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Show HEART RIVER-LA BUTTE CARREE. 169 head and skin, with some of the flesh of the one killed. At the next place, where we reached the hills, an isolated summit rose above the rest, which is called Bald Eagle Head; these hills were beautifully illumined with the setting sun; we saw the white wolves trotting about on them, and some swans were swimming in the river. On the eastern bank we saw the ruins of an old trading house, and many traces of beavers. Near the mouth of Apple Creek we took in wood, and saw, on the left hand, the continuation of a chain of hills, of very singular forms. The night swallows flew over the river at an early hour, and a large beaver appeared among the willows, which we shot at without success. The 16th of June set in with a high north-east wind, accompanied with rain. We soon reached the mouth of Heart River, but the wind drove our vessel towards the bank, and we were obliged to lay to at six o'clock; and it was not till the evening that the wind so far abated as to allow us to continue our voyage. The next morning, early, we came in sight of the Butte Carree. In the willow thickets, on the bank, a very fine buffalo bull stood within half musket-shot; our people fired, but to no purpose. Soon after, we saw, in the prairie, two more very large animals of this species ; and, in the course of the day, perceived a great number of them. The river brought down several dead buffalo cows. A little before the mouth of Lewis and Clarke's Hunting Creek, the Missouri is half a mile broad, but soon becomes narrower. At eight o'clock we reached the place where a Mandan village had formerly stood. The Sioux, from St. Peter's River, surprised it about forty years ago, killed most of the inhabitants, and destroyed the huts. The prairie hills formed, in this part, long, flat, naked ridges, perfectly resembling the walls of a fortress. The oaks and ashes, at the edge of the thickets, were but just the breast greyish-brown, and, on the belly, yellowish-white. In winter, the colour nearly resembles that of our deer in the same season. Each of the horns of this deer had four antlers, nearly as in Cervus elaphus (see woodcut A). Woodcut B represents the horns of a large deer of this species. fi |