The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1902-03-13


could see nothing, but from the pilot
house deck they could rest their eyes
with nothing less than vast rolling
praIrles which extended as far as the
vision could reach Little We thought
as we gazed at these seemingly iIlimit-
able plains that In little less than a
quarter of century they would be
dotted with smiling fields, prosperous
villages and that the whistle of many
locomotives would be heard where now
was seeming desolation and eternal
silence.
The monotony of the trip was broken
by stops to unload supplies at the nu-
merous forts and Indian agencies.
The coming of the steamer was a gala
day in the lives of the inhabitants of
| these isolated places of abode. This
was more especially the case at the
agencies where the whole population,
old and young, bucks, squaws, pap
pooses and dogs lined up as reception
committees. At the Standing Rock
agency, where the boat laid mp An en-
tire day. the eunsophisticated sayages in
duiged in foot racing and horse racing
| for the benefit Of the sporting element
among the passengers, and incidentally
relieved them Of their surplus coin.
The stop for Bismarck was only
notable from the fsct that the boat
landing was over mile from the town,
and we had to wade through couple
of inches of sand in order to get view
of the future capital of North Dakota.
Bismarck was at this period the west
ern terminus of the Northern Pacific
railroad
After leaving the mouth Of the yell
lowstone the scenery began tc change
and soon became Of that grand charac-
ter belonging solely TO mountainous
country The river was now bardered
by mighty hills and rocky eminences.
These hills appeared to rise in terraces
as theE receded from the river and at
last eliminated in giant mountain
ranges whose snowy SUBMITS were
just visible through breaks in the hills
| from the steamers decks.
There is one dangerous place in this
section OF the river known as Drowned
Mems rapids. They are so-called from
the fact that. eight men who were de-
scendlng the river III batteau were
overturned and ali were drowned In the
swift current. The steamboat in trv-
ing To breast this stretch of water had
to resort TO other help outside of her
powerful engine. As an aid to the
boats the government has placed dig
plies at intervals of 200 feet the west
shore The steamers crew fastened one
end of rope cable some 800 feet in
length to one of these piles. During
this operation the boat was tied to the
shore SO as to enable the crew to land
and drag the cable up shore the re-
quired distance The steamer end of
the cable was fastened to the capstan
or nigger in the bow of the boat As
the capstan revoIved the cable was
taken in. By this means the steamer
slowly but surely surmounted the diff
cuities of the passage. The boat
at this point lost a deckhand over
board. The poor fellows head came to
the surface just once
/ The only excitement we had after
the tussel with the rapids was when
we arrived at Cow Island. The buffalo
were crossing the river at this point in
immense numbers. As every man on
board had some kind of firearm they
all began popping away at this moving
mass of animals, but1 venture to say
not one of the beasts received fatal
wound As none stopped but eli kept on