t square. This serves for
chimney and windows, as there are no other openings to admit light,
and when it rains even this hole is covered over with a canoe (bull
boat) to prevent the rain from injuring their gammine (sic) and
earthen pots. The whole roof is well thatched with the small
willows in which the Missourie abounds, laid on to the thickness of
six inches or more, fastened together in a very compact manner and
well secured to the rafters. Over the whole is spread about one
foot of earth, and around the wall, to the height of three or four
feet, is commonly laid up earth to the thickness of three feet, for
security in case of an attack and to keep out the cold. The door is
five feet broad and six high, with a covered way or porch on the
outside of the same height as the door, seven feet broad and ten in
length. The doors are made of raw buffalo-hide stretched upon a
frame and suspended by cords from one of the beams which form the
circle. Every night the door is barricaded with a long piece of
timber supported by two stout posts set in the ground in the inside
of the hut, one on each side of the door.'"

"Well," remarked Jesse, "that sort of a house was big enough, so it is
no wonder they could keep their horses in there with them, too, in the
wintertime. And they fed them cottonwood limbs when there wasn't any
grass to eat."

"Yes," remarked Uncle Dick, "that's what we call adjusting to an
environment. I will say these Mandans were rather efficient on the
whole, and not bad engineers and architects."

They did not tarry long, although they made their second encampment
within the lines of the old Fort Berthold Reservation, for they found
all the Indians wearing white men's clothing, and using wagons and farm
implements, and Jesse said they had more Indianish Indians in Alaska.

Now they bore rather sharply to the north, feeling for the line of the
railway, which they struck at a village about midway between the Little
Knife and the White Earth Rivers. The early afternoon of their fourth
day brought them back once more to the sight of the Missouri, at the
town of Buford, near the Montana line and opposite the mouth of the
Yellowstone.

Following their usual custom, they made camp outside the vicinity of the
town, after purchasing the supplies they needed for the day and for the
return trip of their obliging friend from Mandan, who now relucta