440 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



Oar canoe, which was made of green timber, was heavy and awkward, but our 

 course being with the current promised us a fair and successful voyage. Ammunition 

 was laid in in abundance, a good stock of dried buffalo tongues, a dozen or two of 

 beavers' tails, and a good supply of pemican. Bogard and Ba'tiste occupied the mid- 

 dle and bow, with their paddles in their hands, and I took my seat in the stern of 

 the boat at the steering oar. Our larder was as I have said, and added to that some 

 few pounds of fresh buffalo meat. 



Besides which, and ourselves, our little craft carried several packs of Indian dresses 

 and other articles which I had purchased of the Indians, and also my canvas and 

 easel, and our culinary articles, which were few and simple, consisting of three tin 

 cups, a coffee-pot, one tin plate, a frying-pan, and a tin kettle. 



Thus fitted out and embarked, we swept off at a rapid rate under the shouts of the 

 savages and the cheers of our friends, who lined the banks as we gradually lost sight 

 of them and turned our eyes toward Saint Louis, which was two thousand miles be- 

 low us, with nought intervening save the wide-spread and wild regions inhabited by 

 the roaming savage. 



MEETS THE ASSINNEBOINS. 



At the end of our first day's journey we found ourselves handily encamping with 

 several thousand Assinneboins, who had pitched their tents upon the bank of the 

 river, and received us with every mark of esteem and friendship. 



In the midst of this group was my friend Wi-jun-jon (the Pigeon's Egg Head) [see 

 Nos. 179 and 474, Assin.], still lecturing on the manners and customs of the " pale 

 faces." Continuing to relate without any appearance of exhaustion, the marvelous 

 scenes which he had witnessed amongst the white people on his tour to Washington 

 City. 



Many were the gazers who seemed to be the whole time crowding around him to 

 hear his recitals, and the plight which he was in rendered his appearance quite ridic- 

 ulous. 



His beautiful military dress, of which I before spoke, had been so sho ckingly tat- 

 tered and metamorphosed that his appearance was truly laughable. 



His keg of whisky had dealt out to his friends all its charms ; his frock-coat, which 

 his wife had thought was of no earthly use below the waist, had been cut off at that 

 place, and the nether half of it supplied her with a beautiful pair of leggings; and 

 his silver-laced hat-band had been converted into a splendid pair of garters for the 

 same. His umbrella the poor fellow still affectionately held on to and kept spread at 

 all times. As I before said, his theme seemed to be exhaustless, and he, in the esti- 

 mation of his tribe, to be an unexampled liar. 



SAILING DOWN THE MISSOURI. 



Of the village of Assinneboins we took leave on the following morning, and rapidly 

 made our way down the river. The rate of the current being four or five miles per 

 hour, through one continued series of picturesque grass-covered bluffs and knolls, 

 which everywhere had the appearance of an old and highly cultivated country, with 

 houses and fences removed. 



There is, much of the way, on one side or the other, a bold and abrupt precipice of 

 three or four hundred feet in elevation, presenting itself in an exceedingly rough and 

 picturesque form to the shore of tbe river, sloping down from the summit level of the 

 prairies above, which sweep off from the brink of the precipice, almost level, to an 

 unknown distance. 



MOUNTAIN SHEEP AND THEIR HABITS. 



It is along the rugged and wild fronts of these cliffs, whose sides are generally 

 formed of hard clay, that the mountain-sheep dwell, and are often discovered in great 

 numbers. Their habits are much like those of the goat ; and in every respect they 



