530 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. 3, 1908. 
-/ 
over long distances. When we have caught the 
horses we will divide them equally among the 
party.” 
All turned out as Crow Chief had said. They 
found the horses out on the prairie, and took 
them all and started north. While they were 
driving the horses the first night, after taking 
them, Crow Chief said: “We will not divide 
the horses until daylight, when we can see them 
well.” 
With the party there was a poor boy, a ser¬ 
vant who was going out on his first war path. 
His name was Bob-tailed Bull. When they got 
ready to divide the horses, Crow Chief said: 
“Now, here is Bob-tailed Bull; let him have the 
first choice of the horses and after he has se¬ 
lected the one he wants the others can make 
their choice.” So it was that Bob-tailed Bull, 
this poor young man, had the first choice among 
this fine lot of horses. He selected a handsome 
cream-colored horse, and after he had made his 
choice all the other Indians said: “Now, Crow 
Chief, you are our leader; you found these 
horses and you have given us good advice 
throughout. We want you to have the next 
choice.” So Crow Chief went around among 
the herd and he picked out a fine bay horse that 
had about his neck a charm made from the end 
of an antelope’s horn, showing that he was a 
fine horse and long-winded. 
Then Crow Chief said: “I did not expect 
that you would be willing to give me this choice. 
Now, do you all go ahead and make your se¬ 
lections, and I will be the last one to choose.” 
So they divided the horses. 
When they reached the Cimarron, Crow Chief 
said : “Now, let us stop here and make pads to ride 
on,” so they stopped and killed a buffalo, and 
then they took their robes or blankets or pieces 
of dressed buffalo hide that they had brought 
with them and made riding pads. These were 
made something like a long pillow, about a foot 
wide and two and one-half or three feet long. 
The strip of hide was doubled over and sewed 
with sinew on the edges in front and behind, 
and then from the end was filled with dried 
buffalo grass. Then the end was sewed up. 
The pad was thus long enough to come down 
nearly to the rider’s knees on either side and 
there was plenty of width for him to sit on. 
After the pad had been in use for some time, 
so that the stuffing became packed down and 
hard, a small hole was cut lengthwise in the top 
large enough to introduce the hand, and they 
would take out the stuffing and replace it with 
fresh grass or hair as the case might be. To 
the edges of this hole little strings were fast¬ 
ened, which might be tied together to keep the 
grass from working out. 
These pads we called in Cheyenne His-se'-e- 
moht. 
The\ r crossed the Arkansas River below Sand 
Creek and came to the Cheyenne camp on the 
South Platte. 
Crow Chief was a great man, brave, generous 
and a great general. Every morning when the 
party was on its way he was the first to start 
out from camp, and often before his men had 
come far they would find him skinning a buf¬ 
falo or antelope, having thus provided food for 
his party. He was a wise man, a good shot 
and a very swift runner. When a young man 
he had been the owner of a thunder-bow. 
In 1864 Crow Chief’s village was burned by 
Lieut Ayres. Crow Chief died in the summer 
of 1867. 
The use by Indians of a corral for the capture 
of horses like that above described is entirely 
novel to me, though similar corrals were used 
in many portions of the plains for the capture of 
buffalo and in the mountains for the capture of 
antelope. As long ago as the end of the seventeenth 
century Baron La Hontan, in his incomparable 
letter XI., described the capture of “harts,” elk 
-—wapiti—in the same manner by some of the 
northern Indians near Lake Champlain, and 'his 
quaint plate, showing the arrangement of the 
trap and the driving of the animals into it, is 
familiar to all who know his work. Nearly one 
E VERY succeeding year greater interest is 
being developed in that part of the conti¬ 
nent, which, notwithstanding the spirit of 
adventure and exploration which is now abroad, 
still remains a comparative terra incognita—I 
refer to northern Labrador. 
Up Hamilton Inlet is a grand country for 
amateur explorers. It has been traversed by 
very few white men, and very little systematic 
plotting of its geographical or topographical 
features has been as yet attempted. 
Some years ago Mr. Bryan, an American ex¬ 
plorer, accompanied by one or two companions, 
succeeded in getting up as far as the Grand 
Falls. Since then but three other parties of 
white men have penetrated these wilds. During 
the present summer Sir Wm. McGregor, gover¬ 
nor of the island, went up as far as the Musk¬ 
rat Falls. At the same time a party of Ameri¬ 
can tourists were further up the country and 
explored the Grand Falls. I send you a clip¬ 
ping from a local paper which will give your 
readers an idea of the country traversed, and 
which may fire the ardor of some, as yet un¬ 
known, explorer to make a sortie into this terri¬ 
tory and immortalize himself by writing an ac¬ 
count of his travels that at an early date may 
become the standard work of reference to the 
possibilities of this comparatively unknown land 
for the hunter, angler, botanist, photographer 
or the globe trotter thirsting for other territory 
to conquer. 
The clipping referred to reads: 
“By the Virginia Lake recently there arrived 
back from a visit to the Grand Falls of Labra¬ 
dor, Messrs. Eugene Delano, Jr., of New York, 
and Clarke Washbourne, of Chicago, accom¬ 
panied by their three guides, Fred Reed, Howard 
Finnimore and Archie Campbell, all of New 
Brunswick, and all excellent and expert canoe- 
men. 
“The party left here on the steamer Virginia 
Lake early in the season, taking three splendid 
canoes and full supplies, and left the steamer at 
Rigolette. Here they joined the Grand River 
Lumber Company’s tug and proceeded by her 
hundred years later Umfreville shows a similarly 
quaint plate of buffalo entering a pound. It is 
altogether possible that when the Kiowas came 
down from the North they brought with them 
this method of capturing buffalo, and afterward 
adapted it to the capture of horses. On the 
other hand Pike, nearly a generation before 
the discovery by Crow Chief’s young men of 
this Kiowa corral, describes a similar method 
of capturing horses as practiced by the Mexi¬ 
cans, or as he calls them the Spaniards of Texas, 
from whom the Kiowas might readily enough 
have got the idea. It is more probable, how¬ 
ever, that the Kiowas received it from Indian 
sources. 
for about one hundred miles up to the bottom 
of the bay to Gillisport, from which they had a 
canoe journey of about 300 miles before they 
would reach the Grand Falls. 
“This meant three hundred miles of hard work, 
work which required steady nerves and muscles, 
keen eyes and alertness. Proceeding down Lake 
Melville for the first fifty miles or so the course 
lay between the Mealy Mountains, some of 
whose peaks were fully a thousand feet high, 
but after this distance had been accomplished 
the adventurers found primeval forests of 
spruce extending for miles and miles as far as 
the eye could see. 
“Going up the Hamilton River a strong cur¬ 
rent was met, but by taking the stiller parts of 
the water, which was divided into channels and 
currents by the action of the sand, which formed 
numerous banks, making the depth of the river 
very changeable. The width on an average was 
a little over a mile, but about five miles up it 
narrowed to less than half that distance, widen¬ 
ing out again to two miles just below the Musk¬ 
rat Falls. 
“This is a double fall with a rapid between 
the two, giving a drop of about sixty or seventy 
feet. These were successfully negotiated and 
the journey continued on to Porcupine Falls 
where another arduous portage was necessary. 
“The Grand Falls were ultimately reached 
with only one accident, the loss of one of the 
canoes. A number of splendid photos of the 
falls were taken by the explorers, who report 
the greatest depth of the falls about 300 feet 
and the width about 150 feet. The rush of 
water extends, however, through deep canons 
for many miles and the total depth of water¬ 
falls and rapids cannot be short of 750 feet. 
“The explorers were enthusiastic and delighted 
at the grandeur of the sight, which far exceeded 
their expectations. They report numerous signs 
of mineral deposits, but because of the distance 
and hardship to be encountered in transporting 
the necessary supplies, many years must elapse 
before any extensive development can be started. 
“Messrs. Washburne, Delano and party are, 
we understand, the fourth party of white men to 
visit and view these falls.” 
The Grand Falls of Labrador 
By W. J. CARROLL 
