11 4 Expedition to the 



desire to show us respect. We saw among them no article 

 of food, except the flesh of the bison; their horses, their arms, 

 lodges, and dogs, are their only wealth. 



In their marches they are all on horseback, the men are 

 expert horsemen, and evince great dexterity in throwing the 

 rope, taking in this way many of the wild horses which in- 

 habit some parts of their country. They hunt the bison on 

 horseback with the bow and arrow, being little acquainted 

 with the use of fire arms. One of them, who had received a 

 valuable pistol, from a member of our party, soon afterwards 

 returned and wished to barter it for a knife. They begged 

 for tobacco, but did not inquire for whiskey. It is probable 

 they have not yet acquired a fondness for intoxicatingliquors. 



At eight o'clock on the morning of the 12th, we took our 

 leave of the Kaskaias, having recovered from them all the 

 articles they had stolen, except a few ropes, halters, and other 

 small affairs, which, not being indispensably necessary to us, 

 we chose to relinquish, rather than submit to a longer delay, 

 among a people we had so much reason to dislike. 



They had shown a disposition, so far from friendly toward 

 us, that we were surprised to have escaped without having 

 found it necessary to use our arms in self-defence, and as we 

 thought it by no means improbable some of their young men 

 might follow us to steal our horses, we moved on rather 

 briskly, intending to travel as far in the course of the day 

 as we conveniently could. 



The river valley spread considerably a little below the 

 point where we had encamped. In many places we found the 

 surface a smooth and naked bed of sand, in others covered 

 by an incrustation of salt, like a thin ice, and manifestly de- 

 rived from the evaporation of water, which had flowed down 

 from the red sandstone hills bounding the valley. These 

 hills were here of moderate elevation, the side towards the 

 river being usually abrupt and naked. The sandstone is fine, 

 of a deep red colour, indistinctly stratified, and traversed in 



