The River and I

that the mouth of the Yellowstone is near Buford, North Dakota. It appeared to me that the fact is in

o has piloted river craft through every navigable foot of the entire system of rivers, having sailed the Missouri within sound o

k. The Mississippi after some miles obliterates all traces of its great western tributary; but the Missouri at Buford is entirely lost in the Yellowstone within a few hundred yard

ed neuter. The Upper Missouri is decidedly female: an Amazon, to be sure, but nevertheless not a man. Beautiful, she is, alluring or terrible, but always womanl

the Missouri at Kansis City, it

the "Expansion"; Capt.

Uni

8

Old Fo

tus quo! Let it be said that the Upper Missouri is the mother and the Yellowstone the father of this turbulent Titan, who inherits his father's might

hundred miles her intake of water had steadily increased. We had toiled at the paddles with the water halfway to our knees much of the time;

ered us a trade. He had a steel boat, eighteen feet long, forty inches beam, which

at. He had no engine. It was the engine in our boat that attracted him, as he wished to make a hunting trip up river in the fall. He stated that his boat would float, that it was a dry boat, that it would row

down to the Yellowstone. The new boat was moored under a mud bank. I climbed in, lit a match, and my heart leaped with joy. She was staunch and beautiful-a work of love, which means a work of honesty. Fore and aft were air-tight comp

o smoke at the stars. When the first flush of triumph had passed, we rolled up in the bottom of the boat, lulled to sleep by the cooing of

on the grass. And the sun that morning made me think of my old boy chum with his blithe, persistent whistling. For the first hard stage of the journey was done; all had left me but a brave lad who would take

l our progress was little more than a retreat. We pitched no camps; we halted only when we could proceed no further owing to sandbars encountered in the dark; we ate as we found it convenient to do so. Regularly relieving each other at the oars, one sat at the steering wheel, feeling for the channel. And it was not long until I began to note a remarkable change in the muscles of the Kid, for we toiled nak

nd the waves were in proportion. Each at an oar, with the steering wheel lashed, we forged on slowly but steadily. In midstream we found it impossible to control the boat, and though we hugged the shore whenever possible, we were obliged to cross with the channel at eve

"cattle upon a thousand hills." The great wind had spread the heavens with ever deepening clouds. The last reflected light of the sun fell red upon the burnished surface of the water. It seeme

stream of iridescent opal fires; and quite lost in the go

some fifty yards ahead told us where it ended. We found it impossible to push the heavy boat over the shallows. The clouds were deepening, and the night was coming rapidly. Setti

direction should we pull? A drizzling rain had begun to fall, and the sheet lightning glaring through it only confused us-more than the sooty darkness that showered in upon us after the rapid flashes. We sat still and waited.

current; the main current flows always under the cut banks. How long would it take us to get there? Which way should we pull? Put a si

ly a moment after. We grasped the oars and pulled blindly in what we supposed to be th

ed our thumbs, and let her drift. We couldn't even smoke, for the rain was now coming down merrily. The Kid thought it a great lark, and laughed boisterously at our predicament. B

rift in a murky ceiling, a rainy deluge-'sleety flaw, discolored water'-streams down

an oar and felt a slowly sloping bar. Driving the oar half-way into the soft sand

ing rustily. We were in the midst of a desolate waste of sand and water. The bar upon whic

saw the first wheat-field of the trip-an undulating golden flood, dimpled with the tripping feet of the wind. These were two joys-quite eno

er in North Dakota, as well as along the Yellowstone in Montana, these coal outcrops are in evidence. Doubtless, within another generation, vast min

the recent rains. Lazy with a liberal supper, we drifted idly and gave ourselves over for a few minutes to the spell of this twilight dreamland. I stared hard upon this scene that would have delighted Theocritus; and with little effort, I placed a half-naked shepherd boy under the

swept across the stream, showering rain and darkness. Each at an oar, we forged on, until we lost the channe

out to twenty hours. We had no time-piece, and a night of drifting was divided into two watches. These watches we determined either by the dropping of a star toward the horizon, or by the position of the moon wh

hrough which Sully pushed with his military expedition against the Sioux on the Yellowstone. An army flung boldly through a dead land-a land without forage, and waterless-a labyrinth of dry ravines and ghastly hills! Sully called it "hell w

elves in the midst of a forsaken little frontier town. A shambling shack bore the legend, "Store," with the "S" looking backward-perhaps toward dead municipal ho

Mandan jargon, delivered by a squaw of at least eighty years. She arose from the fire that burned in the center of the great circular room, and approached me with an "I-want-your-scalp" expression. On

aid, "eggs, meat, br

or the Winter a

burn

ng at Bis

appeared, soon reappearing with a dark brown object not wholly unlike a lo

it and went back to her fire. "But," said I, "

ted upon taking the balance in eggs. The old woman said she had no eggs. I pointed to a flock of hens that was holding a s

appeared so to me) all the execrable points in my character. They seemed to be numerous, and she appeared to be very frank about the matter. My mor

gue. I swallowed a chunk whole, and then enlightened the Kid as to a portion of the Mandan language. "Wahtoo," said I, "means 'indigestible'; it is an evident fact." Then, being stren

sistent streams upon us. The chief of these streams, from the point of size, seemed consciously aiming at my ear. Thirce I

ck was crowing sleepily when we put

ften we could see no further than a hundred and fifty yards in any direction. Only by a constant, rapid dipping of the oars could

ast Elbow Woods, past Fort Berthold, past the forlorn, raggedy

gh cliff loomed black and huge against the spangled blue-black velvet of the sky. On its summit a dark mass soared higher. We thought it a tree, but surely a gigantic one. Approaching it, the soaring mass became a medieval castle sitting haughtily

path, and found ourselves in one of the oddest little towns

light in all the street designated the social center of the town, so we went

he matter was abruptly laid on the table. When we withdrew, the entire convention, including the grocery-man, adjourned, and accompanied us to the river where the general merits o

und no two men who agreed on this general subject. After acquiring a book of river distances, we create

tell us how far i

and a half miles!" (with an

tance is sixty-two and seven-tenths miles!" (Const

one hundred and fifty miles down stream.

the river, doubtless feeling convinced that they needed it. The current took us within fifty yards of them. Upon our approa

" I shouted, stand

again opened and shut a hand. Then with a spear-like thrust of the arm toward the southeast, he stiffened the index finger in the dire

lso stood here. Nothing remains of the Fort but the name and a few slight indentations in the ground. A modern steamboat town, Deapolis occupies the site of the old po

de a very pretty appearance with its neat houses climbing the hillside. Along the water front, under the elevators, a hal

a difficult matter to keep awake. The night was very calm; the quiet waters crooned sleepily about the boat. I set myself the task of watching the new moon dip toward the dim hills; I intended to keep myself awake in that m

olling breakers upon us, and we were fast upon a bar. I awakened the Kid and we put off. We had no idea of the distance cov

e. As we passed under the Bismarck bridge, we confessed that we were thoroughly fagged. It was the

, in the awful presence of the expressman, who regarded me with that lofty "God-and-I" air, characteristic of some emperors

e. I suggested that the personage might look about. The personage couldn't stoop to that; but a clerk who overheard my insulting remark (he had not yet become the

e Missouri River. About Sioux City, the Government operates a snag-boat, the Mandan, at an expense ridiculously disproportionate to its usefulness. The Mandan is little more than an excursion boat maintained for a f

ning" navigation of the river, are either railroad men or persons entirely ignorant of the geography of the Northwest. Ca

otected against further cutting. A natural canal, extending from New Orleans in the South and Cincinnat

ways is unequalled on the globe. Within another generation, doubt

ke another man at the oars. Many of the hard days that followed left on our memories little more than the impress of a troubled dream. We developed a sort of contempt for our old enemy, the head wind-that tireless, intangible giant that lashed us with whips of sand, drove us into shallows, set its mighty shoulders against our prow, roared with laughter at us when, soaked and weary, we walked and pushed our boat for miles at

and frightened, through scudding clouds. However, the wind blew high and the surface of the water was unruffled. There could be nothing more eerie than a night of drifting on the Missouri, with a gha

rrent. Suddenly, we stopped. Our usual proceeding in such cases was to leap out and push the boat off. That night, fortunately, we were chilly, and did not fancy a midnight ducking. Each

d to go to bed. In the morning we would fasten on our cork belts and reach shore-perhaps. Having reached shor

oat was swinging about. It soon stopped with a chug. We stood up and rocked the boat vigorously. It broke l

e supper, we went in search of his grave. We found it after much lighting of matches at headstones, in a weed-grown corner of the Agency

d for an hour under the flying moon. A do

eary Kid rolled and swore till dawn, when a light wind sprang up astern. We hoisted our sail, and f

somewhat, but it kept the canvas filled. The crooning of the water, the rustling of the sail, the thin voices of bugs on shore, and the guttural song of the frogs, shockin

e slowly dropped astern and f

amen all

nished am

to me, and drifted slowly past-austere spectral figures. Somewhere about midnight I fell asleep and was awakened by a flapping sail and a groaning mast, to find myself sprawling over the wheel. The wind had changed; it was once more blowing up-stream, and a drizzling rain was driving through the gloom. During my sleep the boat had gone ashore. I moored her to a

Landing in t

Landing at

y, and freckled young lady named "Lily." The circumstance always seemed grimly humorous to

ondition known to patent medicine as "before taking." I looked for the fat, cheerful person who should illustrate the effect of eating at that place, but in vain. When the lean man reappeared

ctions from the cook. The lean man, after a half audible colloquy with the presiding spirit of the kitchen, reported with a whipped expression t

low, before sleep came upon us in a manner not to be resisted. All night coyotes yelpe

not more hospitable to storm-tossed ?neas than Pierre to the weather-beaten crew of the Atom. At a reception given us b

r off the disagreeable stupor incident to arising at that time of night. I had been rowing for some time when I noted a tree on the bank near which the current ran. Still drowsy, I turned my head away and pulled with a will. After anothe

s about three hundred yards ahead of the boat! I had been rowing up-stream for at least a half-hour in a strenuous race with that tree! The Kid, aroused by my laughter, asked sleepily what in thunder tickled me. I told him I had merely thought o

hirty miles. Having rowed the greater part of the day, we found ourselves in t

y built under the bluffs, when a man stepped from the door and hailed us. We pulled in. "You fellers looks like you nee

bore about him all the wretch

two meals," said I, "a

rs, he pulled a flask from his pocket, took my coin and rowed back to shore. "Government license," he explained; "g

n her puckered mouth, etched at the lips with many thin lines of worry, and aped hospitality in a manner at once pathetic and ridiculous. A little girl, who looked fifty or five, according to

tache to have the old bitter human fact thrust upon me again. "What is there left here to live for?" thought I. And just then I not

woman, even in her degradation, true to the noblest instin

e sound increased, until it seemed close under our prow. We knew there was no cataract in the entire lower portion of the river; and yet,

ll stream compared with the Missouri, so great is its speed, and so tremendous the impact of

lifted Yankton out of a cloud of flying sand. The next day Vermilion and E

f dawn grows out of dark, we were making coffee-the la

lcome out of the southeast. At noon we landed. We had rowed fourteen hundred miles against almost continual

the rumble of the drays,

g and going of the sun, the crooning of the river, the shout of the big,

over me, somehow I always felt comfortably, kindly housed. Towns

friend asked me what I expected to find on

, that is the

riber'

and spelling inconsistencies, which have been maintaine

ig

Typograph

led for

en for

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Theseus. ..." "that

ing for

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mp fo

ell for

ic for

ed for

de fo

ered for

d for

gble for i

hale for

anking." for "I was

son for

sis for

lled fo

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igble for un

stent s

cut /

us / En

e /

ay / h

-Wall / Hol

ok / l

eam / m

ar / s

s" /

ike /