somewhat recruited and refreshed, they set out on their journey with
renovated spirits, shaping their course towards a mountain, the summit
of which they saw towering in the east, and near to which they expected
to find the head waters of the Missouri.

As they proceeded, they continued to see the skeletons of buffaloes
scattered about the plain in every direction, which showed that there
had been much hunting here by the Indians in the recent season. Further
on they crossed a large Indian trail forming a deep path, about fifteen
days old, which went in a north direction. They concluded it to have
been made by some numerous band of Crows, who had hunted in this country
for the greater part of the summer.

On the following day they forded a stream of considerable magnitude,
with banks clothed with pine trees. Among these they found the traces
of a large Indian camp, which had evidently been the headquarters of a
hunting expedition, from the great quantities of buffalo bones strewed
about the neighborhood. The camp had apparently been abandoned about a
month.

In the centre was a singular lodge one hundred and fifty feet in
circumference, supported by the trunks of twenty trees, about twelve
inches in diameter and forty-four feet long. Across these were laid
branches of pine and willow trees, so as to yield a tolerable shade.
At the west end, immediately opposite to the door, three bodies lay
interred with their feet towards the east. At the head of each was a
branch of red cedar firmly planted in the ground. At the foot was a
large buffalo's skull, painted black. Savage ornaments were suspended
in various parts of the edifice, and a great number of children's
moccasins. From the magnitude of this building, and the time and
labor that must have been expended in erecting it, the bodies which it
contained were probably those of noted warriors and hunters.

The next day, October 17th, they passed two large tributary streams of
the Spanish River. They took their rise in the Wind River Mountains,
which ranged along to the east, stupendously high and rugged, composed
of vast masses of black rock, almost destitute of wood, and covered in
many places with snow. This day they saw a few buffalo bulls, and some
antelopes, but could not kill any; and their stock of provisions began
to grow scanty as well as poor.

On the 18th, after crossing a mountain ridge, and traversing a plain,
they waded one of the branches of Spanish Rive