260 



RED RIVER EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 



way to the stream, on the banks of which we encamped. 

 During the night the horses were very restless, often 

 galloping suddenly among the carts and tents, and at no 

 time appearing to venture far from the camp. 



The wind changed during the night, and the morning 

 of the 17th brought a bright and brilliant sky, with a 

 glistening hoar frost on the prairie. Ice was observed in 

 the ponds, and at our camp it was found about a quarter 

 of an inch thick in the kettles which were exposed. 

 Numerous pelicans and geese were seen flying south, and 

 all the customary indications of approaching winter were 

 observed from time to time. The trail this day lay 

 through a fertile rolling prairie intersected by sandy 

 ridges, the slopes were very rich, but the valleys wet. 

 Here we saw the Height of Land Hills, apparently about 

 twenty-five miles off, and having arrived at Marsh Eiver 

 we encamped on a hill near it, on the west side of the 

 dividing ridge. 



During the day we met a caravan of six carts, nineteen 

 days from St. Paul ; they belonged to private Bed Eiver 

 speculators, and were laden with ploughs, whisky, stoves, 

 scythes, &c. 



Eising half an hour before daybreak we found ice in 

 the kettles, a strong wind from the north, and a snow 

 storm approaching, which just whitened the ground at 

 nine a.m. but soon passed away. From Wild Eice Eiver, 

 we crossed an undulating prairie about twenty miles 

 broad, to the foot of a low range of hills constituting a 

 spur of the Height of Land, and camped on the north side 

 of the undulating plateau which forms the dividing ridge. 

 A heavy snow storm occurred during the night, and on 

 the morning of the 19th we found the wind strong and very 

 cold ; ice half an inch thick having formed in the kettles 



