THE MISSOURI RIVER JOURNALS $^9 



Buffalo given me by our good captain. I am extremely 

 fatigued, for we have been up since before daylight. 

 Ai 12 d clock of the night. I have got up to scribble this, 

 which it is not strange that after all I saw this day, at 

 this curious place, I should have forgotten. Mr. Picotte 

 took me to the storehouse where the skins procured are 

 kept, and showed me eight or ten packages of White Hare 

 skins, which I feel assured are all of Townsend's Hare 

 of friend Bachman, as no other species are to be met with 

 in this neighborhood during the winter months, when 

 these animals migrate southward, both in search of food 

 and of a milder climate. 



June f , Friday. We made an extremely early start 

 about three a. m. The morning was beautiful and calm. 

 We passed Cheyenne River at half-past seven, and took 

 wood a few miles above it. Saw two White Pelicans, 

 shot a few birds. My hunter, Alexis Bombarde, whom 

 I have engaged, could not go shooting last night on ac- 

 count of the crossing of this river, the Cheyenne, which 

 is quite a large stream. Mr. Chardon gave me full con- 

 trol of Alexis, till we reach the Yellowstone. He is a 

 first-rate hunter, and powerfully built ; he wears his hair 

 long about his head and shoulders, as I was wont to do ; 

 but being a half-breed, his does not curl as mine did. 

 Whilst we are engaged cutting wood again, many of the 

 men have gone after a Buffalo, shot from the boat. We 

 have seen more Wolves this day than ever previously. 

 We saw where carcasses of Buffaloes had been quite de- 

 voured by these animals, and the diversity of their colors 

 and of their size is more wonderful than all that can be 

 said of them. Alexis Bombarde, whom hereafter I shall 

 simply call Alexis, says that with a small-bored rifle 

 common size, good shot will kill any Wolf at sixty or 

 eighty yards' distance, as well as bullets. We passed one 

 Wolf that, crossing our bows, went under the wheel and 

 yet escaped, though several shots were fired at it. I had 



VOL. I. — 34 



