d turn back. It was now
clothed in the early verdure of spring, and plentifully stocked with
game. Still, when obliged to bivouac on its bare surface, without any
shelter, and by a scanty fire of dry buffalo dung, they found the night
blasts piercing cold. On one occasion, a herd of buffalo straying near
their evening camp, they killed three of them merely for their hides,
wherewith to make a shelter for the night.

They continued on for upwards of a hundred miles; with vast prairies
extending before them as they advanced; sometimes diversified by
undulating hills, but destitute of trees. In one place they saw a
gang of sixty-five wild horses, but as to the buffaloes, they seemed
absolutely to cover the country. Wild geese abounded, and they passed
extensive swamps that were alive with innumerable flocks of water-fowl,
among which were a few swans, but an endless variety of ducks.

The river continued a winding course to the east-north-east, nearly a
mile in width, but too shallow to float even an empty canoe. The country
spread out into a vast level plain, bounded by the horizon alone,
excepting to the north, where a line of hills seemed like a long
promontory stretching into the bosom of the ocean. The dreary sameness
of the prairie wastes began to grow extremely irksome. The travellers
longed for the sight of a forest, or grove, or single tree, to break the
level uniformity, and began to notice every object that gave reason to
hope they were drawing towards the end of this weary wilderness. Thus
the occurrence of a particular kind of grass was hailed as a proof that
they could not be far from the bottoms of the Missouri; and they were
rejoiced at putting up several prairie hens, a kind of grouse seldom
found far in the interior. In picking up driftwood for fuel, also, they
found on some pieces the mark of an axe, which caused much speculation
as to the time when and the persons by whom the trees had been felled.
Thus they went on, like sailors at sea, who perceive in every floating
weed and wandering bird, harbingers of the wished-for land.

By the close of the month the weather became very mild, and, heavily
burdened as they were, they found the noontide temperature uncomfortably
warm. On the 30th, they came to three deserted hunting camps, either of
Pawnees or Ottoes, about which were buffalo skulls in all directions;
and the frames on which the hides had been stretched and cured. They had
apparently been occupie