Of Late Years, However,
Since The Trade With The Whites Has Rendered Beaver-Skins More Valuable,
The Sanctity Of These Maternal Relatives Has Been Visibly Reduced,
And The Poor Animals Have Lost All The Privileges Of Kindred.
Game was abundant all along the river as the explorers
sailed up the stream.
Their hunters killed numbers of deer,
and at the mouth of Big Good Woman Creek, which empties into
the Missouri near the present town of Franklin, Howard County,
three bears were brought into the camp. Here, too, they began
to find salt springs, or "salt licks," to which many wild
animals resorted for salt, of which they were very fond.
Saline County, Missouri, perpetuates the name given to the region
by Lewis and Clark. Traces of buffalo were also found here,
and occasional wandering traders told them that the Indians had
begun to hunt the buffalo now that the grass had become abundant
enough to attract this big game from regions lying further south.
By the tenth of June the party had entered the country of the
Ayauway nation. This was an easy way of spelling the word now
familiar to us as "Iowa." But before that spelling was reached,
it was Ayaway, Ayahwa, Iawai, Iaway, and soon. The remnants of this
once powerful tribe now number scarcely two hundred persons.
In Lewis and Clark's time, they were a large nation, with several
hundred warriors, and were constantly at war with their neighbors.
Game here grew still more abundant, and in addition to deer and bear
the hunters brought in a raccoon. One of these hunters brought into
camp a wild tale of a snake which, he said, "made a guttural noise
like a turkey." One of the French voyageurs confirmed this story;
but the croaking snake was never found and identified.
On the twenty-fourth of June the explorers halted to prepare some of the meat
which their hunters brought in. Numerous herds of deer were feeding
on the abundant grass and young willows that grew along the river banks.
The meat, cut in small strips, or ribbons, was dried quickly in the hot sun.
This was called "jirked" meat. Later on the word was corrupted into "jerked,"
and "jerked beef" is not unknown at the present day. The verb "jerk"
is corrupted from the Chilian word, charqui, meaning sun-dried meat;
but it is not easy to explain how the Chilian word got into the Northwest.
As the season advanced, the party found many delicious wild fruits,
such as currants, plums, raspberries, wild apples, and vast quantities
of mulberries. Wild turkeys were also found in large numbers,
and the party had evidently entered a land of plenty.
Wild geese were abundant, and numerous tracks of elk were seen.
But we may as well say here that the, so-called elk of the Northwest
is not the elk of ancient Europe; a more correct and distinctive name
for this animal is wapiti, the name given the animal by the Indians.
The European elk more closely resembles the American moose.
Its antlers are flat, low, and palmated like our moose;
whereas the antlers of the American elk, so-called, are long,
high, and round-shaped with many sharp points or tines.
The mouth of the great Platte River was reached on the twenty-first
of July.
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