422 Life of Audubon, 



elevated ; and we have seen more evergreens to-day than 

 in the two preceding weeks. 



" We have entered the mouth of the Big Sioux River, 

 which is a clear stream, abounding with fish : on one of 

 its branches is found the famous red clay of which the 

 Indians make their calumets. We saw on the banks of 

 the river several Indian canoe frames, formed of bent 

 sticks made into a circle, the edges fastened together by a 

 long pole or stick, with another one in the bottom, hold- 

 ing the frame like the inner keel of a boat. Outside of 

 this frame the Indians stretch a buffalo-skin with the hair 

 on, and it is said to make a safe boat to convey two or 

 three persons, even when the current is rapid. Here, as 

 well as on the shores of the Mississippi and Missouri, the 

 land along the river banks is higher than further inland j 

 tangled brushwood and tall reeds grow along the margins, 

 while the prairies abound with mud and muddy water. 

 Willows are plenty, and the general aspect of the country 

 is pleasing. 



'■'May 1 6. Came to an Indian log-cabin, which had a 

 fence enclosure around it. Passed several dead buffaloes 

 floating down the stream. A few hundred miles above 

 here the river is confined between high steep bluffs, many 

 of them nearly perpendicular, and impossible for the buf- 

 falo to climb : when they have leaped or fallen down 

 these, they try to ascend them or swim to the opposite 

 shore, which is equally difficult ; but unable to ascend 

 them, they fall back time and again until they are ex- 

 hausted ; and at last, getting into the current, are borne 

 away and drowned : hundreds thus perish every year, and 

 their swollen and putrid bodies have been seen floating as 

 low down as St. Louis. The Indians along shore watch 

 for these carcasses, and no matter how putrid they are, if 

 the * hump ' is fat, they drag them ashore and cut it out 

 for food." 



