Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/467

 *ject of the condition and prospects of the Poncas; and as the result of this the members of the band who had returned to the mouth of the Niobrara were permitted to remain there unmolested.

To incorporate herein an account of the explorations and hunts upon which General Crook engaged while in command of the Department of the Platte, after the Indians had been reduced to submission, would be tantamount to a description of the topography of the country west of the Missouri up to and including the head-waters of the Columbia, and north and south from the Yellowstone Park to the Grand Cañon of the Colorado, and would swell in volume until it would include a description of the methods of catching or killing every fish that swam in the streams, every bird that floated in the air, and every wild animal that made its lair or burrow within those limits. Ducks, geese, turkeys, sage hens, prairie chickens; pike, pickerel, catfish, trout, salmon-trout, and whitefish; elk, deer, moose, antelope, mountain sheep; bears, wolverines, badgers, coyotes, mountain wolves—all yielded tribute to his rod or rifle. He kept adding to his collection of stuffed birds and eggs until there was no man in the country who possessed a more intimate practical knowledge of the habits of the fauna and flora of the vast region beyond the Missouri. As he made these journeys on horse or mule back, there was no man who could pretend to compare with him in an acquaintance with the trails and topography of the country off from the lines of railroad, and only one—General Sherman—who could compare in a general knowledge of the area of the United States. Sherman, while General of the army, was a great traveller, constantly on the go, but nearly all of his trips were made by rail or in stage-coach, and but few by other methods.

In company with General Sheridan, General Sackett, and General Forsyth, General Crook travelled across the then unknown territory between the Wind River and the Big Horn to the Tongue River, then down to the Custer battle-field, and by steamer from the month of the Little Horn to the Yellowstone, and down the Missouri to Bismarck. In company with the Hon. Carl Schurz, then Secretary of the Interior, be explored all the Yellowstone Park, and viewed its wonders—the exquisite lake, the lofty precipices of the cañon, the placid flow of the beautiful river, and its sudden plunge over the falls into the depths below,