438 
articles of iron, and the Indians seemed never to 
weary of watching him and admiring the magic by 
which lie tdrned a straight piece of iron into a useful 
implement.; 
During all this time hunting was of course going 
on, for though the explorers had. abundant provisions, 
yet they were supporting themselves as far as possible 
from the country. Besides the corn which they pur- 
chased from the Indians, in exchange for trade goods 
and bits of iron, they killed buffalo, deer and elk; 
and on one hunt, in February, Captain Clark and his 
party killed forty deer, three buffalo and sixteen elk. 
Most of the game was too lean for use, and was left 
for the wolves. A part, however, was brought to a 
point on the river, and there protected in pens built 
of logs, which should keep off the wolves, ravens and 
magpies. The next day four men were sent with 
sleds and three horses, to bring in the meat. They 
returned that night stating that a party of one hundred 
men had rushed upon them, cut the traces of the sleds 
and carried off two of the horses, the third being 
left them through the influence of one of the Indians. 
The Indians had also taken some of the men's arms. 
An effort was made to pursue these enemies, who 
were belieyed to be Sioux, and Captain Lewis, with a 
few Mandans, set out on their trail. This was fol- 
lowed for two or three days, until at last it turned off 
into the prairie. The supposition that these robbers 
were Sioux' was confirmed by finding some moccasins 
that had been thrown away, . though the Sioux had 
dropped some corn in one place, apparently with the 
hope of making it appear that they were Arikaras. 
Before returning, Captain Clark visited the place 
where the meat had been cached, and did some more 
hunting; and, having killed thirty-six deer, fourteen 
elk and one wolf, he returned to the fort with about 
three thousand pounds of meat. 
The weather was now grovi^ing milder, and prepara- 
tions began to be made for continuing the journey. 
Men were sent out to look for trees suitable for 
canoes. White men began to arrive from the North- 
west Company's post, and also Mr. Gravelines, with 
Frenchmen from the Arikara village down the river. 
These brought word that the Rees were willing to 
make peace with the Mandans and Minnetari, and 
asked the Mandans whether they would be willing to 
have them settle near them, and form with them a 
league against the Sioux. Word was also brought 
that the Sioux who had stolen the explorers' horses 
had afterward gone to the Arikara village and told 
what they had done, and that the Rees were so angry 
at this that they had declined to give them anything 
to eat; in Other words, had treated them as enemies. 
Shortlv after this, they were visited by the head 
chief of 'the Minnetari, known as Le Borgne, whom 
they had not seen before. He was greatly astonished 
at the appearance of the negro servant, whom he 
believed to be a painted white man; but when he 
could not rub off the paint, and when the negro 
showed his curly hair, the Indian acknowledged that 
he had seen a new sort of man. This is the Le 
Borgne mentioned by Henry, during his visit to the 
Mandans, and concerning whose violent adoption of 
the son of a Cheyenne chief he tells so amusing a 
story. 
The method employed by the Mandans and Ari- 
karas in making their own glass beads is described in 
much detail. These beads of course have long passed 
out of use, but at rare intervals some of them are 
still unearthed from the remains of the old Mandan 
or Arikara villages. 
The river broke up late in March, and, as happened 
every spring, many buffalo were brought down on the 
floating ice. An interesting description is given of 
how the Indians killed the buffalo floating down on 
the cakes of ice, which they dared not leave. The 
mtn ran lightly over the loose ice in the river until 
they had reached the large cake on which the buffalo 
stood, and, killing it there, then paddled the cake of 
ice to the shore. 
A thunder storm, accompanied by hail, came on 
April I — the breaking up of the winter. And now 
for several days the explorers were engaged in pack- 
ing specimens to be sent back to Washington; skins 
and skeletons of some of the animals of the country, 
together with a number of articles of Indian dress, 
arms, implements, tobacco, seed, and corn, with speci- 
mens of some plants. Arrangements were made also 
for some of the chiefs of the Rees to visit the Presi- 
dent; and a delegation from the Rees made a peace 
with the Mandans. 
They were now ready to continue their westward 
journey, and left the fort the afternoon of April 7. The 
party consisted of thirty-two persons, including the in- 
terpreters, one of whom was accompanied by his wife. 
At the same time their large boat, manned by seven 
soldiers and two Frenchmen, , set out down the river 
for the distant United States. 
The journey up the river was slow, and it would be 
too long to tell of all they saw — things then new to 
all, but many of them now common enough. The 
prairie and the river bottom swarmed with game; 
herds of buffalo, elk, antelope, with some deer and 
wolves. As they went along they saw a nest of geese 
built "in the tops of lofty cottonwood trees," an iia- 
teresting fact in natural history, rediscovered more 
than fifty years later by an enterprising ornithologist. 
From time to time, as they passed up the river, they 
passed small abandoned encampments of Indians, at 
one of which, "from the hoops of small kegs found 
in them, we judged could belong to Assinaboines only, 
as they are the only Missouri Indians who use spiritu- 
ous liquors. Of these they are so passionately fond 
that it forms their chief inducement to visit the Brit- 
ish on the Assinaboine, to whom they barter for kegs 
of rum their dried and pounded meat, their grease, and 
the skins of large and small wolves, and small foxes; 
the dangerous exchange is transported to their camps, 
with their friends and relations, and soon exhausted 
in brutal intoxication. So far from considering drunk- 
enness as disgraceful, the women and children are 
permitted and invited to share in these excesses with 
their husbands and fathers, who boast how often their 
skill and industry as hunters have supplied them with 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
the means of intoxication; in this, as in other habits 
and customs, they resemble the Sioux, from whom 
they are descended." 
_ The recent presence of the Assinaboines on the 
river had made the game scarce and shy, and it was 
so early in the season that the animals killed were 
very thin in flesh, and almost useless for food. Beaver, 
however, were numerous, and seemed larger and fat- 
ter, and with darker and better fur, than any seen 
hitherto. They were now in the country of abundant 
buffalo, and the calves had already begun to make 
their appearance. On April 26 they reached the 
mouth of the Yellowstone River, "known to the 
French as La Roche Jaune." Game was so plenty 
that it was scarcely necessary to hunt, and they killed 
only what was needed for food. The river banks were 
lined with dead buffalo; some partly devoured by 
wolves. The buffalo had evidently been drowned in 
crossing, either by breaking through the ice or being 
unable to clamber from the water when landing 
under some high bluff. 
On April 29 Captain Lewis met his first grizzly 
bear, which the explorers call white bears. "Of the 
strength and ferocity of this animal the Indians had 
given us dreadful accounts; they never attack him 
but in parties of six or eight persons, and even then 
are often defeated, with the loss of one or more of 
the party. Having no weapons but bows and arrows, 
and the bad guns with which the traders supply 
them, they are obliged to approach very near to the 
bear; and as no wound except through the head or 
heart is mortal, they frequently fall a sacrifice if 
they miss their aim. He rather attacks than avoids 
man; and such is the terror he has inspired that the 
Indians who go in quest of him paint themselves, and 
perform all the superstitious rites customary when 
they make war on a neighboring nation. Hitherto 
those we had seen did not appear desirous of encoun- 
tering iis, but, although to a skillful rifleman the 
danger is very much diminished, the white bear is 
still a terrible animal. On approaching these two, 
both Captain Lewis and the hunter fired, and each 
wounded a bear. One of them made his escape; the 
other turned upon Captain Lewis and pursued him 
for seventy or eighty yards; but, being badly wounded, 
he could not run so fast as to prevent him from re- 
loading his piece, which he again aimed at him, and 
a third shot from the hunter brought him to the 
ground." 
The curiosity of the antelope is spoken of as being 
often the occasion of its easy destruction. "When 
they first see the hunters they run with great velocity; 
if he lies down on the ground and lifts up his arm, his 
hat or his foot they return with a light trot to look 
at the object, and sometimes go and return two or 
three times, till they- approach within reach of the 
rifle. So, too, they sometimes leave their flock to go 
and look at the wolves, which crouch down, and, if 
the antelope is frightened at first, repeat the same 
maneuver, and sometimes relieve each other till they 
decoy it from the party, when they seize it. But gen- 
erally the wolves take them as they are crossing the 
riA^ers; for, although swift on foot, they are not good 
swimmers." 
As the party struggled on up the Missouri they 
passed the mouth of the Porcupine River, so-called 
from the unusual number of porcupines seen near it. 
They continued to see vast quantities of buffalo, elk 
and deer — principally of the long-tailed kind, with 
antelope, beaver, geese, ducks and swans. As they 
went on, the game became much tamer. The male 
buffalo would scarcely give way to them, and as the 
white men drew near, looked at them for a moment 
and then quietly began to graze again. 
On May 4 they passed some old Indian hunting 
camps, "one of which consisted of two large lodges 
fortified with a circular fence twenty or thirty feet in 
diameter, and made of timber laid horizontally, the 
beams overlaying each other to the height of five 
feet, and covered with the trunks and limbs of trees 
that have drifted down the river. The lodges them- 
selves are formed by three or more strong sticks, 
about the size of a man's leg or arm, and twelve feet 
long, which are attached at the top by a withe of small 
willows, and spread out so as to form at the base a 
circle of from ten to fourteen feet in diameter; 
against these are placed pieces of driftwood and fallen 
timber, usually in three ranges, one on the other, 
and the interstices are covered with leaves, bark, and 
straw, so as to form a conical figure about ten feet 
high, with a small aperture in one side for the door." 
These lodges, of course, were war lodges of the As- 
sinaboines, Gros Ventres, or Blackfeet, though the 
travelers evidently took them for ordinary habita- 
tions. 
The explorers were greatly interested in the animals 
they saw — especially the bears— and gave good de- 
scriptions of those seen, and of their habits. 
The tenacity of life in the bears made them espe- 
cially interesting, and their encounters with them were 
often marked by danger. However, the people usually 
hunted in couples or in small parties, and as yet no 
one had been hurt. 
George Bird Grinnell. 
[to be continued.] 
New Rabbits from Mexico. 
In a recent issue of the "Proceedings of the Biologi- 
cal Society of Washington," Mr. E. W. Nelson, of the 
Biological Survey, describes seven new rabbits from 
Mexico. The discoveries were made on examination 
of the material, consisting of several hundred speci- 
mens of rabbits, in the collection of the Biological 
Survey. This material was turned over to Mr. Nel- 
son for study by Dr. C. Hart Merriam, the Chief of 
the Survey. Of the seven rabbits, five belong to the 
cottontail and two to the jack rabbit type. 
AH communications for Forest and Stream must be 
directed to Forest and Stream Pub, Co., New York, te 
receive attention. We have no other ofUce. 
[June 4, 1904. 
— ^ — 
Short Talks on Taxidermy. 
V. — Mounting a Bird. 
It will be well for the beginner to learn how to 
make bird skins before he attempts to mount a bird. 
In other words, let him master one branch of the art' 
before he attempts the second. The mounting a bird 
IS not difficult, but it requires more skill, and so, much 
more practice than to make a skin. 
To the simple equipment required for skin making, he 
who wishes to mount his specimens must add a few 
other tools. These are, a pair of sharp wire cutters- 
shown in the cut of tools, printed with the first of 
these talks — a number of lengths of annealed wire of 
different thickness, a file, some spools of thread, and 
plenty of pins. He will also need glass eyes, which are 
to give the bird its lifelike appearance. The wire must 
be annealed, so that it will bend readily, and if mount- 
ing is to be done on any considerable scale, this wire 
should be of different sizes and cut to different lengths, 
suited to birds of various sizes, running from very 
fine, for a warbler, up to that much stouter, large 
enough for a duck or a red-tailed hawk. For eagles 
and great blue herons, still heavier wires will be re- 
quired. Fine wire is readily straightened by attaching 
one end of a coil to some firm object, as a nail in a 
wall, and pulling on the other end, so as to stretch it. 
After it is straight it can be cut into needed lengths, 
say, six inches for a robin, eight inches for a quail or 
woodcock, and so on, up to the larger birds. In each 
case the wire must be small enough to pass, without 
breaking it, through the bird's tarsus— which is the 
sheath of scales inclosing the bone of the foot just 
above the toes and up to the leg feathers— and yet 
thick enough to support the bird's weight, and to hold 
It firmly in position. Taxidermists commonly have at 
the back of the work table, and so within easy reach 
of the hand, half a dozen little deep and narrrow cups 
to hold the various lengths of wire that they most 
commonly use. Pasteboard cylinders an inch and a 
half in diameter, and the end of each fastened to the 
table, make good cups for this purpose. 
After the skm has been turned, cleaned and poisoned, 
take a wire of the proper length— for a robin, say, two 
inches longer than the distance from the point of the 
bird's bill to the root of the tail— and file each end to 
a sharp point. Wind about this wire enough cotton, 
or tow, to make a neck for the bird, beginning about 
one inch from the end. Introduce the point of the 
wire, near which the artificial neck begins, into the 
skull cavity, thrust it through the top of the skull, and 
then, with forceps or pliers, turn it over, introduce it 
into the skull, just back of the eyes, and clinch it there, 
so that the wire is even with the top of the skull. 
Now, holding the skull by the wire, turn your skin 
right side out. Place a little filling in the throat, as 
you did m making the skin. Take some tow, or ex- 
celsior— cotton will not do for this, because you can- 
not thrust the wire through cotton— and make it up 
into a solid oval body, just about the size and shape 
of the bird's body. Closely wind this body with thread 
all around, so as to hold the material firmly in shape 
and thrust the sharpened end of the wire lengthwise 
through the mass, pushing the body up close to the 
end of the false neck. The false body should be shaped 
as nearly as possible like the natural body it is to re- 
place. 1 he artificial neck and body should be no longer 
and very little, if at all,, larger than the natural neck 
and body. Turn the sharpened end of the wire which 
IS passed through the body up and over and clinch it 
into the body. You now have for your bird a firm 
body and neck, which will hold it properly in position 
Take two straight wires, sharpen each at one end! 
and holding the middle toes of the bird's foot in your 
left hand, pierce the sole with the point of a wire and 
work the wire up back of the tarsal bone, to the tibio- 
tarsal joint, which is really the bird's heel. Hold the 
tibia straight, allowing no bend at the bird's heel, and 
push the wire up until it is within the bird's skin, and 
then on until it projects an inch or more beyond the 
end of the tibia. Wrap a little cotton or tow about 
the tibia and the wire, binding the two together, and 
to some extent replacing the muscles of the leg which 
have been removed. Having done the same thing on 
the other side, thrust these wires through the arti- 
ficial body, at right angles to it, about one-third the 
way from its tail to its front, and turn the end of each 
wire over, and clinch it firmly in the body. When this 
has been done on both sides, the legs will be sticking 
out pretty nearly at right angles with the body, and 
must then be bent back so that they are parallel with 
the axis of the body. Now, sew up your bird and lift 
It from the table, give it a shake, pull the skin of the 
head and neck well forward, pull the wings forward 
and generally see that all the feathers are in place' 
Loosen and pull out a little the cotton within the 
orbits, and see that the sides of the head look right 
Then place your bird on the table on its back, raise 
the right leg up, so that it points straight up in the air-^ 
place your fore finger behind the leg wire, close to the 
bird's body, and holding the wire there, bend the leg 
backward again to its former position. The result of 
this will be that you have made a right angled bend in 
the wire, which now represents the actual knee of the 
bird, or the place where the femur and the tibia met 
Do the same on the other side; and pull up the skin 
around on each side, so that each artificial knee will 
be withm the skin, as the living bird's knee is within 
the skm. Now take your partly stuffed bird in the 
right hand, holding it under the wings, take the head in 
your left hand, bend the head and neck down and 
placing your right forefinger on what would be the 
back of the bird's neck, just where it joins the body 
raise the head up again above the level of the back' 
thus bending down the neck wire where it joins the 
body. You have thus made a natural crook in the 
bird's neck, which will add much to the naturalness of 
