254 THE GEOEGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



rapids, where it gains strenj^tli and flavor not to be found in the same fish in any 

 other place. This uneqnaled fishery has long been one of vast importance to the im- 

 mense numbers of Indians who have always assembled about it, but of late it has 

 been found by money-making men to be too valuable a spot for the exclusive occu- 

 pancy of the savage, like hundreds of others, and has at last been filled up with ad- 

 venturers, who have dipped their nets till the poor Indian is styled an intruder, and 

 his timid bark is seeu dodging about in the coves for a scanty subsistence, whilst he 

 scans and envies the insatiable white man filling his barrels and boats and sending , 

 them to market to be converted into money. — G. C. 



339. Sault de Sainte Marie, from the Canadian shore, Lake Superior, showing the 



United States garrison in the distance. Painted in 1836. 

 (Plate No. 265, page 161, vol. 2, Catlin's Eight Years.) 



At the Sault de Sainte Marie, on Lake Superior, I saw a considerable number 

 of Chippeways living entirely on fish, which they catch with great ease at that 

 place. 



I need not detain the reader a moment with a description of Sainte Marie, or of the 

 inimitable summer's paradise which can always be seen at Mackinaw, and which, like 

 the other, has been a hundred times described. I shall probably have the chance of 

 seeing aboiit three thousand Chippeways at the latter place on my return home, who 

 are to receive their annuities at that time through the hands of Mr. Schoolcraft, their 

 agent. — G. C. 



340. Vie^wr on the Saint Peter's River, twenty miles above Fort Snelling. Painted 



in 1836, on return from Coteau des Prairies. 



341. Vievw on the Saint Peter's ; Sioux Indians pursuing a stag in their canoes. 



Painted in 1836, on return from Coteau des Prairies. 



342. Salt meado'ws, on the Upper Missouri, and great herds of buffalo ; incrusta- 



tions of salt, which looks like snow. Salt water flows over the prairie in 

 the spring, and, evaj)orating during the summer, leaves the ground cov- 

 ered with muriate as white as snow. Painted in 1832. (No plate. ) 



While on an overland journey from the steamer Yellowstone, in May, 1832, where 

 she was lying on a sand-bar in the Missonri River, to Laidlaw's Fort (old Fort Pierre), 

 Dakota, I saw near the Bijou Hills (hills named after a hunter of that name), an im- 

 mense saline or salt meadow, as they are termed in this country, which turned us out 

 of our path, and compelled us to travel several miles out of our way to get by it; we 

 came suddenly upon a great depression of the prairie, which extended for several 

 miles, and as we stood upon its green banks, which were gracefully sloping down, we 

 could overlook some hundreds of acres of the prairie which were covered with an in- 

 crustation of salt that appeared the same as if the ground was everywhere covered 

 with snow. 



These scenes, I am told, are frequently to be met with in these regions, and cer- 

 tainly present the most singular and startling effect by the sudden and unexpected 

 contrast between their snow-white appearance and the green fields that hem them in 

 on all sides. Through each of these meadows there is a meandering small stream 

 which arises from salt springs, throwing out in the spring of the year great quantities 

 of water, which flood over these meadows tothedepthof three or four feet; and during 

 the heat of summer, being exposed to the rays of the sun, entirely evaporates, leaving 

 the incrustation of nmriate on the surface to the depth of one or two inches. These 

 places are the constant resort of buffaloes, which congregate in thousands about them, 

 to lick up the salt ; and on api^roaching the banks of this place we stood amazed at 

 the almost incredible number of these animals, which were in sight on the opposite 

 banks, at a distance of a mile or two from us, where they were lying in countless 



