第14章 Irving’s Bonneville - Chapter 4(3)

On the first of July the band of Crow warriors again crossed their path. They came invaunting and vainglorious style; displaying five Cheyenne scalps, the trophies of theirvengeance. They were now bound homewards, to appease the manes of their comradeby these proofs that his death had been revenged, and intended to have scalp-dancesand other triumphant rejoicings. Captain Bonneville and his men, however, were by nomeans disposed to renew their confiding intimacy with these crafty savages, and aboveall, took care to avoid their pilfering caresses. They remarked one precaution of theCrows with respect to their horses; to protect their hoofs from the sharp and jaggedrocks among which they had to pass, they had covered them with shoes of buffalo hide.

The route of the travellers lay generally along the course of the Nebraska or Platte, butoccasionally, where steep promontories advanced to the margin of the stream, theywere obliged to make inland circuits. One of these took them through a bold and sterncountry, bordered by a range of low mountains, running east and west. Everythingaround bore traces of some fearful convulsion of nature in times long past. Hitherto thevarious strata of rock had exhibited a gentle elevation toward the southwest, but hereeverything appeared to have been subverted, and thrown out of place. In many placesthere were heavy beds of white sandstone resting upon red. Immense strata of rocksjutted up into crags and cliffs; and sometimes formed perpendicular walls andoverhanging precipices. An air of sterility prevailed over these savage wastes. Thevalleys were destitute of herbage, and scantily clothed with a stunted species ofwormwood, generally known among traders and trappers by the name of sage. From anelevated point of their march through this region, the travellers caught a beautiful viewof the Powder River Mountains away to the north, stretching along the very verge of thehorizon, and seeming, from the snow with which they were mantled, to be a chain ofsmall white clouds, connecting sky and earth.

Though the thermometer at mid-day ranged from eighty to ninety, and even sometimesrose to ninety-three degrees, yet occasional spots of snow were to be seen on the topsof the low mountains, among which the travellers were journeying; proofs of the greatelevation of the whole region.

The Nebraska, in its passage through the Black Hills, is confined to a much narrowerchannel than that through which it flows n the plains below; but it is deeper and clearer,and rushes with a stronger current. The scenery, also, is more varied and beautiful.

Sometimes it glides rapidly but smoothly through a picturesque valley, between woodedbanks; then, forcing its way into the bosom of rugged mountains, it rushes impetuouslythrough narrow defiles, roaring and foaming down rocks and rapids, until it is againsoothed to rest in some peaceful valley.