THE MISSOURr RIVER JOURNALS 



191 



squared, placed close together, eighteen feet long, planted 

 three feet deep in the earth, leaving fifteen feet aoove 

 ground. The pickets are connected at the top by a 

 strong piece pinned to them. The fourth side, facing 

 the northeast, is built of pickets framed in wooden sills 

 lying in the ground, similar to those at Fort Union. 

 The fort is two hundred feet square, ranging north and 

 south and facing south. On the northeast and southwest 

 corners are bastions built of Cottonwood timber, ball proof, 

 rising about eight feet above the pickets, twenty feet square 

 and divided into two stories. In each bastion is a cannon, 

 loaded muskets, cartridges, balls, and every requisite ne- 

 cessary to prevent and repel any attack that may take place, 

 and which is hourly expected, from the surrounding tribes 

 of Indians. In each bastion are port and loop holes for 

 the cannon and muskets, and these command the four 

 sides of pickets, and an extensive range over the prairie. 

 Along the rear line of pickets, and about twenty-five feet 

 from them, is the principal range of buildings in the fort. 

 These are occupied by the Bourgeois, clerks, and inter- 

 preters. It is divided into three apartments ; the principal 

 room, with every comfort that this dreary place affords, 

 belongs to the Bourgeois and is twenty feet square ; and 

 here, to partially remove the ennui of dull times, is a 

 library of such books as time and opportunity have per- 

 mitted the dwellers in the fort to collect; this is at the 

 command of those who choose to ' drive dull care away,' 

 and contains a little of everything, science, history, poetry, 

 and fiction. Adjoining this room is a hall or passage 

 eight feet wide, running from front to rear of the building, 

 with a door opening into the Bourgeois's room, another 

 opening into the clerk's room ; the clerk's room is also 

 used as a mess-room and is the same size as that of the 

 Bourgeois. Adjoining the clerk's room is the one be- 

 longing to the interpreters ; it is twenty-four by twenty feet 

 and is also used as a council room, and reception room for 



