A BISON HUNT. 



123 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



A BISON HUNT OF MR. CATLIN AND M. CHARDON. 



R. GEORGE CATLIN, an Ameri- 

 can artist, resided for many years 

 among the wildest of the Western 

 Indians, of whose manners, cus- 

 toms, and character, he has given 

 the most lively and amusing 

 description in his <* Letters and 

 Notes." From this work we 

 copy the following extract, which 

 includes an account of. one of his 

 hunting excursions, while he was in the Indian country. 



The several tribes of Indians inhabiting the regions of the Upper 

 Missouri, are undoubtedly the finest looking, best equipped, and 

 most beautifully costumed of any on the Continent. They live in 

 a country well-stocked with buffaloes and wild horses, which furnish 

 them an excellent and easy living ; their atmosphere is pure, which 

 produces good health and long life : and they are the most inde- 

 pendent and the happiest races of Indians I have met with ; they 

 are all entirely in a state of primitive wildness, and consequently 

 are picturesque and handsome, almost beyond description. Nothing 



