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Show THE ANIMAL KINGDOM----QUADRUPEDS. 331 tailed deer (Cervus Virginianus), called by the French, le chevreuil, is found in the nearest woods, not a mile from the fort. The black-tailed or mule deer is not to be seen within twenty or thirty miles. The cabri, or antelope (Antilocapra Ord.), lives the whole year in the immediate vicinity, and in the summer, great numbers congregate together; but in the winter they go towards the mountains, where they find protection against the snow, and return in April, when large herds of them are seen to pass the Missouri. The annexed woodcut, designed by Mr. Bodmer from the life, gives a perfect and correct idea of this animal. The bighorn (Ovis montana), the grosse-corne of the French, is not found nearer than fifty miles from this part of the country. The Manitaries, who go to the Black Hills and other mountainous tracts to hunt, kill a hundred or more of these animals in a season. The grizzly bear approaches to within four miles of the fort, because the Indians, who do not like to hunt them, leave them undisturbed. They are, however, very fond of the flesh of the young bear ; and the claws are much valued by them, for the manufacture of their necklaces. Of the genus cards, I met with five wild species in western North America. The changeable wolf {Canis variabilis), undoubtedly a distinct species, as Lewis and Clarke likewise affirm, is very common on the whole of the Upper Missouri. It is found to vary in colour from wolf grey to pure white. In winter these animals are nearly famished, and extremely lean. They closely follow the herds of buffaloes, and many sick, young, or weak animals become their easy prey; and when the hunters are abroad there is a rich harvest for the wolves. They even bite and devour each other, yet they did not meddle with the dead wolves which we left in the prairie; possibly they might not have been so |