At Council Bluffs. 42 1 



dragoons and twenty Indians on a buffalo hunt ; and 

 within eighty miles of the fort, they killed fift}'-one buffa- 

 loes, one hundred and four deer, and ten elks. 



" We were told that the Pottowatomie Indians were for- 

 merly a warlike people, but recently their enemies, the 

 Sioux, have frequently killed them, when they met them 

 on hunting excursions, and that they have become quite 

 cowardly, which is a great change in their character. 



" We cast off our lines from the shore at twelve 

 o'clock, and by sunset reached the Council Bluffs, where 

 the river-bed is utteily changed, though that called the Old 

 Missouri is now visible. These Bluffs rise from a truly 

 beautiful bank about forty feet above the river, and slope 

 down into as beautiful a prairie to the hills in the rear, 

 which render the scenery very fine and very remarkable. 



'■'■May 12. We have arrived at the most crooked part 

 of the river yet seen, the shores on both sides are lower, 

 the hills are more distant, and the intervening plains are 

 more or less covered with water. W^e passed the Black- 

 bird Hills, where a famous Indian chief of this name was 

 buried, and his horse buried alive with him at his request. 



"May 13. To-day we passed some beautiful bluffs, 

 composed of a fine white sandstone, of a soft texture, but 

 beautiful to the eye, and covered with cedars. We saw 

 also many fine prairies ; and the bottom lands appeared 

 to be of an extremely rich soil. Indians hailed us along 

 the shore, but no notice was taken of them : they follow- 

 ed us to the next landing, and boarded us ; but our cap- 

 tain hates them, and they go away without a chew of to- 

 bacco, and I pity the poor creatures with all my heart. 



"This evening we came to the Burial-ground Bluff; 

 so called by the ever-memorable expedition of Lewis and 

 Clark, because here they buried Sergeant Floyd, as they 

 were on the way to the Pacific Ocean across the Rocky 

 Mountains. The prairies are novvmore frequent and more 



