saluted with noisy cheers the hope of soon spreading destruction among those peaceful herds.
In these same places we found moreover the wistonwish of the Indians, the prairie-dog, more accurately called by the voyageurs the American squirrel. These animals appear to have a kind of civil government established in their society. Their towns are generally located on the slope of a hill, sometimes near a little lake or stream; but more often far from any water, that the earth in which they dwell may not be ex posed to floods. They are of an earthy brown color, except the belly, which is white; their tail is not so long as that of the grey squirrel, but they have exactly the same form; the teeth, the head, the claws and the body are perfect squirrel, except that they are bigger and plumper than that animal. The voyageurs believe that their only food is the roots of the grass, and the dew of heaven their sole drink.
As we went on, we saw here and there the solitary burialplaces of the Pawnees; probably those of some chiefs or warriors who had fallen in combat with their hereditary foes, the Sioux, Cheyennes or Osages. These tombs were adorned with buffalo skulls painted red; the body is put, in a sitting position, into a little cabin made of reeds and branches of trees, strongly interwoven to keep the wolves out. The face is daubed with vermilion, the body is covered with its finest war-ornaments, and beside it one sees provisions of every kind, dried meat, tobacco, powder and lead, gun, bow and arrows. For several years the families will come back every spring to renew these provisions. Their idea is that the soul hovers for a long time about the spot where the body reposes, before taking its flight to the land of souls.
After marching for seven days alongside the Platte, we reached the plains inhabited by the buffalo. I left the camp alone, very early one morning, to see them more at my ease; I approached them by way of the ravines, without showing myself or allowing them to get the wind of me. This is the most keen-scented of animals ; he will detect the presence