SOURCE OF ST. PETER S RIVER. 379 



skilled in this science could discover in their language a 

 combination of several originally distinct tongues. If such 

 ever existed, all recollection of it has been effaced among 

 them. 



To ascertain the number of any Indian tribe has alwayg 

 been considered one of the greatest desiderata, but at the 

 same time one of very difficult attainment. The numbers of 

 this nation have been variously stated by different travel- 

 lers. We have had no opportunity of forming any opinion 

 of our own on this subject ; but they have been represented 

 to us by all who knew them as extremely numerous. We 

 have already stated, in another place, that we had seen 

 lodges large enough to hold fifty inhabitants. We have 

 likewise to observe, that they chiefly subsist upon the buf- 

 falo, an animal which exists in herds* of tens of thousands 

 on the prairies between the Missouri and Mississippi, and 

 which, within a few years past, was extremely abundant 

 east of the Mississippi ; from this it may be argued, that 

 the means of subsistence far exceed the consumption of a 

 much larger population than has ever been ascribed to the 

 Dacotas. It must likewise be remembered, that it is a cha- 

 racteristic of the Indian never to destroy more than he can 

 consume ; in this, differing much from the white hunter, 

 who will frequently kill a buffalo for its tongue or its mar- 

 row bones, leaving the rest of the animal as a prey to the 

 wolves. In the destruction of the buffalo, the white man 

 cannot even plead the inducements of trade, since a great 

 many are killed whose hides are never turned to use. 

 With these observations we will offer a census of the popu- 

 lation of the Dacotas, as furnished to us by Renville, re- 



*The term band, as applied to a herd of buffalo, has almost become 

 technical, being the only one in use in the west. It is derived from 

 the French term baiide. 



