462 INDIAN TRIBES OF 



meal to serve him through the winter. All these lots were kept in 

 good order, and several had good mud houses on them. The great 

 endeavour of Mr. Spalding is to induce the Indians to give up tliei: 

 roving mode of life, and to settle down and cultivate the soil ; and in 

 this he is succeeding admirably. He shows admirable tact and skill, 

 together with untiring industry and perseverance in the prosecution of 

 his labours as a missionary ; and he appears to be determined to leave 

 nothing undone that one person alone can perform. In the winter, his 

 time and that of his wife is devoted to teaching, at which season their 

 school is much enlarged. 



On their way, they fell in with some half-breeds, going to hunt 

 buffalo. Among them there were four brothers, all fine-looking young 

 men, and very much alike. Many of the Indians, as has before been 

 remarked, visit the buffalo-grounds. These have been constantly 

 changing, and, within the memory of many of the hunters, their 

 limits have been very much circumscribed. From the accounts we 

 received, these animals are not now found west of the Portneuf river, 

 and their range has been materially changed since the arrival of the 

 whites. Instead now of migrating to the south during the winter, 

 they are reported as seeking a more northern clime, and are now 

 found as far north as 64° : four degrees farther in that direction than 

 their former range. This abandonment of their feeding-grounds is 

 unknown in any other American animal, and may forebode iheir 

 extinction at no very distant day. 



At 3 p. m., after travelling fifteen miles, they reached the banks of 

 the Snake river, at the forks. On their way down the Kooskooskee, 

 they had met with numerous herds of horses belonging to the Indians; 

 and here they found the owners, consisting of about one hundred and 

 fifty persons. There was but one building, which was of a circular 

 form and a hundred feet in diameter. It was built of rails or rough 

 joists set on end, which supported a roof of the same material, and 

 served the double purpose of sheltering the inhabitants and drying 

 their fish. The different families were arranged around the walls in 

 the interior. These Indians paid no attention to our party while 

 passing, but soon after sent up two canoes, to ferry them and their 

 luggage over the river ; which being finished, they went away without 

 demanding any thing for their services, and exhibiting a sort of inde- 

 pendence, characteristic of this race when they think themselves well 

 off or rich. 



The party crossed the Snake river about a mile above its junction 

 with the Kooskooskee: its breadth here was seven hundred and fifty 

 feet, and its banks were destitute of trees and bushes. The Snake 



