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11 



THE MISSOURI RIVER JOURNALS 



i6i 



Union, having a longer tail, we think, than the kind found 

 East. Its horns were very small, but it is skinned and in 

 brine. We removed our camp about a hundred yards 

 lower down, but the place as regards wood is very bad. 

 Provost and I went to set traps for Beaver ; he first cut two 

 dry sticks eight or nine feet long; we reached the river by 

 passing through the tangled woods; he then pulled off his 

 breeches and waded about with a pole to find the depth 

 of the water, and having found a fit spot he dug away the 

 mud in the shape of a half circle, placed a bit of willow 

 branch at the bottom and put the trap on that. He had 

 two small willow sticks in his mouth ; he split an end of 

 one, dipped it in his horn of castoreum, or " medicine," 

 as he calls his stuff, and left on the end of it a good mass 

 of it, which was placed in front of the jaws of the trap 

 next the shore; he then made the chain of the trap se- 

 cure, stuck in a few untrimmed branches on each side, and 

 there the business ended. The second one was arranged 

 in the same way, except that there was no bit of willow 

 under it. Beavers when caught in shallow water are often 

 attacked by the Otter, and in doing this the latter some- 

 times lose their own lives, as they are very frequently 

 cauglit in the other trap placed close by. Mr. Culbertson 

 and Bell returned without having shot, although we heard 

 one report whilst setting the traps. Elks are very numer- 

 ous here, but the bushes crack and make so much noise 

 that they hear the hunters and fly before them. Bell shot 

 nve Pigeons at once. Harris and Squires are both poorly, 

 having eaten too indulgently of Buffalo brains. We are 

 going to move six or seven hundred yards lower down, to 

 spend the night in a more sheltered place. I hope I may 

 have a large Beaver to-morrow. 



Tuesday, 5th. At daylight, after some discussion about 

 Beaver lodges, Harris, Bell, Provost, and I, with two men, 

 went to the traps — nothing caught. We now had the 

 lodge demolished outwardly, namely, all the sticks removed, 



VOL. II. — 1 1 



