LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 97 



skins and buffalo-rugs, which are rolled up during the day, 

 and stowed at the back of the lodge. 



In travelling, the lodge-poles are secured half on each 

 side a horse, and the skins placed on transversal bars near 

 the ends, which trail along the ground two or three 

 squaws or children mounted on the same horse, or the 

 smallest of the latter borne in the dog travees. A set of 

 lodge-poles will last from three to seven years, unless the 

 village is constantly on the move, when they are soon worn 

 out in trailing over the gravelly prairie. They are usually 

 of ash, which grows on many of the mountain creeks, and 

 regular expeditions are -undertaken when a supply is re- 

 quired, either for their own lodges, or for trading with 

 those tribes who inhabit the prairies at a great distance 

 from the locality where the poles are procured. 



There are also certain creeks where the Indians resort to 

 lay in a store of kinnik-kinnik (the inner bark of the red 

 willow), which they use as a substitute for tobacco, and 

 which has an aromatic and very pungent flavour. It is 

 prepared for smoking by being scraped in thin eurly flakes 

 from the slender saplings, and crisped before the fire, after 

 which it is rubbed between the hands, into a form resem- 

 bling leaf-tobacco, and stored in skin bags for use. It has 

 a highly narcotic effect on those not habituated to its use, 

 and produces a heaviness sometimes approaching stupe- 

 faction, altogether different from the soothing effects of 

 tobacco. 



Every year, owing to the disappearance of the buffalo 

 from their former haunts, the Indians are compelled to 

 encroach upon each other's hunting-grounds, which is a 

 fruitful cause of war between the different tribes. It is 

 a curious fact that the buffalo retire before the whites, 

 whilst the presence of Indians in their pastures appears in 

 no degree to disturb them. Wherever a few white hunters 

 are congregated in a trading port, or elsewhere, so sure is 

 it that, if they remain in the same locality, the buffalo will 

 desert the vicinity, and seek pasture elsewhere. In this, 

 the Indians affirm, the wahkeitcha, or " bad medicine," of 

 the pale-faces is very apparent ; and they ground upon it 

 G 



