nd of an expedition that was ordered to go out after the
Indians, and in a few days--after having rested a couple of weeks--we set
out for the Republican; having learned that there were plenty of Indians
in that section of the country. At Frenchman's Fork we discovered an
Indian village, but did not surprise it, for its people had noticed us
approaching, and were retreating when we reached their camping-place. We
chased them down the stream, and they finally turned to the left, went
north, and crossed the South Platte river five miles above Ogallala. We
pushed rapidly after them, following them across the North Platte and on
through the sand-hills towards the Niobrara; but as they were making much
better time than we, the pursuit was abandoned.

While we were in the sand-hills, scouting the Niobrara country, the
Pawnee Indians brought into camp, one night, some very large bones, one
of which a surgeon of the expedition pronounced to be the thigh-bone of a
human being. The Indians claimed that the bones they had found were those
of a person belonging to a race of people who a long time ago lived in
this country. That there was once a race of men on the earth whose size
was about three times that of an ordinary man, and they were so swift and
powerful that they could run along-side of a buffalo, and taking the
animal in one arm could tear off a leg and eat the meat as they walked.
These giants denied the existence of a Great Spirit, and when they heard
the thunder or saw the lightning they laughed at it and said that they
were greater than either. This so displeased the Great Spirit that he
caused a great rain-storm to come, and the water kept rising higher and
higher so that it drove those proud and conceited giants from the low
grounds to the hills, and thence to the mountains, but at last even the
mountain tops were submerged, and then those mammoth men were all
drowned. After the flood had subsided, the Great Spirit came to the
conclusion that he had made man too large and powerful, and that he would
therefore correct the mistake by creating a race of men of smaller size
and less strength. This is the reason, say the Indians, that modern men
are small and not like the giants of old, and they claim that this story
is a matter of Indian history, which has been handed down among them from
time immemorial.

As we had no wagons with us at the time this large and heavy bone was
found, we were obliged to leave it.

C