99 [ 1 ] 



from an Indian. A trader just pointed out to me an Indian who had (riven 

 him a porcupine skin in the winter, and said he, "I haA'e not done paying 

 for it yet though I have given him the vahie of seventeen-hundred dolhirs 

 ahx'ady." This system of presents prevails to a great extent here ; you 

 wouhl think them the most generous people in the world, and they are really 

 so, but they get paid a great deal in the same way. This refers to the 

 whites as well as to the Indians. Obtained from Mr. Gilpin some valuable 

 statistics about the Sioux nation. 



Read Lynch's work, and was exceedingly struck with the similarity that 

 must exist between the conformation of some parts of that country around 

 the Dead Sea and this ; so striking is the resemblance that a paragraph de- 

 scriptive of it is almost the same as my language in describing the distant 

 view of the Mauvaise Terre ; it is found at page 330 chapter 15, in the ac- 

 count of an excursion to Masada, where "they beheld in the distance 

 most singular formations resembling a plain covered with towns and villages, 

 marble cities with columns, temples, domes and palaces, which as they (the 

 beholders) advanced flided away and finally resolved themselves into curi- 

 ously configurated hills, so marketl and channelled by the weather, that 

 although aware of the formation, it was difiicult to destroy the first illusion." 

 See pages 91 and 92 of this journal. 



I think the picture of Masada, facing page 332 might easily pass for a 

 view of one of the sand butes of the Bad Lands. It will certainly be an 

 interesting question for my more learned followers to investsgate, and I hope 

 it may serve to throw some light on the formations in both districts. 



A. mentioned to-day some Mauvaise Terre high up on the Missouri more 

 w^onderful than those on White River — he did not know whether petrifac- 

 tions were found there or not. 



Saturday, May 25. — This morning early the clouds were very heavy and 

 indicated a heavy rain but it did not come, although it has been cloudy 

 throughout the day ; just now, however, it appears as if about to begin, and 

 it probably will be a long one. Fire has been very pleasant all day. Before 

 coming here I had been led to suppose that changes in temperature were not 

 sudden : my experience however has been very different. But ray constitu- 

 tion does not suffer from them as it did in the East, either because of my 

 more vigorous health or of the great purity of the air, and perhaps it may 

 be from a combination of both. 



During the forenoon I took a long walk down the river on the look-out 

 for plants, but found very few ; however got three new specimens for the 

 herbarium, and several fine yellow violets, which I hope will press better 

 than those heretofore tried. I walked for nearly a mile on a sand bar, and 

 found imbedded in the sand a well preserved buffalo skull, wanting only the 

 lowx^r jaw. I sent Jim for it and shall give it the privilege of a visit to the 

 East. M'Kenzie did not succeed in skinning the small birds shot this 

 morning, on account of such large holes in them. In the afternoon one of 

 the men brought me a small owl which lives with the prairie-dog. I killed 

 it, and with M'K's. assistance took off its skin ; but as we have no arsenic, 

 I fear it will not keep ; I have, therefore, made a skeleton of it and if the 

 skin decays will have at least its bones. 



While engaged in this operation, a band of Indians entered the yard for 

 a dance ; they were about twenty in number and had two leaders, one on 

 horseback. All were dressed in war costume and had their bodies painted 

 with vermiUion, or with yellow ochre ; they exhibit the same taste for dis- 



