130 LAKE MANDAN. is 
but without success. The bait was too expensive—his 
nibs the owl, being too particular. He liked foxes, but 
prefered the ones not skinned. 
In February the party, less myself, made preparation 
to goto the Deer Shooting mountains near the Little 
Missouri River. The object was to hunt big horn and 
kill bear. The party halted on their way, at the mouth 
of Knife River and by way of diversion founded a 
towa—Stanton—or rather rebuilt Mahaha, the last home 
of the extinct Anahaways. 
I now remained alone in the camp at the lake to close 
up the trapping, and recross the Missouri before the 
spring break up. About one mile above camp, near the 
ruins of old Fort Clark, were two lodges of Aricarees. 
One of these lodges was presided over by Good Heart, 
an Arapahoe captured when a child by a war party of 
red Aricarees, adopted by them and brought up as one of 
their own.—The other lodge had for its master Little 
Bull a good hunter, who had for his wife, the sister of 
Okoos-ter-icks or as interpreted into English—Bob Tail 
Bull, the bravest warrior and most noted hunter among 
all the Aricarees. 
Little Bull, being an acquaintance of some years; was 
an occasional visitor tomycamp. He would bring along 
his wife and their only son, a bright eyed little fellow of 
seven or eight summers. Some books with pictures in 
that I hadin camp would claim the little fellows attention, 
and he would peruse their pages eagerly during his 
parents stay. 
A thaw early in March, startedthe water running over 
the ice on both lake and river, thus obstructing for a time 
the ice trail of my visitors, and I was also cut off from 
land. 
