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Ten o'^ clock. — The country continues more even than yesterday — some 

 fine prairie — good timber — just now passing some hills on the south side, 

 where big horns are abundant. The hills are not as high as those seen 

 yesterday. They are very irregular — covered with sand stone and rise 

 perpendicularly from the water — swallows of a smaller kind than those 

 in the states, ha\'e built their nests in the sides. A little up the river, slate 

 appears. There is no sign of coal or of the red lands so frequently seen 

 yesterday. 



Two 0^ clock. — I have just returned from a short excursion to Elk Horn 

 prairie, about eighty miles from the fort ; the object of attraction was a 

 remaakable pile of elk horns. The boat stopped and let us out about half 

 a mile from the pile, when Messrs. Picotte, Clark, Culbertson and myself, 

 with twenty-five or thirty men, stated for the horns; some ran ahead and 

 by the time I got there one of the men had already mounted the pile and 

 was handing down the horns. The report was that all the horns were at- 

 tached to the head and that the pile was of a wonderful size. The distant 

 view, for it was seen like a white monument several miles off, tended to 

 confirm these reports, and I thought that here at least there had been no 

 exaggeration. On close examination, however, I found it only about fifteen 

 feet high and twenty or twenty-five in circumference. Eut even this was a 

 wonderful pile to be made entirely of elk horns. There was not a single 

 head to be found ; the horns were piled close together, and as there were 

 no heads the whole probably were horns that had been shed from the living 

 animal. 



What a number of elk must have been here to have furnished such a 

 number of horns. As to the origin of the pile no certain information can 

 be gained. Old traders say it has been here to their knowledge for twnenty 

 years, and how much longer they cannot tell. Old Indians say they are 

 ignorant of the time or occasion of its being m.ade. There were originally 

 two piles, but for several years past they have been mingled into one. 

 The prairie is from two to six or ten miles wide, and many miles long. 

 It is further remarkable for being the place where the steamer Assiniboine, 

 belonging to the company wintered several years ago. She had come up 

 this far and could not get down again because of low water. In the spring 

 she returned and was burnt, intentionally it is said, below the Mandans. 

 We are therefore higher up the Missouri than any other boat has ever been. 

 The country continues to be less hilly than yesterday. I procured several 

 flowers as mementos of Elk Horn prairie. 



Four o'clock. — We are aground opposite the Ri\ iere au Tremble which 

 comes in from the north, ninety miles from the Fort. This river is larger 

 than any we have seen before. About an hour ago we struck the first sand 

 bar encountered since leaving the Fort, but were off again in a moment ; 

 no snags have been seen except very close to shore. None of the high 

 irregular hills have appeared this afternoon, but very wide rolling prairies 

 are seen on the north side. The English name of the stream is Quaking 

 Ash creek. A little above, nearly opposite, is the mouth of apparently 

 quite a large stream which runs very near the Elk Horn prairie, and is 

 known I)y the name of the Dry Fork. It is quite large at the mou]h owing 

 probably to the back water of the Missouri.. Saline deposite in south bank. 

 The Quaking Ash river is probably the Martha's river of the map ; the 

 traders knew no stream by this name. 



Seven o'clock — We have just had some rare sport ; half an hour ago a 



