294 THE GEOEGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLEEY. 



completed and left for the water to run into, which soon fills to the level of the 

 ground. 



To these sinks the waters lying on the surface of the prairies are constantly draining, 

 and in them lodging their vegetable deposits, which, after a lapse of years, fill them 

 up to the surface with a rich soil, which throws np an unusual growth of grass and 

 herbage, forming conspicuous circles which arrest the eye of the traveler. * » * 



Many travelers who have penetrated not quite far enough into the western country 

 to see the habits of these animals, and the manner in which these mysterious circles 

 are made, but who have seen the prairies strewed with their bleached bones, and 

 have beheld these strange circles, which often occur in groups, and of different sizes 

 have come home with beautiful and ingenious theories (which must needs he made) for 

 the origin of these singular and unaccountable appearances, which, for want of a 

 rational theory, have generally been attributed to fairy feet, and gained the api)el- 

 lation of fairy circles. 



Many travelers, again, have supposed that these rings were produced by the dances 

 of the Indians, which are oftentimes (and in fact most generally) performed in a cir- 

 cle; yet a moment's consideration disproves such a j^robability, inasmuch as the In- 

 dians always select the ground for their dancing near the sites of their villages, and 

 that always on a dry and hard foundation, when these fairy circles are uniformly 

 found to be on low and wet ground. 



426. Grouse shooting, on the Missouri prairies. Painted in 1834. 



OTHER SPOETING SCENES IN THE GALLEEY. 



E"os. 372, 400, 4G1, 467, 468, 470, 485, and 491, herein, are sporting 

 scenes, describing tlie hunting of buffalo, elk, and other game. The 

 numbering of the Catlin gallery is left as it was marked by Mr. Catlin, 

 and as given in his catalogue. 



BUFFALO DANOE — MANDANS. 



For an interesting description of this and of a buffalo hunt by the 

 Mandans, see ISo. 440, herein. 



EEVIEW OF THE BUFFALO AND BUFFALO COUNTEY, 1832-1839. 



It is truly a melancholy contemplation for the traveler in this country to anticipate 

 the period, which is not far distant, when the last of these noble animals, at the hands 

 of white and red men, will fall victims to their cruel and improvident rapacity, leav- 

 ing these beautiful green fields a vast and idle waste, unstocked and unpeopled for 

 ages to come, until the bones of the tone and the traditions of the other will have 

 vanished, and left scarce an intelligible trace behind. 



That the reader should not think me visionary in these contemplations, or romancing 

 in making such assertions I will hand him the following item of the extravagances 

 which are ijracticed in these regions and rapidly leading to the results which I have 

 just named : 



When I first arrived at this place, on my way up the river, which was in the month 

 of May, 1832, and had taken up my lodgings in the fur company's fort, Mr. Laid- 

 law, of whom I have before spoken, and also his chief clerk, Mr. Halsey, and many 

 of their men, as well as the chiefs of the Sioux, told me that only a few days before 

 I arrived (when an immense herd of bufl:aloes had showed themselves on the opposite 

 side of the river, almost blackening the plains for a great distance) a party of five 

 or six hundred Sioux Indians on horseback forded the river about midday, and spend- 

 ing a few hours amongst them, recrossed the river at sundown and came into the fort 



