The River and I

River and I, The

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Title: The River and I
Author: John G. Neihardt
Release Date: October 3, 2005 [EBook #16793]
Language: English
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THE RIVER AND I

Other Books by JOHN G. NEIHARDT
INDIAN TALES AND OTHERS POETIC VALUES THE QUEST
THE SONG OF HUGH GLASS THE SONG OF THE INDIAN
WARS THE SONG OF THREE FRIENDS THE SPLENDID
WAYFARING TWO MOTHERS COLLECTED POEMS

[Illustration: NIGHT IN CAMP.]

THE RIVER AND I

BY JOHN G. NEIHARDT

Illustrated New Edition

New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1927 All rights reserved

COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY JOHN G. NEIHARDT.
Set up and electrotyped. Reissued in new format, October, 1927.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY THE
CORNWALL PRESS

TO MY MOTHER

NOTE
The following account of a youthful adventure was written during the
winter of 1908, ran as a serial in _Putnam's Magazine_ the following
year, and appeared as a book in 1910, five years before "The Song of
Hugh Glass," the first piece of my Western Cycle. Many who have
cared for my narrative poems, feeling the relation between those and
this earlier avowal of an old love, have urged that "The River and I" be
reprinted.
J.G.N.
St. Louis, 1927.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE RIVER OF AN UNWRITTEN EPIC 1
II. SIXTEEN MILES OF AWE 22
III. HALF-WAY TO THE MOON 40
IV. MAKING A GETAWAY 65
V. THROUGH THE REGION OF WEIR 84
VI. GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS 113
VII. ON TO THE YELLOWSTONE 137
VIII. DOWN FROM THE YELLOWSTONE 165

ILLUSTRATIONS
Night in Camp Frontispiece FACING PAGE "Off on the Perilous
Floods" 6 Barriers Formed before Him 7 The Boats Wrecked in an Ice
Gorge 7 After the Spring Break-Up 18 "Hole-in-the-Wall" Rock on the
Upper Missouri 19 Palisades of the Upper Missouri 19 Great Falls from
Cliff Above 30 Great Falls from the Front 31 "This was Benton" 52
Ruins of Old Fort Benton 52 The House of the Bourgeois 53 A
Round-Up Outfit on the March 62 Joe 62 Montana Sheep 63 A
Montana Wool-Freighter 63 The "Atom I" under Construction 74 The
Cable Ferry Towed Us Out 74 Laid Up with a Broken Rudder 75
"Atom" Sailing Up-Stream in a Head Wind 86 Typical Rapids on
Upper Missouri 87 Wolf Point, the First Town in 500 Miles 98
Entrance to the Bad Lands 99 Fresh Meat! 110 Supper! 111 "Walking"
Boats over Shallows 126 Typical Upper Missouri River Reach 126 The
Mouth of the James 127 Reveille! 142 The Pen and Key Ranch 143
Assiniboine Indian Chief 154 Assiniboine Indian Camp 155 On the
Hurricane Deck of the "Expansion"; Capt. Marsh Third from the Left
166 Fort Union in 1837 167 Site of Old Fort Union 167 Boats Laid Up
for the Winter at Washburn, N.D. 178 Washburn, N.D. 178 The
Landing at Bismarck, N.D. 179 The Yankton Landing in the Old Days
192 "Atom II" Landing at Sioux City 193

THE RIVER AND I

THE RIVER AND I
CHAPTER I
THE RIVER OF AN UNWRITTEN EPIC
It was Carlyle--was it not?--who said that all great works produce an
unpleasant impression on first acquaintance. It is so with the Missouri

River. Carlyle was not, I think, speaking of rivers; but he was speaking
of masterpieces--and so am I.
It makes little difference to me whether or not an epic goes at a
hexameter gallop through the ages, or whether it chooses to be a flood
of muddy water, ripping out a channel from the mountains to the sea. It
is merely a matter of how the great dynamic force shall express itself.
I have seen trout streams that I thought were better lyrics than I or any
of my fellows can ever hope to create. I have heard the moaning of rain
winds among mountain pines that struck me as being equal, at least, to
Adonais. I have seen the solemn rearing of a mountain peak into the
pale dawn that gave me a deep religious appreciation of my
significance in the Grand Scheme, as though I had