502 Expedition to the 



tude, &c, had been taken. Major Long and Lieutenant 

 Swift having preceded the party in the morning, and arrived 

 before seven o'clock, for that purpose. In the evening, ob- 

 servations were attempted, but without success, as the sky 

 soon became cloudy. 



Robins, (Turdus migratorius.) which we had not 

 seen since we left the Missouri, here occurred in great 

 numbers. 



On the following morning, soon after leaving the encamp- 

 ment, we crossed Vermillion creek, a considerable tributary 

 from the south. In some part of its course, its valley 

 is bounded by precipitous cliffs of a red sand-rock, whence 

 the name of the creek. 



Our guide informed us that the Indians, a few years since, 

 destroyed every individual of a large herd of bisons, by 

 driving them over the brink of one of these precipices. 



Opposite the mouth of Vermillion creek, is a much larger 

 stream, from the northwest, which is called Medicine-lodge 

 creek, from an old Indian medicine lodge, which formerly 

 stood near its mouth. A few miles further, on the same 

 side, is Grand-camp creek, heading also in the mountains. 

 About four years previous to the time of our visit, there had 

 been a large encampment of Indians and hunters on this 

 creek. On that occasion three nations of Indians, namely, 

 the Kiawas, Arrapahoes, and Kaskaias or Bad-hearts, had 

 been assembled together, with forty five French hunters in 

 the employ of Mr. Choteau and Mr. Demun of St. Louis. 

 They had assembled for the purpose of holding a trading 

 council with a band of Shiennes. These last had been re- 

 cently supplied with goods by the British traders on the 

 Missouri, and had come to exchange them with the former 

 for horses. The Kiawas, Arrapahoes, &c, who wander in 

 the extensive plains of the Arkansaand Red river, have always 

 great numbers of horses, which they rear with much less dif- 

 ficulty than the Shiennes, whose country is cold and barren. 



