466 
FOREST, A ND STREAM/ 
[Dec. 3, 1904. 
accumulate more rapidly upon us. A couple of persons 
had a few days before been chased to the wagons by 
a band of — buffalo; and this evening the encampment 
was barely formed when two hunters came bolting in 
with information that a hundred, perhaps of the same 
'enemy' were at hand — at least this was the current 
opinion afterward. The hubbub occasioned by this fear- 
ful news had scarcely subsided, when another arrived 
on a panting horse, crying out 'Indians! Indians! I've 
just escaped from a couple, who pursued me to the 
very camp!' 'To arms! to arms!' resounded from every 
quarter— and just then a wolf, attracted by the fumes 
of broiling buffalo bones, sent up a most hideous howl 
across the creek. 'Some one in distress!' was in- 
stantly shouted: 'To his relief!' vociferated the crowd; 
and off they bolted, one and all, arms in hand, hurly- 
burly, leaving the camp entirely unprotected, so that 
had an enemy been at hand indeed, and approached us 
from the opposite direction, they might easily have 
taken possession of the wagons. Before they had re- 
turned, however, a couple of hunters came in and 
laughed very heartily at the expense of the first alarmist, 
whom they had just chased into the camp." 
While baseless Indian scares were common, they 
sometimes had genuine frights, as in the case of a large 
body of Indians met on the Cimarron River. On this 
occasion, "It was a genuine alarm — a tangible reality. 
These warriors, however, as we soon discovered, were 
only the vanguard of a 'countless host,' who were by 
this time pouring over the opposite ridge, and gallop- 
ing directly toward us. 
"The wagons were soon irregularly 'formed' upon the 
hillside: but in accordance with the habitual careless- 
ness of caravan traders, a great portion of the men were 
unprepared for the emergency. Scores of guns were 
'empty,' and as many more had been wetted by the re- 
cent showers, and would not 'go off.' Here was one 
calling for balls; another for powder; a third for flints. 
Exclamations, such as, 'I've broke my ramrod!'— 'I've 
spilt my caps!'— 'I've rammed down a ball without 
powder!''— 'My gun is 'choked; give me yours!'— were 
heard from different quarters; while a timorous 'green- 
horn' would perhaps cry out: 'Here, take my gun, you 
can outshoot me!' The more daring bolted off to en- 
counter the enemy at once, while the timid and cautious 
took a stand with presented rifle behind the wagons. 
The Indians, who were in advance, made a bold at- 
tempt to press upon us, which came near costing them 
dearly, for some of our fiery backwoodsmen more than 
once had their rusty, but unerring, rifles directed upon 
the intruders, some of whom would inevitably have 
fallen before their deadly aim, had not some of the 
more prudent traders interposed. The Indians made 
demonstrations no less hostile, rushing, with ready 
sprung bows, upon a portion ©f our men who had gone 
in search of water, and mischief would, perhaps, have 
ensued, had not the impetuosity of_ the warriors been 
checked by the wise men of the nation. 
"The Indians were collecting around us, however, 
in such great numbers, that it was deemed expedient 
to force them away, so as to resume our march, or at 
least to take a more advantageous position. Our com- 
pany was therefore mustered and drawn up in 'line of 
battle;' and, accompanied by the sound of a drum and 
fife, we marched toward the main group of the Indians. 
The latter seemed far more delighted than frightened 
with this strange parade and music, a spectacle they 
had, no doubt, never witnessed before, and perhaps 
looked upon the whole movement rather as a compli- 
mentary salute than a hostile array, for there was no 
interpreter through whom any communication could 
be conveyed to them. But, whatever may have been 
their impressions, one thing is certain— that the princi- 
pal chief (who was dressed in a long red coat of stroud- 
ing, or coarse cloth) appeared to have full confidence 
in the virtues of his calumet, which he lighted, and 
came boldly forward to meet our war-like corps, serenely 
smoking the 'pipe of peace.' Our captain, now taking 
a whiff with the savage chief, directed him by signs to 
cause his warriors to retire. This most of them did, 
to rejoin the long train of squaws and papooses with 
the baggage, who followed in the rear, and were just 
then seen emerging from beyond the hills," 
It was estimated that there were not less than two 
or three thousand of these Indians, who were supposed 
to be Blackfeet and Gros Ventres. They remained for 
some days in the neighborhood of the train, and kept 
the traders on tenterhooks of anxiety, lest there should 
be an attack, or a wholesale driving off of cattle. Later 
there were talks — or at least friendly meeting— and giv- 
ing of presents; and finally, the Indians moved away 
without doing any harm. It was but a day or two 
later, however, when some Comanches had a skirmish 
with the train, but without evil results to either party. 
It was not long after this that the train, still journey- 
ing westward, saw evidence of their approach to the 
Spanish settlements. On the 5th of July, as they were 
proceeding after a celebration of the day before, they 
met a Mexican cibolero, or buffalo hunter, one of those 
hardy wanderers of the plains, who used to venture out 
from the Spanish settlements to secure dried buffalo 
meat, killing buffalo, and trading with the Indians. 
These wanderers made long journeys, which often ex- 
tended as far as the country claimed and occupied 
by Crows, Cheyennes and Pawnees. Perfectly accus- 
tomed to the life of the plains, armed with gun and 
lance, and bow and arrows, they were not less free than 
the aboriginal inhabitants, whose methods in many ways 
they imitated, and whose blood many of them shared. 
Like the Indians, these buffalo hunters killed their game 
chiefly with the arrow and the lance, and drying its 
flesh, packed it on their mules, or in their ox-carts, and 
carried it back to the settlements to trade. 
It was not very long after, that Gregg, leaving the 
train and pushing ahead with others, found himself in 
the city of Santa Fe. He was much impressed by the 
new country, inhabited by a race as different as possible 
from those whom he had left in his eastern home. He 
was a close observer and records interestingly much of 
what he saw. 
He was also far-seeing enough to make true pre- 
dictions as to one of the chief industries of the south- 
west: 
"By far the most important indigenous product of 
the soil of New Mexico is its pasturage. Most of 
the high table-plains afford the finest grazing in the 
world, while, for the want of water, they are utterly 
useless for most other purposes. That scanty moisture 
which suffices to bring forth the natural vegetation is 
insufficient for agricultural productions, without the aid 
of irrigation. The high prairies of all Northern Mex- 
ico differ greatly from those of our border in the gen- 
eral character of their vegetation. They are remark- 
ably destitute of the gay flowering plants for which 
the former are so celebrated, being mostly clothed with 
different species of a highly nutritious grass called 
grama, which is of a very short and curly quality. The 
highlands, upon which alone this sort of grass is pro • 
duced, being seldom verdant till after the rainy season 
sets in, the grama is only in perfection from August to 
October. But being rarely nipt by the frost until the 
rains are over, it cures upon the ground and remains 
excellent hay — equal, if not superior, to that which 
is cut and stacked from our western prairies. Although 
the winters are rigorous, the feeding of stock is almost 
entirely unknown in New Mexico; nevertheless, the 
extensive herds of the country, not only of cattle and 
sheep, but of mules and horses, generally maintain them- 
selves in excellent condition upon the dry pasturage 
alone through the cold season, and until the rains start 
up the green grass again the following summer." 
The mines, the domestic animals and their care, 
horses, mules, the art of packing, the matter of brand- 
ing and venting brands, the raising of sheep, goats and 
fowls, are all treated with considerable detail, and the 
wild creatures of the country, down to the very flies. 
Accounts of the Spanish inhabitants of the country — 
glowing with their local color — and of the Indians are 
given; and some space is devoted to a description of 
the Pueblo Indians — one of the first descriptions of 
these peculiar people, who have since been so fully 
studied. 
The wild tribes are described, especially the Navajoes, 
Apaches, Yutas, Caiguas, or Kiawas. Much is said of 
the raids of the Apaches and the terror in which they 
kept the inhabitants of the towns, as well as the Mex- 
ican troops stationed there to protect these inhabitants. 
The savage butchery of a lot of Apaches by a troop of 
men, under an American leader, may perhaps be the 
incident which has given rise to many similar tales 
concerning the similar slaughters of the olden times. 
It seens there was a celebrated Apache chief, called 
Juan Jose, whose cunning and audacity had caused him 
to be feared throughout the whole country. The gov- 
ernment of Sonora had announced that all booty taken 
from the savages under his command, should be the 
property of those who took it. "Accordingly, in the 
spring of 1837,^ a party of some twenty men, composed 
chiefly of foreigners, spurred on by the. love of gain, 
and never doubting but the Indians, after so many years 
of successful robberies, must be possessed of a vast 
amount of property, set out with an American as their 
commander, who had long resided in the country. In 
a few days they reached a rancheria of about fifty war- 
riors with their families, among whom was the famous 
Juan Jose himself, and three other principal chiefs. On 
seeing the Americans advance, the former at once gave 
them to understand that, if they had come to fight, 
they were ready to accommodate them; but, on being 
assured by the leader that they were merely bent on 
a trading expedition, a friendly interview was im- 
mediately established between the parties. The Ameri- 
can" captain having determined to put these obnoxious 
chiefs to death under any circumstances, soon caused 
a little field-piece, which had been concealed from the 
Indians to be loaded with chain and canister shot, and 
to be held in readiness for use. The warriors were then 
invited to the camp to receive a present of flour, which 
was placed within range of the cannon. While they 
were occupied in dividing the contents of the bag, they 
were fired upon, and a considerable number of their 
party killed on the spot! The remainder were then 
attacked with small arms, and about twenty slain, in- 
cluding Juan Jose and the other chiefs. Those who 
escaped became afterward their own avengers in a man- 
ner which proved terribly disastrous to another party 
of Americans, who happened at the time to be trapping 
on Rio Gila, not far distant. The enraged savages re- 
solved to take summary vengence upon these unfortun- 
ate trappers, and falling upon them, massacred them 
every one." 
It is added that, "The Apaches, previous to this date, 
had committed but few depredations upon foreigners 
(i. e. Americans), restrained either by fear or respect. 
Small parties of the latter were permitted to pass the 
higkways of the wilderness unmolested, while large 
caravans of Mexicans suffered frequent attacks." 
It is generally known that the Indians of the plains 
regarded the Mexicans as a different people from the 
dwellers of the United States, and there was even a 
time when a distinction was made between the inhabi- 
tants of the United States and those of the Republic 
of Texas. 
The bounty on scalps, adopted by the Mexican gov- 
ernment in 1837, was one of the many schemes devised 
by the people of the borderland to check the ravages 
of the Indians. By this Proyecto de Guerra a series of 
bounties were paid for scalps, running from one hun- 
dred dollars for the scalp of a full-grOwn man, down 
'to fifty for that of a squaw, and twenty-five for that of 
a little child. For a brief time this bounty was paid, 
and Gregg himself saw a scalp brought in on a. pole 
by a Mexican officer in command of troops, precisely 
as the Indians, returning from the war-path, used to 
bring their scalps into their home village. 
In 1838, Gregg returned across the plains, meeting 
a few adventures, among which the mosrt important was 
an attack on the train by Indians, who were supposed 
to be Pawnees. The effort was merely to steal their 
horses, which, happily, they saved. 
George Bird Grinnell. 
[to be concluded.] 
The* Importation of Camels, 
From the Twentieth Annual Report of the Bureau of Animal 
Industry. 
BY CHARLES C. CARROLL, A.M. 
Acting on this unfavorable information, General 
Babbitt reported to the Department that for two years 
he had endeavored in vain to render the camels service- 
able, and gave it as his conclusion that experience had 
proved "the inexpediency of substituting them for our 
native animals." At this time the animals in California 
numbered thirty-five in all, and were kept in the south- 
ern part of the State. The report of General Babbitt 
produced an order from the_ Department, on Sept. 9, 
1863, directing him to advertise and sell the camels at 
public auction. This was duly carried out, and the 
animals were purchased by Samuel McLaughlin, in 
whose care they had been for some time before. 
It is probable that most of these camels found their 
way into menageries or zoological gardens. It has 
been supposed that some of them were taken to Nevada 
to be employed in packing salt from the deserts for 
use in silver extraction, but as the Nevada camels were 
of the two-humped kind, they probably came from a 
different source. In i860 or 1861 a company was formed 
in San Francisco for the purpose of importing camels 
from Asia. They sent an agent to the high tablelands 
of Central Asia and procured about twenty Bactrian, 
or two-humped, camels, and from this herd came the 
twelve animals that were employed for some time in 
carrying salt from a marsh in Esmeralda county, Nev., 
to the Washoe silver mill, a distance of 200 miles. 
They performed this work satisfactorily, carrying, says 
Mr. L. Metral, of Virginia City, who packed them, an 
average of 600 pounds each, and traveling from fifteen 
to twenty miles a day. The discovery of salt at a more 
accessible point deprived them of much of their occu- 
pation, although they remained in the vicinity of Vir- 
ginia City for a number of years. 
Professor Brewer, of Yale College, records that dur- 
ing a trip through the West, made about 1865, he saw 
a few of the animals near Virginia City. "Their backs," 
he says, "had not been cared for, and they had been 
used in packing heavy loads of salt from the deserts. 
Salt water and alkali had accumulated in the long hair 
of their humps, their pack-saddles had galled them, and 
great loathsome sores nearly covered the parts touched 
by the saddle. A pitiless snow squall was sweeping just 
then over this inhospitable region, and these miser- 
able beasts, having fallen into bad hands in a bad 
climate, looked sadly enough." As late as June 28, 
1876, the Virginia City Enterprise contained an ac- 
count of an ascent of Mount Davidson made by a train 
of eight camels, each carrying one-third of a cord of 
wood. The animals approached to within 150 feet of the 
summit, reaching an altitude of nearly 9,000 feet 
The historian H.- H. Bancroft states that in 1876 
the Nevada camels were all taken to Arizona, with the 
exception of one pair which, placed on a ranch in the 
Carson Valley, in a few years increased to twenty-six. 
The story of the remarkable fecundity of this pair of 
camels spread far and wide, finding its way into Major 
Leonard's important work on The Camel, published 
in 1893, as well as into the encyclopedias. It should, 
however, be taken with great allowance, when it is 
remembered that the female camel gives birth but once 
in three years, and does not begin to breed until five 
years of age. The employment of animals for practical 
purposes in Nevada steadily diminished. Their appear- 
ance on the public roads frightened horses, thereby 
giving rise to suits for damage, and leading finally to 
legislation prohibiting their use on the public high- 
ways and their running at large. 
In the meantime the camels left at Camp Verde 
were employed in various errands to places over the 
State and became so common a sight on the streets 
of several towns that they ceased to excite curiosity. 
In some instances they were looked upon as a nuisance, 
because they frightened horses, and the city council of 
Brownsville is said to have passed an ordinance forbid- 
ding them the streets. 
Thus they remained until the outbreak of the Civil 
War, increasing naturally to some extent, showing 
themselves well adapted to the climate and other con- 
ditions of Texas, and described in the papers of the 
day by those who saw them as healthy and strong, of 
greater stature and in all respects superior to the 
camels of the traveling menageries. At the beginning 
of the war the camel station passed into the hands of 
