14 AUDUBON 



tion of Fort Pierre. The whole country around was over- 

 grown with "Lamb's quarters" (^Chenopodium album), 

 which I have no doubt, if boiled, would take the place of 

 spinach in this wild and, to my eyes, miserable country, 

 the poetry of which lies in the imagination of those writers 

 who have described the " velvety prairies " and " enchanted 

 castles" (of mud), so common where we now are. We 

 observed a considerable difference in the color of these 

 Indians, who, by the way, are almost all Riccarees ; many 

 appeared, and in fact are, redder than others; they are 

 lank, rather tall, and very alert, but, as I have said before, 

 all look poor and dirty. After dinner we went up the 

 muddy bank again to look at the corn-fields, as the small 

 patches that are meanly cultivated are called. We found 

 poor, sickly looking corn about two inches high, that had 

 been represented to us this morning as full six inches high. 

 We followed the prairie, a very extensive one, to the hills, 

 and there found a deep ravine, sufficiently impregnated with, 

 saline matter to answer the purpose of salt water for the 

 Indians to boil their corn and pemmican, clear and clean ; 

 but they, as well as the whites at the fort, resort to the 

 muddy Missouri for their drinking water, the only fresh 

 water at hand. Not a drop of spirituous liquor has been 

 brought to this place for the last two years ; and there can 

 be no doubt that on this account the Indians have become 

 more peaceable than heretofore, though now and then a 

 white man is murdered, and many horses are stolen. As 

 we walked over the plain, we saw heaps of earth thrown up 

 to cover the poor Mandans who died of the small-pox. 

 These mounds in many instances appear to contain the 

 remains of several bodies and, perched on the top, lies, 

 pretty generally, the rotting skull of a Buffalo. Indeed, 

 the skulls of the Buffaloes seem as if a kind of relation to 

 these most absurdly superstitious and ignorant beings. I 

 could not hear a word of the young Grizzly Bear of which 

 Mr. Chardon had spoken to me. He gave me his Buffalo 



