The Black Mountains.--Haunts of Predatory Indians.--Their
Wild and Broken Appearance.--Superstitions Concerning Them--
Thunder Spirits.--Singular Noises in the Mountains--Secret
Mines.-Hidden Treasures.--Mountains in Labor.--Scientific
Explanation.-Impassable Defiles.--Black-Tailed Deer.-The
Bighorn or Ahsahta.-Prospect From a Lofty Height.--Plain
With Herds of Buffalo.-Distant Peaks of the Rocky
Mountains.--Alarms in the Camp.-Tracks of Grizzly Bears.--
Dangerous Nature of This Animal.-Adventures of William
Cannon and John Day With Grizzly Bears.
MR. Hunt and his party were now on the skirts of the Black Hills, or
Black Mountains, as they are sometimes called; an extensive chain, lying
about a hundred miles east of the Rocky Mountains, and stretching in
a northeast direction from the south fork of the Nebraska, or Platte
River, to the great north bend of the Missouri. The Sierra or ridge of
the Black Hills, in fact, forms the dividing line between the waters of
the Missouri and those of the Arkansas and the Mississippi, and gives
rise to the Cheyenne, the Little Missouri, and several tributary streams
of the Yellowstone.
The wild recesses of these hills, like those of the Rocky Mountains, are
retreats and lurking-places for broken and predatory tribes, and it was
among them that the remnants of the Cheyenne tribe took refuge, as has
been stated, from their conquering enemies, the Sioux.
The Black Hills are chiefly composed of sandstone, and in many places
are broken into savage cliffs and precipices, and present the most
singular and fantastic forms; sometimes resembling towns and castellated
fortresses. The ignorant inhabitants of plains are prone to clothe
the mountains that bound their horizon with fanciful and superstitious
attributes. Thus the wandering tribes of the prairies, who often
behold clouds gathering round the summits of these hills, and lightning
flashing, and thunder pealing from them, when all the neighboring
plains are serene and sunny, consider them the abode of the genii or
thunder-spirits who fabricate storms and tempests. On entering their
defiles, therefore, they often hang offerings on the trees, or place
them on the rocks, to propitiate the invisible “lords of the mountains,”
and procure good weather and successful hunting; and they attach unusual
significance to the echoes which haunt the precipices. This superstition
may also have arisen, in part, from a natural phenomenon of a singular
nature. In the most calm and serene weather, and at all times of the
day or night, successive reports are now and then heard among these
mountains, resembling the discharge of several pieces of artillery.
Similar reports were heard by Messrs. Lewis and Clarke in the Rocky
Mountains, which they say were attributed by the Indians to the bursting
of the rich mines of silver contained in the bosom of the mountains.
In fact, these singular explosions have received fanciful explanations
from learned men, and have not been satisfactorily accounted for even by
philosophers. They are said to occur frequently in Brazil. Vasconcelles,
Jesuit father, describes one which he heard in the Sierra, or mountain
region of Piratininga, and which he compares to the discharges of a park
of artillery. The Indians told him that it was an explosion of stones.
The worthy father had soon a satisfactory proof of the truth of their
information, for the very place was found where a rock had burst and
exploded from its entrails a stony mass, like a bomb-shell, and of the
size of a bull’s heart. This mass was broken either in its ejection or
its fall, and wonderful was the internal organization revealed. It had a
shell harder even than iron; within which were arranged, like the
seeds of a pomegranate, jewels of various colors; some transparent
as crystals; others of a fine red, and others of mixed hues. The same
phenomenon is said to occur occasionally in the adjacent province of
Guayra, where stones of the bigness of a man’s hand are exploded, with
a loud noise, from the bosom of the earth, and scatter about glittering
and beautiful fragments that look like precious gems, but are of no
value.
The Indians of the Orellanna, also, tell of horrible noises heard
occasionally in the Paraguaxo, which they consider the throes and groans
of the mountains, endeavoring to cast forth the precious stones hidden
within its entrails. Others have endeavored to account for these
discharges of “mountain artillery” on humbler principles; attributing
them to the loud reports made by the disruption and fall of great
masses of rock, reverberated and prolonged by the echoes; others, to the
disengagement of hydrogen, produced by subterraneous beds of coal in
a state of ignition. In whatever way this singular phenomenon may be
accounted for, the existence of it appears to be well established. It
remains one of the lingering mysteries of nature which throw something
of a supernatural charm over her wild mountain solitudes; and we doubt
whether the imaginative reader will not rather join with the poor Indian
in attributing it to the thunderspirits, or the guardian genii of unseen
treasures, than to any commonplace physical cause.
Whatever might be the supernatural influences among these mountains,
the travellers found their physical difficulties hard to cope with. They
made repeated attempts to find a passage through or over the chain, but
were as often turned back by impassable barriers. Sometimes a defile
seemed to open a practicable path, but it would terminate in some wild
chaos of rocks and cliffs, which it was impossible to climb. The animals
of these solitary regions were different from those they had been
accustomed to. The black-tailed deer would bound up the ravines on their
approach, and the bighorn would gaze fearlessly down upon them from some
impending precipice, or skip playfully from rock to rock. These animals
are only to be met with in mountainous regions. The former is larger
than the common deer, but its flesh is not equally esteemed by hunters.
It has very large ears, and the tip of the tail is black, from which it
derives its name.
The bighorn is so named from its horns; which are of a great size, and
twisted like those of a ram. It is called by some the argali, by others
the ibex, though differing from both of these animals. The Mandans call
it the ahsahta, a name much better than the clumsy appellation which it
generally bears. It is of the size of a small elk, or large deer, and of
a dun color, excepting the belly and round the tail, where it is white.
In its habits it resembles the goat, frequenting the rudest precipices;
cropping the herbage from their edges; and like the chamois, bounding
lightly and securely among dizzy heights, where the hunter dares not
venture. It is difficult, therefore, to get within shot of it. Ben Jones
the hunter, however, in one of the passes of the Black Hills, succeeded
in bringing down a bighorn from the verge of a precipice, the flesh of
which was pronounced by the gormands of the camp to have the flavor of
excellent mutton.
Baffled in his attempts to traverse this mountain chain, Mr. Hunt
skirted along it to the southwest, keeping it on the right; and still in
hopes of finding an opening. At an early hour one day, he encamped in
a narrow valley on the banks of a beautifully clear but rushy pool;
surrounded by thickets bearing abundance of wild cherries, currants, and
yellow and purple gooseberries.
While the afternoon’s meal was in preparation, Mr. Hunt and Mr. M’Kenzie
ascended to the summit of the nearest hill, from whence, aided by the
purity and transparency of the evening atmosphere, they commanded a
vast prospect on all sides. Below them extended a plain, dotted with
innumerable herds of buffalo. Some were lying among the herbage, others
roaming in their unbounded pastures, while many were engaged in fierce
contests like those already described, their low bellowings reaching the
ear like the hoarse murmurs of the surf on a distant shore.
Far off in the west they descried a range of lofty mountains printing
the clear horizon, some of them evidently capped with snow. These they
supposed to be the Bighorn Mountains, so called from the animal of that
name, with which they abound. They are a spur of the great Rocky chain.
The hill from whence Mr. Hunt had this prospect was, according to
his computation, about two hundred and fifty miles from the Arickara
village.
On returning to the camp, Mr. Hunt found some uneasiness prevailing
among the Canadian voyageurs. In straying among the thickets they had
beheld tracks of grizzly bears in every direction, doubtless attracted
thither by the fruit. To their dismay, they now found that they had
encamped in one of the favorite resorts of this dreaded animal. The
idea marred all the comfort of the encampment. As night closed, the
surrounding thickets were peopled with terrors; insomuch that, according
to Mr. Hunt, they could not help starting at every little breeze that
stirred the bushes.
The grizzly bear is the only really formidable quadruped of our
continent. He is the favorite theme of the hunters of the far West,
who describe him as equal in size to a common cow and of prodigious
strength. He makes battle if assailed, and often, if pressed by hunger,
is the assailant. If wounded, he becomes furious and will pursue the
hunter. His speed exceeds that of a man but is inferior to that of a
horse. In attacking he rears himself on his hind legs, and springs the
length of his body. Woe to horse or rider that comes within the sweep of
his terrific claws, which are sometimes nine inches in length, and tear
everything before them.
At the time we are treating of, the grizzly bear was still frequent
on the Missouri and in the lower country, but, like some of the broken
tribes of the prairie, he has gradually fallen back before his enemies,
and is now chiefly to be found in the upland regions, in rugged
fastnesses like those of the Black Hills and the Rocky Mountains. Here
he lurks in caverns, or holes which he has digged in the sides of hills,
or under the roots and trunks of fallen trees. Like the common bear, he
is fond of fruits, and mast, and roots, the latter of which he will dig
up with his foreclaws. He is carnivorous also, and will even attack
and conquer the lordly buffalo, dragging his huge carcass to the
neighborhood of his den, that he may prey upon it at his leisure.
The hunters, both white and red men, consider this the most heroic
game. They prefer to hunt him on horseback, and will venture so near as
sometimes to singe his hair with the flash of the rifle. The hunter of
the grizzly bear, however, must be an experienced hand, and know where
to aim at a vital part; for of all quadrupeds, he is the most difficult
to be killed. He will receive repeated wounds without flinching, and
rarely is a shot mortal unless through the head or heart.
That the dangers apprehended from the grizzly bear, at this night
encampment, were not imaginary, was proved on the following morning.
Among the hired men of the party was one William Cannon, who had been a
soldier at one of the frontier posts, and entered into the employ of Mr.
Hunt at Mackinaw. He was an inexperienced hunter and a poor shot, for
which he was much bantered by his more adroit comrades. Piqued at
their raillery, he had been practicing ever since he had joined the
expedition, but without success. In the course of the present afternoon,
he went forth by himself to take a lesson in venerie and, to his
great delight, had the good fortune to kill a buffalo. As he was a
considerable distance from the camp, he cut out the tongue and some
of the choice bits, made them into a parcel, and slinging them on his
shoulders by a strap passed round his forehead, as the voyageurs carry
packages of goods, set out all glorious for the camp, anticipating a
triumph over his brother hunters. In passing through a narrow ravine,
he heard a noise behind him, and looking round beheld, to his dismay, a
grizzly bear in full pursuit, apparently attracted by the scent of the
meat. Cannon had heard so much of the invulnerability of this tremendous
animal, that he never attempted to fire, but, slipping the strap from
his forehead, let go the buffalo meat and ran for his life. The bear did
not stop to regale himself with the game, but kept on after the hunter.
He had nearly overtaken him when Cannon reached a tree, and, throwing
down his rifle scrambled up it. The next instant Bruin was at the foot
of the tree; but, as this species of bear does not climb, he contented
himself with turning the chase into a blockade. Night came on. In the
darkness Cannon could not perceive whether or not the enemy maintained
his station; but his fears pictured him rigorously mounting guard. He
passed the night, therefore, in the tree, a prey to dismal fancies.
In the morning the bear was gone. Cannon warily descended the tree,
gathered up his gun, and made the best of his way back to the camp,
without venturing to look after his buffalo meat.
While on this theme we will add another anecdote of an adventure with a
grizzly bear, told of John Day, the Kentucky hunter, but which happened
at a different period of the expedition. Day was hunting in company with
one of the clerks of the company, a lively youngster, who was a great
favorite with the veteran, but whose vivacity he had continually to keep
in check. They were in search of deer, when suddenly a huge grizzly bear
emerged from a thicket about thirty yards distant, rearing himself upon
his hind legs with a terrific growl, and displaying a hideous array of
teeth and claws. The rifle of the young man was leveled in an instant,
but John Day’s iron hand was as quickly upon his arm. “Be quiet, boy!
be quiet!” exclaimed the hunter between his clenched teeth, and without
turning his eyes from the bear. They remained motionless. The monster
regarded them for a time, then, lowering himself on his fore paws,
slowly withdrew. He had not gone many paces, before he again returned,
reared himself on his hind legs, and repeated his menace. Day’s hand was
still on the arm of his young companion; he again pressed it hard, and
kept repeating between his teeth, “Quiet, boy!--keep quiet!--keep
quiet!”--though the latter had not made a move since his first
prohibition. The bear again lowered himself on all fours, retreated some
twenty yards further, and again turned, reared, showed his teeth, and
growled. This third menace was too much for the game spirit of John Day.
“By Jove!” exclaimed he, “I can stand this no longer,” and in an instant
a ball from his rifle whizzed into his foe. The wound was not mortal;
but, luckily, it dismayed instead of enraged the animal, and he
retreated into the thicket.
Day’s companion reproached him for not practicing the caution which
he enjoined upon others. “Why, boy,” replied the veteran, “caution is
caution, but one must not put up with too much, even from a bear. Would
you have me suffer myself to be bullied all day by a varmint?”