, if he had any whisky to
sell. He drove them away by threatening to sink their boat with a
hatchet which he picked up from the deck of the Baby. This incident
showed that there were still whisky smugglers plying their trade among
the Indians. A short distance below they heard wild lamentations issuing
from a clump of trees near the bank and saw the Indians were waking the
corpse of a deceased friend. The mourner was attempting to sing; but the
rhythm was so rude and incongruous, that it was really a series of
howls. At the end of each stanza, the air was rent by a burst of war
whoops that were calculated to make one's blood run cold. The weird
chanting could be heard on the still night air miles below and the
voyagers were convinced that there are many things more cheerful than
an Indian wake. The night passed without incident and after breakfast
next morning, Paul had to spend some time in fixing one or two weakening
places in his dress.

Large flocks of gulls were now seen, which was looked upon as a good
sign--that they had traveled south faster than the cold weather and
would reach St. Louis before winter commenced in earnest. Strange as it
may seem, these birds are found near the head of the Missouri river.
They start from the sea coast in the spring and follow up the streams
for over five thousand miles, retracing their course as winter
approaches without ever going astray. That evening Paul and Creelman
were greatly puzzled by the remarkable spectacle of what seemed to be a
sunset in the east and west at the same time. At last they discovered
that a number of large prairie fires were raging to the eastward and the
reflection of the flames on the sky, caused the apparent dual sunset.

After midnight it was found that mud sucks and snags were so thick as to
render further progress in the dark extremely hazardous, so the
voyagers landed under a mud cliff and built a camp fire. They slept
soundly until sunrise when they were astonished to see a number of
Indian women performing their morning toilet at the water's edge. One of
them was examining the Baby Mine in bewilderment and when Paul
approached them they ran up a path in the side of the bluff and
disappeared. He determined to ascertain where they were going and
hastening after them, heard a stern "halt." Just ahead of him in the
path stood a colored army sentinel. The soldier said they were near Fort
Randall, and he was one of the g