 
the course of early exploration in the West. Colter's 
Hell, if we recollect right, was perhaps the first name 
ever applied to the geyser basins of the Yellowstone 
Park. 
Though the Mandans and Minnetaries were friendly and 
hospitable as possible, and gave them great stores of corn, 
none of the principal men would consent to go to Wash- 
ington. They promised, however, to be more attentive to 
the requests of the white men, to keep peace with their 
neighbors, and were greatly pleased and proud of the gift 
to the chief of the Minnetaries, Le Borgne, of the swivel, 
for which Captain Clark no longer had any use, as it 
could not be discharged from the canoes on which they 
were traveling. Here, too, they discharged their interpre- 
ter, Chabonneau, who wished to remain with his. wife and 
child. One of the chiefs, Big White, consented, with his 
wife and child, to accompany the white men. Before the 
expedition finally left the village there was a last talk 
with the Indians, who sent word to the Arikaras by Cap- 
tain Clark, inviting them to come up and meet them ; that 
they really desired peace with the Arikaras. but that they 
could place no dependence on anything that the Sioux 
might say. 
Keeping on down the river, they found game plenty, 
and the mosquitoes troublesome. At the Arikara village 
they were well received, and found there a camp of 
Cheyennes, also friendly. The Rees expressed willingness 
to follow the advice that Captain Clark had given them, 
but made many excuses for the failure to follow their 
counsels of the year before. The Cheyenne chief invited 
the white men to his lodge, and Captain Clark presented 
a medal to the chief, to that' individual's great alarm, for 
he feared that it was medicine, and might in some way 
harm him. The Cheyennes are described as friendly and 
well-disposed, though shy. The trip down the river was 
unmarked by adventure. Enormous quantities of buffalo 
were seen, and on the 30th of August they came upon a 
party of Teton Sioux,, under a chief called Black Bull. 
Other Sioux were seen, and on September 3 they came to 
the trading post of a Mr. James Airs, who presented each 
of the party with as much tobacco as he could use for the 
rest of the voyage, and also gave them a barrel of flour. 
Below the mouth of the Big Sioux River they passed 
Floyd's grave, which they found had been opened. Two 
days later they passed the trading post.»of one of the 
Choteau, and a little later the Platte; and at last, on 
September 20, reached the little village of La Charette. 
On September 23 they reached - St. Louis, and went on 
shore, where they received "a most hearty and hospitable 
welcome from the whole village." 
George Bird Grinnell. 
Concerning Taking: Vacations. 
Wymore, Nebraska, July 14.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: After reading some of the communications in 
Forest and Stream lately on the subject of "Vacations," 
I am pleasantly reminded of a little story I once heard, 
which ran about as follows : 
In a small western city there once lived a man by the 
name of Jones, called by his acquaintances "Old Jones," 
who was very wealthy. The amount of his wealth could 
only be surmised, as he kept his business entirely to 
himself. 
In the course of time he died, and speculation was rife 
as to the amount of property he left. 
Then another citizen by the name of Smith said he 
could find out how much property old Jones had left, be- 
cause Judge Brown was a friend of his, and the Judge 
had written old Jones' will. So Smith called upon Judge 
Brown, and after some preliminaries, he said: "By the 
way, Judge, you wrote old Jones' will, did you not?" 
Judge Brown then said, "Yes, sir, I wrote the will." 
Then Smith said: "Well, Judge, how much did the old 
man leave?" 
And the Judge said, "Oh, he left all he had." 
A. D. McCandless. 
The Frog's Provender. 
Ossining, N. Y, July 16.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
In your issue of July 16, I notice articles on the food 
of frogs and suspended animation in fishes, both of which 
I can corroborate. Among, other articles of diet I have 
found inside large frogs numerous crawfish, a few small 
turtles, not quite as large as a silver half dollar, a fish 
(probably a chub) nearly as long as the body of the frog 
that had swallowed it, and a sandpiper. 
One summer while occupying. a cottage on Rainbow 
Lake in the Adirondacks, I became personally acquainted 
with two batrachians. The acquaintance was formed 
through the medium of a slender white float which I had 
whittled out of a pine stick. While fishing at the boat 
landing for sunfish the float was kept constantly in 
motion by the fish nibbling at the bait. Soon I noticed a 
frog approaching the float by swimming under water, ris- 
ing to the surface to take observations, and again, ad- 
vancing. When within about a foot of the float, he 
sprang, seized it, and endeavored to swim away with it. 
This was repeated two or three times, until froggie be- 
came disgusted, when he dived and disappeared. Next 
day he repeated his visit, and by drawing the float in I 
lured him to within four or five feet of the landing. T 
then immersed my hand in the water, leaving the ends of 
the fingers about half an inch above the surface, and wav- 
ing them quickly about. After a few seconds he made a 
spring, seized my thumb, and shook it viciously. After 
trying this a few times, he allowed me to place my hand 
under him and raise him a few inches above the surface, 
where he would sit contentedly. Next day another frog 
