54 NARRATIVE OF A JOURNEY 



As I had supposed, my companions had killed several animals, 

 but they had taken the meat of only one, and we had, therefore, 

 to be diligent, or the camp might suffer for provisions. It was 

 now past mid-day ; the weather was very warm, and the atmos- 

 was charged with minute particles of sand, which produced a 

 dryness and stiffness of the mouth and tongue, that was exceed- 

 ingly painful and distressing. Water was now the desideratum, 

 but where was it to be found 1 The arid country in which we 

 then were, produced none, and the Platte was twelve or fourteen 

 miles from us, and no buffalo in that direction, so that we 

 could not afford time for so trifling a matter. I found that Mr. 

 Lee was suffering as much as myself, although he had not 

 spoken of it, and I perceived that Richardson was masticating 

 a leaden bullet, to excite the salivary glands. Soon afterwards, 

 a bull was killed, and we all assembled around the carcass to 

 assist in the manipulations. The animal was first raised from 

 his side where he had lain, and supported upon his knees, with 

 his hoofs turned under him ; a longitudinal incision was then 

 made from the nape, or anterior base of the hump, and continued 

 backward to the loins, and a large portion of the skin from each 

 side removed ; these pieces of skin were placed upon the ground, 

 with the under surface uppermost, and the fleeces, or masses of 

 meat, taken Irom along the back, were laid upon them. These 

 fleeces, from a large animal, will weigh, perhaps, a hundred 

 pounds each, and comprise the whole of the hump on each side 

 of the vertical processes, (commonly called the hump ribs,) 

 which are attached to the vertebra. The fleeces are con- 

 sidered the choice parts of the buffalo, and here, where the game 

 is so abundant, nothing else is taken, if we except the tongue, 

 and an occasional marrow bone. 



This, it must be confessed, appears like a useless and unwar- 

 rantable waste of the goods of Providence ; but when are men 

 economical, unless compelled to be so by necessity? Plei'e are 



