ACROSS THE KOCKY MOUNTAINS, ETC. 125 



squaws, and a few children. The chief is a man about fifty 

 years of age, tall, and dignified looking, with large, strong aqua- 

 line features. His manners were cordial and agreeable, perhaps 

 remarkably so, and he exhibited very little of that stoical indiffer- 

 ence to surrounding objects which is so characteristic of an In- 

 dian. His dress consisted of plain leggings of deer skin, fringed 

 at the sides, unembroidered moccasins, and a marro or waist- 

 covering of antelope skin dressed without removing the hair. 

 The upper part of his person was simply covered with a small 

 blanket, and his ears were profusely ornamented with brass 

 rings and beads. The men and squaws who accompanied him, 

 were entirely naked, except that the latter had marro's of deer 

 skin covering the loins. 



The next morning we steered west across the wide prairie, 

 crossing within every mile or two, a branch of the tortuous 

 Mallade, near each of which good pasture was seen ; but on the 

 main prairie scarcely a blade of grass could be found, it having 

 been lately fired by the Indians to improve the crops of next 

 year. We have seen to-day some lava and basalt again on the 

 sides of the hills, and on the mounds in the plain, but the level 

 land was entirely free from it. 



At noon on the 17th, we passed a deserted Indian camp, pro- 

 bably of the same people whose trail we have been following. 

 There were many evident signs of the Indians having but re- 

 cently left it, among which was that of several white wolves 

 lurking around in the hope of finding remnants of meat, but, as a 

 Scotchman would say, " I doubt they were mistaken," for meat 

 is scarce here, and ^he frugal Indians rarely leave enough behind 

 them to excite even the famished stomach of the lank and hun- 

 gry wolf. The encampment here has been but a temporary one, 

 occupying a little valley densely overgrown with willows, 

 the tops of which have been bent over, and tied so as to form a 

 sort of lodge ; over these, they have probably stretched deer 



