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herd of oik, fifteen in number, appeared on a bar above us ; as soon as they 

 saw the boat they took to the river and swarn across, but became alarmed, 

 and instead of landing, gathered in a circle and remained swimming about 

 in the water. As the boat approached them, nearly every man prepared to 

 give them a warm salute, which they remained quietly to receive. 



First, pop went one gun and then another, and another, and crack, crack, 

 was heard for fifteen or twenty minutes, amidst shouts of the greatest ex- 

 citement, while the elk started for the other shore, the blood spouting from 

 most of them — one would lao- behind, and then another and down stream 

 they would float wrong side up. Captain Bryuly, the second pilot, took 

 long aim at one, and I thought he had missed, but in a moment up went the 

 poor fellow's heels in the air, and he made a grand flourish in the water, 

 but at last was obliged to giv^e up the ghost. Meanwhile, old Mr. Picotte 

 was off" in the yawl, sword in hand, after the wounded and to bring in the 

 dead. The sight was most exciting and amusing ; tlie old man sat strad- 

 dling the bow of the boat, coat off", flourishing his sword, ready to plunge 

 it into the first elk he could reach. One poor animal wounded in the back, 

 was struggling to get away, and after him they put ; stick went the sword, 

 but in it would not go ; the old gentleman had not examined the point, and 

 on trial, it was found dull as a beetle. But he W'as too old a hunter to be 

 foiled in this way, and the bow of the boat was again turned to the elk ; 

 now they are on it and Mr. Picotte seizes it by the tail, pushing his 

 small knife up to the handle in its side. The elk kicked and scuffled, but 

 it w^is of no avail, and soon was on the deck and its hide unshipped, as one 

 of the men called the operation of skinning. Meanwhile, a fine doe had 

 been skinned and cut up on the forward deck, and the same operation was 

 being performed on the s-ern, so that now three fine elk were on the boat. 

 The yawl again went after another one, and returned with the only buck I 

 noticed in the band, so that w^e got four ; three others were killed, but were 

 carried off" by the current, and my own impression is that all the others 

 were wounded. The horns of the buck were in the velvet state, but were 

 very much injured. I shall get two or three skulls. 



Encamped at the side of a very extensive and level prairie to the north 

 side eleven points from Milk River — cloudy and signs of rain. 



Wednesday, June 19 — Six o'clock. — The sun arose clear this morning 

 but now it is a little hazy. We are nil still pushing up stream ; face of the 

 country is rather more even ; low hills on both sides generally off" from the 

 river. 



Ten o'clock. — Had a long talk this morning with Mr. Clark on the sub- 

 ject of Indian customs. I was surprised to hear what he told me of the 

 language of signs used by nearly all the tribes except the Sioux and Assini- 

 boines. It must be as perfect and expressive as the language of mutes with 

 us ; by these signs one Indian can tell another the principal events of his 

 whole life and will be perfectly understood. And this does not come from 

 the barrenness of their own language for it is sufficiently expressive, bnt 

 Mr. Clark thinks it to have originated principally from the fact of the Indi- 

 ans not knowing when they meet a man, whether he be a friend or an 

 enemy ; they do not know whether to let him approach or not and by these 

 signs he can learn all about him, though he be too far off to converse with 

 the tongue. It is therfore the lan<;uatre of caution and defence. 



These signs are beautiful and poetic ; the rude figures which we see 

 sometimes on buff"aIor robes are not mere awkward attempts at ornament, 



