340 EXPEDITION TO THE 



traces were occasionally observed upon trees. In such places 

 the trees were generally barked to a proper height ; in one in- 

 stance, four adjoining trees bore the representation of an In- 

 dian with wings, painted with red earth ; a number of trans- 

 verse lines were also drawn across the tree. This design was 

 intended to convey the information that the Redwing chief 

 had passed in that direction with a party, the strength of 

 which was designated by the number of transverse streaks. 

 From the numerous tumuli observed along the river, they 

 were confirmed in the belief, that this scarcity of game has 

 not always prevailed in this part of the country, but that 

 this stream was once inhabited by as extensive a popula- 

 tion as can be supported by game alone, in the most fa- 

 voured regions. 



On the 15th of July, the party, reduced in number to 

 twenty-four, left the Crescent. They were provided with 

 twenty-one horses, two of which were disabled. Nine were 

 allotted to the officers and gentlemen of the party ; the re- 

 maining ten being required as pack-horses to convey the 

 provisions and baggage, the soldiers were all obliged to 

 walk ; which, however, as the country was fine prairie, and 

 the days' march short, was not considered a very hard duty. 

 We proceeded across some fine rolling prairies, in a course 

 south of west, for about nine miles, when we saw the re- 

 mains of Indian habitations; they were deserted. Upon a 

 scaffold, raised eighteen feet above the ground, and situa- 

 ted upon an elevated part of the prairie, the putrefying 

 carcass of an Indian lay exposed to view. It had not been 

 enclosed in a box, but merely shrouded in a blanket, 

 which the wind and atmospheric influence had reduced to 

 tatters. Fifteen horizontal black marks, drawn across one 

 of the posts that supported the scafibld, designated, as we 

 were informed by Renville, that as many scalps had been 



