June 8, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
889 
fur trade, except two gablfe end walls, and one 
of the bastions of the old adobe fort, the rec¬ 
tangular. ground plan of which can still be traced. 
The portions of what may have been the dining 
hall w’ould indicate a rather large and pre¬ 
tentious room, with an open fireplace at each 
' end, and the inner walls well covered with w T hite 
plaster, for in spite of their barbaric surround¬ 
ings, or perhaps rather because of them, the 
head men of the fur companies kept up a certain 
formality and dignity, even in their everyday 
life. In this respect Benton was probably no dif¬ 
ferent, from Union, where, in 1834, Larpenteur 
tells us, the clerks “were not allowed to go to 
table in shirt sleeves. On entering the eating 
| hall I found a splendidly set table with a very 
white tablecloth, and two waiters, one a negro. 
Mr. McKenzie was sitting at the head of the 
table extremely well dressed.” 
All this was.no doubt necessary if for no other 
•eason than to inspire proper respect on the part 
>f the numerous “hands,” to say nothing of-the 
winters, trappers and river men who were none 
00 prone to recognize authority of any kind, 
md we must remember that in those wild re¬ 
gions, at that early day, there was practically no 
ocal government except that of the fur com- 
lanies, which in practice, if not in theory, had 
lower to punish the evildoer pretty much as they 
hose. Near Benton, to the northeast, are a 
ew old lodge circles and fireplaces, showing that 
ndians have camped there, probably in winter, 
jVithin recent years, and several times we saw 
ndians in the streets. 
The weather was hot and disagreeable and’we 
1 oon tired of waiting around town, so next day 
/e had our tent and a few supplies hauled down 
■ bout a mile below, to a small grove of cotton- 
/oods on the river bank. Some two hundred 
! ards from there was the camp of two Germans 
; ho were building a scow for a similar trip. We 
! lade their acquaintance and found them to be 
len of considerable experience in wild life, and 
ho evidently knew what they were about. At 
J irious times they had tried wolfing, trapping, 
| unting and sheep herding, and seemed to be 
i rather a literary turn, as we saw in their camp 
ie paper cover of “Waafen Nieder” and other 
;bris of a bookish nature. Mr. Tyler nick- 
1 imed them “Box and Cox.” 
• The timber there is sparse, and the cottonwoods 
! e all of the narrow leaved kind, showing that 
e altitude or possibly the climate or soil is not 
ited to the broad leaf species so common 
: rther down. There were a few bullberry 
| shes too, but without berries. Near town the 
iter is so bad that we had to- boil what we 
; ank, but they told us that thirty miles below 
p might omit this precaution. Once or twice 
dian boys drove down a big band of ponies 
f water near camp. We were told that these 
i Canadian or renegade Crees, and that they 
I ve several times been put back across the bor- 
r, but will not stay there. Their ponies were 
all colors, some of them running loose in 
]: bunch with red ribbons tied around their 
I :ks and in their tails. 
; ?ept. 20 our neighbors, the trappers, having 
1 nched their boat' and completed arrangements, 
ne up to camp early to say good-bye, so we 
| Iked down to see them off. Their boat seemed 
j ’ttle clumsy, but they went off all right, wav- 
! their hats to ns as they struck the swift 
ter and went around the bend. Next morn- 
m 
. dip -■ 
■ 
A 
. ' 
CORDELUING A HOUSEBOAT ON THE UPPER MISSOURI RIVER. 
From a photograph by Samuel W. Lippincott. 
> to our great satisfaction, our boat arrived. 
but owing to the necessary purchases and prepara¬ 
tions, it was not until Sept. 22 that we were able 
to start. 
We made diligent inquiries in regard to the 
distances and the obstacles we might encounter, 
but nobody seemed to know much about either. 
They thought we would strike rough water, spoke 
ominously of a place called Rocky Point, and 
thought we might have trouble there, but no 
one would pretend to say where Rocky Point is. 
We knew, of course, in a vague way, that there 
had been wrecks and drownings, and had heard 
by name of Eagle, Dauphin’s, Drowning Man, 
Cow Island and Picotte’s Rapids, but evidently 
if we wanted to know more we must go and 
see for ourselves, and now having run them all, 
we can only say that there are rapids every few 
miles, that some are worse than others, but we 
never knew which was Drowning Man or which 
Picotte’s. • 
In a foot note to his Larpenteur journals Dr. 
Cones says that Dauphin’s are the first bad 
rapids below Judith River. “I shot these rapids,” 
he says, “in 1874 and felt much better after than 
before taking them in a small open boat.” 
In the following year Dr. George Bird Grinnell, 
in company with Custer’s scout, Charley Rey¬ 
nolds, went through these rapids and continued 
some distance down the river. 
Our departure from Fort Benton was unevent¬ 
ful. We had but one spectator who was kind 
enough to wish us good luck, but whether we 
waved our hats or not I don’t remember. I 
think we were more occupied in observing the 
movements of our craft and estimating the 
amount of water she drew. This we thought to 
be a little over eight inches and we guesSed the 
weight of cargo, including ourselves, at nearly 
nine hundred. We found a sort of average 
depth of about three feet, with a gravelly bot¬ 
tom, and the beach, where there was any, the 
same, with a mixture of larger cobbles. We 
camped on the right bank about twelve miles 
by water from Benton. Beaver and mink sign 
on the beach and much old beaver cutting. 
On Sept. 23 we had a coyote concert at day¬ 
light. Started late. Bothered by head wind in 
afternoon, so took to rowing. Camped among a 
few scattering narrow leaf cottonwoods and 
willows on right bank. Day’s run about 24 miles. 
Ground much tracked up by cattle. One good 
sized cottonwood and much small stuff cut by 
beavers, but not lately. Yesterday and to-day 
we passed many high, rocky cliffs of a grayish 
brown color, mostly on the right bank. In places 
the current sweeps swiftly past the base of these 
precipices, the walls descending vertically into 
deep waters. In the more rapid portions there 
was swell enough to cause the boat to pitch 
somew’hat, and it w : as quite exhilarating to go 
rushing by and almost under these dark rocks. 
Sept. 24 was partly cloudy in the afternoon 
and very windy. From now on, throughout the 
trip, w r e rowed constantly with one pair of oars. 
Passed many great masses of white rock, some 
at various elevations above the river, others ris¬ 
ing perpendicularly from the water, and in places 
undercut by the current to a height of eight feet 
or more. On the southern exposure of these 
rocks were many mud swallows’ nests. Here 
for miles is the most strikingly picturesque part 
of the river below Benton. These white rocks 
are wonderfully beautiful in form, suggesting 
mediaeval fortresses and castles of heavy and 
severely simple architecture, or cathedral spires, 
turrets and domes, while again one sees little 
glades all walled in, beset with dark pines and 
junipers, interspersed with grottos, vases, sun 
dials, and one might almost imagine statues, all 
of marble whiteness, as Maximilian truly says, 
like an Italian garden. As the boat passes 
through this fairy land the effect is almost be¬ 
wildering. 
Perhaps I am too enthusiastic. Others might 
not see it as I did, but that is the way it im¬ 
pressed me, like some fanciful stage setting, but 
big, dignified and strangest of all, real. Later 
we passed the Stone Walls. They are really 
more like pillars of a dark brownish stone. As 
we looked back these were in shadow, and owing 
