THE MISSOURI RIVER JOURNALS 



511 



with underbrush that it was no easy matter to walk 

 through; perhaps a hundred Buffalo calves were dead in 

 it, and the smell was not pleasant, as you may imagine. 

 The boat of Mr. Charity went off when we reached the 

 shore, after having escaped from the bar. We have 

 seen more White Wolves this day, and few Antelopes. 

 The whole country is trodden down by the heavy Buffa- 

 loes, and this renders the walking both fatiguing and 

 somewhat dangerous. The garlic of this country has 

 a red blossom, otherwise it looks much like ours; when 

 Buffalo have fed for some time on this rank weed, their 

 flesh cannot be eaten. 



May 25, Thursday. The weather looked cloudy, and 

 promised much rain when we rose this morning at five 

 o'clock; our men kept busy cutting and bringing wood 

 until six, when the " Omega " got under way. It began 

 raining very soon afterwards and it has continued to this 

 present moment. The dampness brought on a chilliness 

 that made us have fires in each of the great cabins. 

 Michaux brought me two specimens of Neotoma floridana, 

 so young that their eyes were not open. The nest was 

 found in the hollow of a tree cut down for firewood. Two 

 or three miles above us, we saw three Mackinaw barges 

 on the shore, just such as I have described before; all 

 these belonged to the (so-called) Opposition Company of 

 C. Bolton, Fox, Livingstone & Co., of New York, and 

 therefore we passed them without stopping ; but we had 

 to follow their example a few hundred yards above them, 

 for we had to stop also ; and then some of the men came 

 on board, to see and talk to their old acquaintances among 

 our extraordinary and motley crew of trappers and engages. 

 On the roofs of the barges lay much Buffalo meat, and on 

 the island we left this morning probably some hundreds 

 of these poor animals, mostly young calves, were found 

 dead at every few steps ; and since then we have passed 

 many dead as well as many groups of living. In one 



