474 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



the garrison, in which they are almost constantly engaged, enjoying life to a very high 

 degree. 



In these delightful amusements, and with these pleasing companions, I have been 

 for a while participating with great satisfaction. I have joined several times in the 

 deer-hunts, and more frequently in grouse-shooting, which constitutes the principal 

 amusement of the place. 



This delicious bird, which is found in great abundance in nearly all the North Amer- 

 ican prairies, and most generally called the prairie hen, is, from what I can learn, 

 very much like the English, grouse, or heath hen, both in size, in color, and in habits. 

 They make their appearance in these parts in the months of August and September, 

 from the higher latitudes, where they go in the early part of the summer to raise 

 their broods. This is the season for the best sport amongst them, and the whole gar- 

 rison, in fact, are almost subsisted on them at this time, owing to the facility with 

 which they are killed. 



I was lucky enough the other day, with one of the officers of the garrison, to gain the 

 enviable distinction of having brought in together seventy- five of these fine birds, 

 which we killed in one afternoon ; and although I am quite ashamed to confess the man- 

 ner in which we killed the greater part of them, I am not so professed a sportsman as to 

 induce me to conceal the fact. We had a line pointer, and had legitimately followed 

 the sportman's style for a part of the afternoon ; but seeing the prairies on fire several 

 miles ahead of us, and the wind driving the fire gradually towards us, we found these 

 poor birds driven before its long line, which seemed to extend from horizon to hori- 

 zon, and they were flying in swarms or flocks that would at times almost fill the air. 

 They generally flew half a mile or so, and lit down again in the grass, where they 

 would sit until the fire was close upon them, and then they would rise again. We 

 observed by watching their motions that they lit in great numbers in every solitary 

 tree, and we placed ourselves near each of these trees in turn and shot tbem down 

 as they settled in them, sometimes killing five or six at a shot, by getting a range 

 upon them. 



In this way we retreated for miles before the flames, in the midst of the flocks, and 

 keeping company with them where they were carried along in advance of the fire in 

 accumulating numbers, many of which had been driven along for many miles. We 

 murdered the poor birds in this way until we had as many as we could well carry, 

 and laid our course back to the fort, where we got much credit for our great shooting, 

 and where we were mutually pledged to keep the secret. — G. C, Ibid. 



Mr. Catlin found at or near Fort Leavenworth portions of tribes or 

 several tribes of Indians, shortly before removed from Ohio, Indiana, 

 Illinois, or Iowa. Of these he writes : 



Since writing the last epistle some considerable time has elapsed, which has, nev- 

 ertheless, been filled up and used to advantage, as I have been moving about and 

 using my brush amongst different tribes in this vicinity. The Indians that may be 

 said to belong to this vicinity, and who constantly visit this post, are the Ioways, 

 Konzas, Pawnees, Omahas, Ottoes, and Missouries (primitive), and Delawares, Kick- 

 apoos, Potawatomies, Weahs, Peorias, Shawanos, Kaskaskias (semi-civilized rem- 

 nants of tribes that have been removed to this neighborhood by the Government 

 within the few years past). These latter-named tribes are, to a considerable degree, 

 agriculturists, getting their living principally by ploughing, and raising corn and 

 cattle and horses. They have been left on the frontier, surrounded by civilized neigh- 

 bors, where they have at length been induced to sell out their lands or exchange them 

 for a much larger tract of wild lands in these regions, which the Government has 

 purchased from the wilder tribes. — G. C, Ibid. 



Mr. Catlin, in the late fall, departed from Fort Leavenworth for Saint 

 Louis. 



