Note 15 — Chapter X · STEAMBOAT NAVIGATION ON THE MISSOURI RIVER.

As an example of primitive lighthouse or fog-signal work, the story is told of a steamboat captain who always made a certain crossing on the lower river, if at night, by the aid of the bark of a dog belonging to a farmhouse directly in line with the course of the boat. The dog came out on the bank whenever boats were approaching, and saluted them vigorously until they had passed. The captain ran by this bark with the most implicit confidence. But unhappily the dog did change his position—once—and the captain ran by its bark no more, for the next morning his own bark was a hopeless wreck upon a neighboring sandbar.