120 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL, 7 
4 
of the snow-covered prairie, near a stream “whose waters were 
hidden beneath a thick covering of ice.” The scene could undoubt- 
edly have been repeated in many localities in-the vast region west of 
the Missouri. The identity of the stream near which the two tents 
stood during the winter of 1851-52 is suggested by a note in Fre- 
mont’s journal, written 10 years earlier. On June 22, 1842, when 
traversing the prairies, soon to reach the right bank of the Platte, 
he wrote: “ Made our bivouac in the midst of some well-timbered 
ravines near the Little Blue . . . Crossing the next morning a num- 
ber of handsome creeks, with clear water and sandy beds, we reached. 
at 10 A. M., a very beautiful wooded stream, about thirty-five feet 
wide, called Sandy creek, and sometimes, as the Ottoes frequently 
winter there, Otto fork.” (Fremont, (1), p. 14.) The greater part 
of the course of Sandy Creek is through the present Clay and 
Thayer Counties, Nebraska, a hundred miles or more south of west 
from the Oto village then situated near the mouth of the Platte. 
Moélhausen remained with the Oto until the temporary camp was’ 
abandoned, then returned with them to their permanent village. 
The journey required several weeks but in time they approached the 
Missouri, and as they neared their destination: “ We passed the 
burial place of the Ottoes just before we descended into the valley, 
and shortly afterwards came to the village. The first consisted of a 
number of hillocks inclosed by rough palings, and decorated with 
sticks with little bits of coloured stuff and feathers fluttering from 
them. The village, which lay not many hundred yards farther was 
a group of about sixty huts of various construction, some of clay, 
shaped like haycocks or baking ovens, others like small houses, built 
of thick oak bark. These dwellings stood mostly empty, as the in- 
habitants had pitched their tents just now in the angle formed by 
the Nebrasca and Missouri, on account of the rich grass to be found 
in these bottom lands under the protecting snow; and because they 
and their cattle were in that situation more sheltered from the vio- 
lent gales of wind.” (Mollhausen, (1), I, pp. 210-211.) Here isa 
reference to a third form of habitation known to the Oto. In addi- 
tion to the earth-covered lodge and the skin tipi, both of which were 
characteristic of the time and place, they appear to have reared 
structures similar to the habitation of the Sauk and Fox, as shown 
in plate 19, a type of dwelling known to several neighboring tribes 
in the upper Mississippi Valley. 
It is quite evident that after leaving the permanent earth-lodge 
village of the Oto the Long party just a century ago passed one of 
the temporary camps of the same people. This, fortunately, was 
sketched by the artist of the expedition and reproduced in the narra- 
tive of the journey, and is now shown in plate 33. To quote from 
