122 AUDUBON 



miles north of this, there are eight hundred carts in one 

 gang, and four hundred in another, with an adequate num- 

 ber of half-breeds and Indians, killing Buffalo and drying 

 their meat for winter provisions, and that the animals are 

 there in millions. When Buffalo bulls are shot from a 

 distance of sixty or seventy yards, they rarely charge on 

 the hunter, and Mr. Culbertson has killed as many as nine 

 bulls from the same spot, when unseen by these terrible 

 beasts. Beavers, when shot swimming, and killed, sink at 

 once to the bottom, but their bodies rise again in from 

 twenty to thirty minutes. Hunters, who frequently shoot 

 and kill them by moonlight, return in the morning from 

 their camping-places, and find them on the margins of the 

 shores where they had shot. Otters do the same, but 

 remain under water for an hour or more. 



July 29, Saturday. Cool and pleasant. About one hour 

 after daylight Harris, Bell, and two others, crossed the 

 river, and went in search of Rabbits, but all returned with- 

 out success. Harris, after breakfast, went off on this side, 

 saw none, but killed a young Raven. During the course 

 of the forenoon he and Bell went off again, and brought 

 home an old and young of the Sharp-tailed Grouse. This 

 afternoon they brought in a Loggerhead Shrike and two 

 Rock Wrens. Bell skinned all these. Sprague made a 

 handsome sketch of the five young Buffaloes belonging to 

 the fort. This evening Moncrdvier and Owen went on the 

 other side of the river, but saw nothing. We collected 

 berries of the dwarf cherries of this part, and I bottled 

 some service-berries to carry home. 



July 30, Sunday. Weather cool and pleasant. After 

 breakfast we despatched La Fleur and Provost after Ante- 

 lopes and Bighorns. We then went off and had a battue 

 for Rabbits, and although we were nine in number, and all 

 beat the rose bushes and willows for several hundred yards, 

 not one did we see, although their traces were apparent in 

 several places. We saw tracks of a young Grizzly Bear 



