24 



AUDUBON 



however, had been already dressed. The other had its 

 head cut off, and the men were tugging at the rope, hauling 

 the beast along over the grass. Mr. Chardon was seated 

 on it; until, when near the boat, the rope gave way, and 

 the bull rolled over into a shallow ravine. It was soon on 

 board, however, and quickly skinned and cut up. The 

 two hunters had been absent three-quarters of an hour. 

 At the report of the guns, two Wolves made their appear- 

 ance, and no doubt fed at leisure on the offal left from 

 the first Buffalo. Harris saw a gang of Elks, consisting 

 of between thirty and forty. We have passed a good 

 number of Wild Geese with goslings; the Geese were 

 shot at, notwithstanding my remonstrances on account of 

 the young, but fortunately all escaped. We passed some 

 beautiful scenery when about the middle of the "Bend," 

 and almost opposite had the pleasure of seeing five Moun- 

 tain Rams, or Bighorns, on the summit of a hill. I 

 looked at them through the telescope; they stood per- 

 fectly still for some minutes, then went out of sight, 

 and then again were in view. One of them had very 

 large horns; the rest appeared somewhat smaller. Our 

 captain told us that he had seen them at, or very near 

 by, the same place last season, on his way up. We 

 saw many very curious cliffs, but not one answering the 

 drawings engraved for Catlin's work. We passed Knife 

 River, ^ Rivihe aiix Couteanx, and stopped for a short time 

 to take in wood. Harris killed a Sparrow Hawk, and 

 saw several Red-shafted Woodpeckers. Bell was then 

 engaged in saving the head of the Buffalo cow, of which 

 I made a drawing, and Sprague an outline, notwithstand- 

 ing the horrible motion of our boat. We passed safely 



^ This is the Little Knife, or Upper Knife River, to be carefully distin- 

 guished from that Knife River at the mouth of which were the Minnetaree 

 villages. It falls into the Missouri from the north, in Mountraille Co., 55 

 miles above the mouth of the Little Missouri. This is probably the stream 

 named Goat-pen Creek by Lewis and Clark : see p. 274 of the edition of 

 1893. — E.C. 



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