THE MISSOURI RIVER JOURNALS 



111 



where perhaps they had young — and how remarkably 

 late in the season this species does breed here ! We also 

 saw a young Sandhill Crane, and on an open prairie four 

 Antelopes a few hundred yards off. Alexis tells me that at 

 this season this is a rare occurrence, as the females are 

 generally in the brushwood now ; but in this instance the 

 male and three females were on open prairie. We have 

 passed what is called the Heart ^ River, and the Square 

 Hills, which, of course, are by no means square, but simply 

 more level than the generality of those we have passed for 

 upwards of three weeks. We now saw four barges be- 

 longing to our company, and came to, above them, as usual. 

 A Mr. Kipp, one of the partners, came on board ; and 

 Harris, Squires, and myself had time to write each a short 

 letter to our friends at home. Mr. Kipp had a peculiar 

 looking crew who appeared not much better than a set of 

 bandits among the P)^renees or the Alps ; yet they seem 

 to be the very best sort of men for trappers and boatmen. 

 We exchanged four of our men for four of his, as the 

 latter are wanted at the Yellowstone. The country ap- 

 pears to Harris and to myself as if we had outrun the 

 progress of vegetation, as from the boat we observed oaks 

 scarcely in leaflets, whilst two hundred miles below, and 

 indeed at a much less distance, we saw the same timber in 

 nearly full leaf; flowers are also scarce. A single Wolf 

 was seen by some one on deck. Nothing can be possibly 

 keener than the senses of hearing and sight, as well as of 

 smell, in the Antelope. Not one was ever known to jump 

 up close to a hunter ; and the very motion of the grasses, 

 as these are wafted by the wind, will keep them awake 

 and on the alert Immediately upon the breaking up of the 

 ice about the Mandan Village, three Buffaloes were seen 

 floating down on a large cake; they were seen by Mr. 



1 Heart River, the stream which falls into the Missouri near the town of 

 Mandan, about opposite Bismarck, N. Dak. Here the river is now bridged 

 by the Northern Pacific Railroad, which crosses the Missouri from Bismarck, 

 and follows up Heart River for some distance. — E. C .. , . 



-- V III 



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