A year later, the man's skeleton was discovered beside these bluffs, proving that the wretched sufferer had actually crawled more than forty miles before he finally surrendered to the inevitable, and sank down in merciful death. The death of Jedediah S. Smith , who experienced a number of remarkable adventures while exploring a route to California, was one of the tragedies of the Plains. Smith was in many respects a remarkable man, deeply religious, of undaunted courage, and untiring energy. He enlisted in the fur trade when a mere boy, and, at seventeen, won distinction among these hardy men in the Arikara War. After William Ashley's retreat, Smith carried dispatches to Fort Henry on the Yellowstone River, a mission of great peril.

The remainder of his life was passed in the wilderness, where he became a recognized leader. In 1831, Smith, in connection with his old fur partners, David Jackson and Santa Fe trade. In Missouri, they secured an outfit with twenty wagons and eighty men, and started out through Kansas. Being veterans of the Plains, they felt no doubt of getting through safely, and everything went well as far as fording the Arkansas River. Here, they entered upon the desert waste lying between Arkansas  and Cimarron Rivers. No one in the party had been over the route before, and they found no trail, no guiding landmark. Mirages deceived them and led them astray, and the caravan wandered for two days without water, their condition becoming desperate. Smith  determined to ride ahead and find a way for the others. Following a buffalo  trail, he came upon the Cimarron River, but found the bed of the stream dry. Knowing the nature of such rivers, he scooped out a hole in the bottom, which slowly filled with water. Stooping down to drink, never dreaming of danger, he was mortally wounded by arrows shot by skulking Comanche. He staggered to his feet, and killed two of his assailants before death ended the fight. His companions, after much suffering, reached Santa Fe, New Mexico, but their leader had paid the toll of the wilderness.  

The Trapper's Characteristics

It is difficult in these later days to comprehend the nature and life of those sturdy wanderers of mountain and plain, the early trappers. They were soon marked by their environment, and developed a peculiar character. The nature of their service had its effect upon their appearance, language, habits, and dress. The hard life of the trapper impressed itself on all his features. In author, Hiram Chittenden's words:

"He was ordinarily gaunt and spare, browned with exposure, his hair long and unkempt, which, with his dress, often made it difficult to distinguish him from the Indian. The constant peril of his life, and the necessity of unremitting vigilance, gave him a kind of piercing look, his head slightly bent forward and his deep eyes peering from under a slouch hat, or whatever head-gear he might possess, as if studying the face of the stranger to learn whether friend or foe. On the whole, he impressed one as taciturn and gloomy, and his life did, to some extent, suppress gayety and tenderness. He became accustomed to scenes of violence and death; and the problem of self-preservation was of such paramount importance that he had but little time to waste upon ineffectual reflections."

Among these men habits of thrift were practically unknown. They were utterly improvident, and apparently so by deliberate choice. They scorned all effort at economy, and were always poor, spending every cent as soon as it was received.