502 



AUDUBON 



|t>s 



':. . -l 



to make him turn off up the river again, but farther from 

 us, at a full gallop; after a time he stopped again, when 

 the noise of our steam pipe started him, and we soon lost 

 sight of him in the bushes. We saw three Deer in the 

 flat of one of the prairies, and just before our dinner we 

 saw, rather indistinctly, a number of Buffaloes, making 

 their way across the hills about two miles distant; after 

 which, however, we saw their heavy tracks in a well and 

 deep cut line across the said hills. Therefore we are now 

 in what is pronounced to be the "Buffalo country," and 

 may expect to see more of these animals to-morrow. We 

 have stopped for wood no less than three times this day, 

 and are fast for the night. Sprague killed a Pipilo arcti- 

 cus, and Bell three others of the same species. We pro- 

 cured also another Bat, the Vespertilio subulatus of Say, 

 and this is all. The country around us has materially 

 changed, and we now see more naked, and to my eyes 

 more completely denuded, hills about us, and less of the 

 rich bottoms of alluvial land, than we passed below our 

 present situation. I will not anticipate the future by all 

 that we hear of the country above, but will continue 

 steadily to accumulate in this, my poor journal, all that 

 may take place from day to day. Three of our Indian 

 rascals left us at our last wooding-ground, and have gone 

 towards their miserable village. We have now only one 

 Sioux with us, who will, the captain says, go to Fort 

 Pierre in our company. They are, all that we have had 

 as yet, a thieving and dirty set, covered with vermin. 

 We still see a great number of Black-headed Gulls, but I 

 think fewer Geese and Ducks than below; this probably 

 on account of the very swampy prairie we have seen, and 

 which appears to become scarce as we are advancing in 

 this strange wilderness. 



May 21, Sunday. We have had a great deal that inter- 

 ested us all this day. In the first place we have passed 

 no less than five of what are called rivers, and their 



