Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1873-10-04
A YARN OF THE YELLOWSTONE
BY A REPORTER.

remarkable to pique the curiosity of any
person casually meeting him. He was
below the average height, somewhat
stopped in the shoulders, but of a ply
sique in which activity and strength
were evidently combined. In complex
ion he was as dark as mulatto; but
that he had no African blood in him,
was obvious from his smooth, glossy
hair, which, once as black as a coal, was
now grizzled with the silver threads of
some fifty years. There was a wild
restlessness in the CLEAN Of his dark
eyes, as ever and anon he stealthily
flashed them over his shoulder that told
of a life passed among besetting dangers
and this impression lost none of Its
force when, in the excitement of con-
versation, he would every now and again
pass his hands towards his hips, as if to
grasp weapons affixed to the leathern
belt with which his loins were tightly
girded. Drink he would none of, tho
there was wine on the board; but in
his nervous manner and the abrupt jerk
with which he tossed back his long,
iron-gray hair there was suggestion of
opium and the dreams that are dreamed
under les influence. His name was Rod
erigo De Costa, and ne was Spaniard
by birth. -
For the truth of the following frag-
mentary narrative, l am not RESPONSE
BILE. l merely took it down in short
hand from the dictation of De Costa, who
had perfect English, pronouncing his
words distinctly and without hesitation.
He spoke as follows:
81 have but lately returned to this
country, from which have been absent
fifteen years. Ten of these passed in
European dungeon, into which I was
cast by certain atfectionate relations, be-
tween whom and an accursed estate l
stood. They said was insane. Money
was brought to bear in the matter, and
on the oaths of suborned perjurers, |
was declared a lunatic and handed over
to the tender mercies of keeper whose
malignant career is now past. How l
made nv escape from that dungeon is
of no consequence to the present narra-
tive.
:'Of recent explorations on this con-
tinent had heard nothing until lately,
for during the whole term of my inn
prisonment [ never saw newspaper,
and but seldom book. Twenty years
ago, l was one of the first explorers of
the wonderful Yellowstone region, the
recent developments published respect
ing which fall far short of my expert
ences of a country which seems to COM
bine in itself many of the attributes of
Heaven and He'll.
SIN the summer of 1851, l passed
southwark from the most remote dis
tricts of the great northwest fur terri
tories, where / had been negotiating
with Indian and white trappers on the
part of certain fur-Inerchants in the
Eastern cities. In company with me
were two Cree Indians and a French
Canadian trapper named La Tour. We
were well armed and supplied with am
munition, and as for provisions, we had
no anxiety, since game was abundant
and the rivers were swarming with fish.
Gone day, as we were following the
course of IL river of considerable size,
we deserted at a great distance, q range
of serrated mountains, some of the peaks
of which were glistening with snow
If ever you saw Mount Hood, inNregon,
you can guess what that far-off ridge
looked like by imagining fifty or sixty
Mount Hoods planted at random here
and there over territory the perspec-
tive of which made one think of eterni-
ty gone mad. The river we were fol-
lowing took its way into that wild re-
gion. What the Indian name of it was
I have forgotten, but that it was the true
Yellowstone became obvious from many
local circumstances that were developed
| as we proceeded.
HInto the glens and over the plateaus,
amid which the river meandered, we
penetrated further every day. 1t was
| midsummer. The days were pleasantly
warm, but the nights so cold that our
blankets were hardly sufficient to make
us comfortable, and we were glad to
keep up the fires of dead wood at which
| we cooked our food.
| s'On the fifteenth day from striking
| the river, We had got into the heart OF
mountains of the most fantastic forms
| and solemn grandeur The features OF
rent and dark, mysterious glens. One
day a truly mountath incident occurred
| A fiock of those big-horned wild goats
sometimes called Rocky Mountain sheer
| (the Canadians called them moufflons
went bounding down a nearly perpen-
dicular precipice at full speed into the
abyss below, sending great stones roll.
ing before them. just as 1 have seer
chamois do in the Bavarian Alps. In
deed, life and scenery here have much
i'm common with those of the mountain
regions of Germany and Switzerland.
"As we were about leaving our camp
ing ground one morning on large fla
rock, at the back of which was thicke
grew bushes of weed that resemblet
wild sage, l was startled at the size Of
huge snake that lay loosely coiled with
in three yards of the spot on which
had been sleeping. At first the snake
seemed to be of kind quite new to me
but as I approached to attack 1t with
long wand. the rattle set up by it, con
vinced me that some of its kin and hat
met before. A few blows disposed O
the serpent, which proved to be the mos
curious reptile l had ever seen. Its col
Ors were more distinct than those of th,
common rattlesnake, consisting of black
irregular diamonds upon bright tan
colored ground. 1t was fully eight fee
long, and about twelve inches in cir
cuInference at its thickest part. BIZ
the most remarkable thing about it, wa
that its rattle was thickly studded wit
, short, hard bristles, black and red, mix
ed. On a close examination hairs co,ii
: be seen growing ont from between tn
! snakes scales all over its body. TIL
Crees had heard of this kind of rattle
snake, but had never seen one before
They told me that it was in its slmme
trim now, and that in the fall 1t is COY
, cred with thick coat Of hair, like a fl,