10 



AUDUBON 



Primeau from his post, and again from Fort Pierre. How 

 much further the poor beasts travelled, no one can tell. It 

 happens not infrequently, when the river is entirely closed in 

 with ice, that some hundreds of Buffaloes attempt to cross ; 

 their aggregate enormous weight forces the ice to break, 

 and the whole of the gang are drowned, as it is impossible 

 for these animals to climb over the surrounding sharp 

 edges of the ice. We have seen not less than three nests 

 of White-headed Eagles this day. We are fast ashore about 

 sixteen miles belowthe Mandan Villages, and will, in all prob- 

 ability, reach there to-morrow morning at an early hour. 

 It is raining yet, and the day has been a most unpleasant one. 

 June 7, Wednesday. We had a vile night of rain, and 

 wind from the northeast, which is still going on, and likely 

 to continue the whole of this blessed day. Yesterday, 

 when we had a white frost, ice was found in the kettles of 

 Mr. Kipp's barges. We reached Fort Clark ^ and the 

 Mandan Villages at half-past seven this morning. Great 

 guns were fired from the fort and from the " Omega," as our 

 captain took the guns from the " Trapper " at Fort Pierre. 

 The site of this fort appears a good one, though it is 

 placed considerably below the Mandan Village. We saw 

 some small spots cultivated, where corn, pumpkins, and 

 beans are grown. The fort and village are situated on the 

 high bank, rising somewhat to the elevation of a hill. The 

 Mandan mud huts are very far from looking poetical, 

 although Mr. Catlin has tried to render them so by placing 

 them in regular rows, and all of the same size and form, 

 which is by no means the case. But different travellers 

 have different eyes ! We saw more Indians than at any 



1 " Fort Clark came in sight, with a background of the blue prairie hills, 

 and with the gay American banner waving from the flag-staff. . . . The fort 

 is built on a smaller scale, on a plan similar to that of all the other trading 

 posts or forts of the company. Immediately behind the fort there were, in 

 the prairie, seventy leather tents of the Crows." (Prince of Wied, p. 171.) 



Fort Clark stood on the right bank of the Missouri, and thus across the 

 river from the original Fort Mandan built by Lewis and Clark in the fall of 

 1804. Maximilian has much to say of it and of Mr. Kipp. 



