Scenes and Adventures in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and Arkansas. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

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СКАЧАТЬ on board, except two adventurers from the Youghioghany, in Western Pennsylvania, who had freighted the barge, and were in the position of supercargoes. Such tugging and toiling I had never before seen. It seemed to me that no set of men could long stand it. The current ran as if it were charged with power to sweep everything down its course. Its banks were not proof against this impetuosity, and frequently fell in, with a noise and power which threatened to overwhelm us. This danger was often increased by the floating trees, which had fallen into the stream at higher points. And when, after a severe day's toil, the captain ordered the boat to be moored for the night, we felt an insecurity from the fear that the bank itself might prove treacherous before morning.

      Nothing in the structure of the country appeared to present a very fixed character. The banks of the river were elevated from ten to fifteen feet above the water, and consisted of a dark alluvium, bearing a dense forest. When they became too precipitous, which was an indication that the water at these points was too deep for the men to reach bottom with their poles, they took their oars, and crossed to the other bank. When night came on, in these damp alluvions, and darkness was added to our danger, the scene was indeed gloomy. I remember, this evening, we tried most perseveringly to drink our tea by a feeble light, which appeared to be a signal for the collection of insects far and near, who, by their numbers and the fierceness of their attacks, made it impossible to bring our cups to our mouths without stopping to brush away the fierce and greedy hordes of mosquitoes. Amongst the growth, cane and cotton-wood were most conspicuous.

      I had a specimen of boatman manners to-day, which should not certainly be a subject of surprise, considering the rough-and-ready life and character of that class. Having laid down on the top deck of the barge a mineralogical specimen to which I attached value, and gone temporarily away, I found, on my return, that it had been knocked to pieces by one of the men, who acted, probably, like the boy who broke the fiddle, "to get the music out" of it. On expressing my disapproval of this, to one who evidently had not the most distant idea of the scientific value of "a stone," he made some trite remark, that "there was more where this came from," and then, stretching himself up at his full length of six feet, with sinews which had plainly become tense and hard from the use of the setting-pole, he exclaimed, "Help yourself!"

      July 2d. The toils of this day were similar to those of the last. It was a perpetual struggle to overcome the force of the current by poles placed in the bed, and, when that became too deep, we sought for shallower shores. We encountered the same growth of trees along the banks. The land became somewhat more elevated. The insects were in such hordes, that it was amazing. We proceeded but about six miles to-day, and they were miles of incessant toil.

      July 3d. To the ordinary dangers and efforts of this day, were added the frequent occurrence of snags and sawyers, or planters—terms which denote some of the peculiar impediments of Mississippi navigation. The captain of our craft, who was a courageous and vigilant man, was continually on the look-out to avoid these dangers, and put-to, at night, at the foot of a large cane-covered island, by which he avoided, in some measure, the sweep of the current, but was yet in jeopardy from falling-in banks. He requested me, in this exigency, to take a pole, and, from the bow, sound for bottom, as we crossed the river, to avoid shoals. This I did successfully. We estimated our ascent this day at seven miles.

      July 4th. The perils and toils of the crew did not prevent their remembrance of the national anniversary; and the captain acknowledged their appeal in the morning by an extra measure of "old Monongahela." We then set forward against the wild, raging current. From the appearance of the wild turkey and large grey squirrel ashore, it is probable that we are passing out of the inundated region. In other respects, the face of the country and its productions appear the same. After ascending about six miles, when the time approached for looking out for a place to moor for the night, a storm of wind suddenly arose, which dashed the water into the barge. We put ashore in haste, at a precipitous bank of an island, which fell in during the night very near to us, and put us in momentary peril. To leave our position in the dark, would be to take the risk of running afoul of snags, or encountering floating trees; but as early as the light appeared on the morning of the 5th, we left the spot immediately, crossing to the western bank. By diligence we made eight miles this day, which brought us to the first settlement at Tiawapeta bottom, on the Missouri shore. This is the first land that appears sufficiently elevated for cultivation. The settlement consists of six or eight farms, where corn, flax, hemp, potatoes, and tobacco, are abundantly raised. The peach and apple-tree also thrive. I observed the papaw and persimmon among the wild fruits.

      July 6th. The downward movement of the water, and its gurgling and rush as it meets with obstacles, is very audible after the barge has been fastened to the shore for the night, when its fearful impetuosity, surcharged as it is with floating wrecks of forest life, is impressive to the listener, while night has thrown her dark pall over the scene.

      Early in the morning, the oarsmen and polemen were at their masculine toils. I had feared that such intense application of muscle, in pushing forward the boat, would exhaust their strength; and we had not gone over three miles this day, when we were obliged to lay-by for the want of more competent hands. The complaining men were promptly paid, and furnished with provisions to return. While detained by this circumstance, we were passed by a boat of similar construction to our own, laden with planks from Olean, on the sources of the Alleghany river, in New York. This article had been transported already more than thirteen hundred miles, on its way to a market at St. Louis, where it was estimated to be worth sixty dollars per thousand feet.

      While moored along this coast, the day after we had thus escaped from the treacherous island, we seemed to have taken shelter along a shore infested by wild beasts. "Grizzly bear!" was the cry at night. We were all alarmed by a snorting and disturbance at the water's edge, a short distance below us, which, it was soon evident, proceeded from a large, light-colored, and furious animal. So far, all agreed. One of our Pennsylvanians, who had a choice rifle, prepared himself for the attack. The captain, who had no lack of resolution, and would, at any rate, have become bold by battling the Mississippi river for six or seven days, had some missiles; and all prepared to be useful on the occasion. As I carried nothing more deadly than a silver crucible and some acids, I remained on the upper deck of the barge. From this elevation I soon saw, by the dim moonlight, the whole party return, without having fired a gun. It turned out that the cause of this unusual disturbance was a large white hog, which had been shot in the head and snout with swan-shot, by some cruel fellows, the preceding day, and came at night to mitigate its burning and festering wounds by bathing in the river.

      July 7th. Having procured some additional hands, our invincible captain pressed stoutly forward, and, at an early hour, we reached the head of Tiawapeta bottom, where a short stop was made. At this point, the bed of the Mississippi appears to be crossed by a chain of rocks, which oppose, however, no obstruction to its navigation. Such masses of it as appear on shore, are silico-carbonates of lime, and seem to belong to the metalliferous system of Missouri. About half a mile above the commencement of this chain, I observed, at the foot of an elevation near the water's edge, a remarkable stratum of white aluminous earth, of a rather dry and friable character, resembling chalk, and which, I afterwards observed, was extensively used by mechanics in Missouri as a substitute for that article. Masses, and in some instances nodules, of hornstone, resembling true flint, are found imbedded in it; yet it is not to be confounded with the chalk formation. It yields no effervescence with nitric, and is wholly destitute of carbonic, acid. Portions of the stratum are colored deeply by the red oxide of iron. Scattered along the shores of the river at this place, I observed large, angular masses of pudding-stone, consisting chiefly of silicious pebbles and sand, cemented by oxide of iron.

      I now began to breathe more freely. For seven days we had been passing through such a nascent region, down which the Mississippi swept at so furious a rate, that I never felt sure, at night, that I should behold another day. Had the barge, any day, lost her heading and got athwart the stream, nothing could have prevented the water from rushing over her gunwales, and sweeping her to destruction. And the whole district of the alluvial banks was subject to be momentarily undermined, and frequently tumbled in, СКАЧАТЬ