houses of St. Louis. This may give you an idea of the extraordinary number of buffaloes killed, and of the extent of the vast wilderness which furnishes pasturage to these animals.
We set off in a skiff from Fort Bouis, which is near the mouth of the Little Medicine river. Our trip was delight ful. The weather proved magnificent, and the two shores of the Missouri, teeming at this season with an extraordinary quantity of every species of game, offered the most graceful and varying spectacle, while it opened a vast field to the greediness and skill of our hunters.
At Council Bluffs, the sky, which had been :iitherto clear and serene, suddenly changed, to give place to wind and tempest, and thick clouds of snow, which accompanied us during two days. We took refuge in a dense forest, in order to defend ourselves from the inclemency of the storm. The wild honey which we found there was our principal resource, one poplar alone, which we felled, furnishing us with more than we needed.
We made but little progress during ten days, on account of head winds, rain and snow. Before arriving at the mouth of the Big Tarkio, the Missouri was so covered with floating ice that, in our frail bark, we were exposed to the greatest danger, especially from the many sawyers with which the bed of the river is thickly set, and which discover or conceal their menacing heads on every side. These are trees, or trunks of trees, which the river uproots and washes from its banks, and whose roots get firmly fastened in the muddy bed of the river. As there are no dikes or embankments which can hinder the river from overflowing, it often happens that whole forests are uprooted and swallowed in its waves. These create great embarrassment and obstacles to its navigation.
Prudence forced us to abandon our boat. I therefore hired a farmer's wagon, which brought us safe and sound to St. Joseph, after a drive of two days through a great forest which skirts the Missouri. The steamer Highland