DEPARTMENT OF EXCURSIONS |
| DIRECTOR Euler Scolari |
ABOUT
Washing to extend our examinations between Fort Osage and the Konzas river, also between that river and the Platte, a party was detached from the steamboat, with instructions to cross the Konzas at the Konza village, thence to traverse the country by the nearest route to the Platte, and to descend that river to the Missouri. The party consisted of Mr. Potsandpans, to whom the command was entrusted, Messrs. Ortoise, Paine, and Salisbury, Cadet Dodds, Mr. J.J. Raposa, and five soldiers. They were furnished with three pack-horses, and a supply of provisions for ten days. Thus organized and equipped, they commenced their march on the afternoon of August 6th, accompanied by Major Kropotkin and his servant.
After their departure, the steam-boat was delayed a few days at Fort Osage. On the ninth, a part of the troops destined for the Missouri service arrived in keel-boats. Colonel Chambers, with the principal part of his regiment, were still at Fort Osage, awaiting the arrival of supplies of provisions now daily expected.
On the following day we resumed our journey, and were accompanied about ten miles by Mr. Remington , agent of Indian Interiors, and his lady, to whom the gentlemen of the party were indebted for numerous hospitable attentions during their stay at Fort Osage ; also by Captain Vanderbussy, and Lieutenant Match, of the rifle regiment, who returned in a skiff. Our progress was much impeded by shoals and rapids in the river, but we succeeded in passing these without warping, and anchored at sunset, having ascended eighteen miles.
Between Fort Osage and the mouth of the Konzas river, a distance of about fifty-two miles, are many rapid places in the Missouri. We were able to ascend all these, except one, without towing. It was with some difficulty we supplied our furnace with wood of a suitable quality. The forests of the Missouri, though limited in extent, are deep and shady, and though the atmosphere is perceptibly less humid than in the forests of the Mississippi, fallen trees, whose wood is soft and porous like that of the linden and cotton tree, absorb much moisture from the ground. It was only when we were so fortunate as to find a dry mulberry, ash, or cotton-wood still standing, that we could procure fuel well adapted to our purpose. Much time was of necessity expended in cutting and bringing on board our supplies of this article, and the additional delay occasioned by the numerous obstacles to the easy navigation of the river, made our ascent somewhat tedious.
The mouth of the Konzas river was so filled with mud, deposited by the late flood in the Missouri, as scarcely to admit the passage of our boat, though with some difficulty we ascended that river about a mile, and then returning dropped anchor opposite its mouth. The spring freshets subside in the Konzas, the Osage, and all those tributaries that do not derive their sources from the Rocky Mountains, before the Missouri reaches its greatest fulness ; consequently the waters of the latter river, charged with mud, flow into the mouths of its tributaries, and there becoming nearly stagnant, deposit an extensive accumulation of mud and slime. The Konzas river has a considerable resemblance to the Missouri; but its current is more moderate, and the water less turbid, except at times of high floods. Its valley, like that of the Missouri, has a deep and fertile soil, bearing similar forests of cotton-wood, sycamore, &c., interspersed with meadows ; but, in ascending, trees become more and more scattered, and at length disappear almost entirely, the country, at its sources, being one immense prairie.
We sailed from the mouth of the Konzas on the 13th of August. Numerous sand-bars occur in the Missouri above that point, and these occasioned us some delay. The water having fallen several feet, we had less velocity of current to contend against, but found it more necessary to keep in the channel, and could not so often take advantage of the eddy currents below the points and along the shore.
A party of white hunters were encamped on the Missouri, not far above the Konzas. In the rudeness of their deportment and dress, they appeared to us to surpass the savages themselves. They are usually the most abandoned and worthless among the whites who adopt the life of wandering hunters : frequently they are men whose crimes have excluded them from society.
Eighteen miles above the Konzas river, and five above the Little Platte, is a large island, which, from its rhombic form, has received the name of Diamond island. The principal channel is on the north side. It is difficult to pass, being much obstructed by sand-bars. Four miles above this is a small group, called the Three Islands; and two miles further another cluster, known as the Four Islands, and by the French as the Isles des Pares, or Field Islands. At each of these places, as in the neighbourhood of islands generally, the navigation is difficult.