THE MISSOURI RIVER JOURNALS 509 



brought on board, most of the men being too lazy, or too 

 far off, to cut out even the tongues of the others ; and 

 thus it is that thousands multiplied by thousands of Buf- 

 faloes are murdered in senseless play, and their enormous 

 carcasses are suffered to be the prey of the Wolf, the 

 Raven and the Buzzard. However, the hunters all re- 

 turned safely to the boat, and we took them in, some 

 tired enough, among whom was friend Squires. He had 

 worn out his moccasins, and his feet were sore, blistered, 

 and swollen ; he was thirsty enough too, for in taking a 

 drink he had gone to a beautiful clear spring that unfor- 

 tunately proved to be one of magnesia, which is common 

 enough in this part of our country, and this much in- 

 creased his thirst. He drank four tumblers of water first, 

 then a glass of grog, ate somewhat of a breakfast, and 

 went to bed, whence I called him a few minutes before 

 dinner. However, he saw some Buffaloes, and had hopes 

 of shooting one, also about twenty Antelopes. Michaux 

 saw two very large White Wolves. At the place w^here 

 we decided to take the fatigued party in, we stopped to 

 cut down a few dead cedars, and Harris shot a common 

 Rabbit and one Lark Finch. Bell and Sprague saw 

 several Meadow-larks, which I trust will prove new, as 

 these birds have quite different notes and songs from 

 those of our eastern birds. They brought a curious 

 cactus, some handsome well-scented dwarf peas, and 

 several other plants unknown to me. On the island 

 I found abundance of dwarf w'ild-cherry bushes in full 

 blossom, and we have placed all these plants in press. 

 We had the misfortune to get aground whilst at dinner, 

 and are now fast till to-morrow morning; for all our 

 efforts to get the boat off, and they have been many, have 

 proved ineffectual. It is a bad spot, for we are nearly 

 halfway from either shore. I continued my long letter 

 for home, and wrote the greatest portion of another long 

 one to John Bachman. I intend to write till a late hour 



